TR sent me a huge German Expressionist type woodcut in the Medieval style. It tells two important stories in the Faust Play by Goethe. Bernd Kroeber (1942), a teacher of art and traveling artist born in Austria, signed this piece. Many knew him in the 1960’s-70’s in the San Francisco area for woodcuts with deep themes in monochromatic colors, an old tradition in woodcuts. The inscription in the artist’s hand on the bottom says, “Ad Radieur, Il Medio.” I believe this title means to convey Faust’s rigidity, meeting life only halfway in his self-importance, but that’s just my take.
Kroeber dated the piece 1974. He signed in the woodcut plate “Kroeber Pinxt,” the ancient way of claiming “I painted this” often seen on medieval woodcuts.
For Love of Woodcuts
I love woodcuts and admire most forms of relief printmaking. The artist must ‘see’ his end product in the negative which makes it so difficult to get right. The artist carves an image into the surface of the wood, gouging OUT the areas NOT in the image. They leave as the surface ONLY the relief areas that SHOULD be inked. Some consider Albrecht Durer the most famous Germanic woodcut artist.
What does Kroeber represent? Two scenes in the Faust Play. The first, Faust in his study, a great scholar translating the Book of John. He stumbles over how to translate “In the Beginning was the Word.” He translates it like this: “In the Beginning was the Deed.” Faust realizes for him, action drives force in the universe. Well, his poodle (I always found it Germanically funny that Faust kept a POODLE) sets up a deep growl, which grows louder. Faust thinking the dog possessed, calls upon his magic skills to call forth the demon. Of course out jumps Mephistopheles, dressed as a scholar himself. Check out the surprised dog!
In Kroeber’s woodcut we see this moment, after which the Devil and Faust debate as the Devil lays out his bargain for Faust’s soul. Faust won’t release his magic spell, forcing the devil to stay in his study. Of course the Devil escapes as Faust dozes off, with the help of some local vermin.
Another Scene From Faust
The work is complex, a major feat to carve in a big block of wood at 24” x 15”. On the opposite side of the doubly framed pair of images, we see another famous scene from Goethe’s Faust. Mephistopheles brings Faust to a witch’s lair set up to make potions we see in bottles with black magic labels. The Devil instructs the witch to prepare an elixir to take thirty years off Faust. I’m tempted to trade my soul for that. Faust sees himself as a young man together in a mirror with a beautiful woman, and he jumps to drink the potion. We see this moment when Faust holds the beaker, before he digresses into this baser, more carnal, more young and handsome self.
I consider both works major projects to carve at their large size, rare for a woodcut. So many things might go wrong when the artist pulls the piece off the wood block after pressing the paper down hard.
A Mastery of the Process
Whether or not you want to hang such themes becomes immaterial as the work shows a mastery of the process of woodcuts beautifully. Medieval European Woodcuts were one of the first communication devises known in art. Wood came cheap, and once inked, the artist made multiples of any image as opposed to one original painting or drawing. Many broadsides got printed this way as political and religious persuasion tools, some without words, as most of the population didn’t know how to read. The artist refers to this tradition in the graphic simplistic full fronted shock of an image in a linear style in a single color.
Sorry to say Kroeber doesn’t have much of a following at auction. Such pieces as this complex and historically referential piece might sell for as little as a few hundred bucks. By the way, the owner wants to sell if my readers need a dose of Faust on the wall. Think of it as a good panacea at the tail end of this darned Pandemic.