Rhapsody of Light

Carl Hoeckner

This dream-like lithograph, published in the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in Chicago, does not reflect the somber and sometimes apocalyptic view many of Hoeckner's prints depicted. An adamant social realist, his work explored the terror of war and the inequities of concentrated power and the economy.

In this lithograph "Rhapsody of Light" Hoeckner instead depicts a swirling universe, an ethereal figure that rises from the dark in the lower center, arms raised toward the light and in an apparent collision course with a comet-like sphere.