The woodcuts that Axel van der Kraan produced in a steady stream from the early 1990s to the early 2000s constitute a distinct component of his oeuvre. With them, he broke away from the installations and sculptures with which the artist duo Axel and Helena van der Kraan gained fame after graduating from Ateliers '63 in 1970. In this sense, the black-and-white woodcuts can be seen as a counterpart to the photography of Helena van der Kraan (Prague, 1940 – Rotterdam, 2020) as a solo artist.
The woodcuts originated from drawings and frottages in black Conté chalk as studies of the archaic forms of fortifications and chariots. The artist transitioned to woodcuts on plywood door panels, using a spoon to randomly emphasize the contrast in different areas of the print. In doing so, he discovered that he could create depth in water and skyscapes by using the effect of the fine groove in the wood. From chariots and fortifications, he developed his themes of tank maneuvers in the dark, through hallucinatory battle scenes seemingly set in antiquity or the Middle Ages, to complex and technically advanced dreamscapes of cities and infrastructure. Within this consistent whole, exceptions stand out, such as (self-)portraits, for example, in the metro, or a Rembrandtesque ruin. The book "Wachtende Man" (Waiting Man, 2024) provides an overview of Axel van der Kraan's oeuvre and the place of woodcuts within it.