The Fifth Commandment 1938

Carl Hoeckner’s "The Fifth Commandment", made with pencil on paper, is an eerie scene. Just look at the texture, the tonal range he coaxes out of that pencil! You can see the hand of the artist in every mark. I'm imagining Hoeckner in his studio, hunched over this drawing, line after line building up a nightmarish vision of war. What was he thinking as he worked? The weight of history, the absurdity of conflict, maybe even a bit of gallows humor? I see an officer towering over a line of soldiers firing rifles, while below them lie fallen bodies. The way he renders the scene with delicate marks, it’s like the whole thing could vanish any second. The officer’s face feels both powerful and grotesque, a bubble of ego about to burst. This piece reminds me of Otto Dix's war prints, that same unflinching look at the horrors of conflict. Artists keep wrestling with these themes, generation after generation. It's a heavy conversation, but one we can't afford to ignore.