The Pretzel - Voodoo

Bernd Kroeber

By 1971 German native Bernd Kroeber had been living in the United States for a handful of years, arriving in New York on the heels of a successful start to his printmaking career in Europe. He traveled throughout the West after living for a short time in Manhattan and, settling in San Francisco, he soon founded the OTA gallery and workshop. It was at this time that the collagist and blockprint artist began developing his monotype technique. The gallery was short lived as, by 1972, he had started a family and began accepting teaching positions.

“The Pretzel - Voodoo” is a marker of this brief window of time, a keystone period of evolution in his prolific career. “Pretzel” illustrates Kroeber’s desire to implement the layered feel of collage through the lens of printmaking. The delicate texture of woodgrain provides a vibrational energy behind Kroeber’s collaged shapes, which compliment the static background with smooth, liquid forms mapped carefully on the matrix like a choreographed dance. The viewer might imagine this to be a portrayal of dancers under a red sun, immersed in the green foliage of an alien planet.