Arthur Szyk
Encyclopedia
Arthur Szyk was a graphic artist, book illustrator
, stage designer and caricaturist. Arthur Szyk was born into a Jewish family in Łódź, in the part of Poland which was under Russian rule in the 19th century. He always regarded himself both as a Pole and a Jew. From 1921, he lived and created his works mainly in France
and Poland, and in 1937 he moved to the United Kingdom
. In 1940 he settled permanently in the United States
, where he was granted American citizenship in 1948.
Arthur Szyk became a renowned graphic artist and book illustrator as early as the interwar period – his works were exhibited and published not only in Poland, but also in France, the United Kingdom, Israel
, and the United States. However, he gained real popularity through his war caricatures, in which, after the outbreak of World War II
, he depicted the leaders of the Axis powers
– mainly Adolf Hitler
, Benito Mussolini
and Emperor Hirohito
. After the war, he also devoted himself to political issues, this time supporting the creation of Israel.
Szyk's work is characterized in its material content by social and political commitment, and in its formal aspect by its rejection of modernism
and drawing on the traditions of medieval
and renaissance painting, especially illuminated manuscript
s from those periods. Unlike most caricaturists, Szyk always showed great attention to the colouristic effects and details in his works.
Today, Szyk is a well-known and often exhibited artist only in his last home country – the United States. In Europe, since the late 1990s exhibitions of his art has been mounted in the Polish cities of Kraków
, Warsaw
, and Łódź as well as in Berlin
, Germany. The recent publication of a Polish-language edition Szyk's biography and public broadcasts of the documentary film "Arthur Szyk - Illuminator" (Marta Tv & Film, Telewizja Polska
(Łódź), 2005) also have improved Szyk's stature in his mother country, Poland.
Little Arthur showed artistic talent as a child; when he was six years old, he reportedly drew sketches of the Boxer Rebellion
in China
. Even though his family was culturally assimilated and did not practice Orthodox Judaism
, Arthur also liked drawing biblical scenes from the Hebrew Bible
. These interests and talents prompted his father, upon the advice of Szyk's teachers, to send Szyk to Paris
to study at Académie Julian
, a studio school popular among French and foreign students. In Paris, Szyk was exposed to all modern trends in art; however, he decided to follow his own way, which hewed closely to tradition. He was especially attracted by the medieval art of illuminating manuscripts, which greatly influenced his later works.
When studying in Paris, Szyk remained closely involved with the social and civic life of Łódź. During the years 1912-1914 the teenage artist produced numerous drawings and caricatures on contemporary political themes that were published in the Łódź satirical magazine Śmiech.
After four years spent in France, Szyk returned to Polish lands in 1913 and continued his studies in Teodor Axentowicz
's class at Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts
in Kraków
, which was under Austrian rule at that time. He not only attended lectures and classes, but he also actively participated in Kraków's cultural life. He did not forget about his home city Łódź either – he designed the stage sets and costumes for the Łódź-based Bi Ba Bo cabaret. The political and national engagement of the artist also deepened during that time – Szyk regarded himself as a Polish patriot but he was also proud of being Jewish and he often opposed anti-Semitism in his works. At the beginning of 1914, Szyk and a group and other Polish-Jewish artists and writers set off on a journey to Palestine
, which was organized by the Jewish Cultural Society Hazamir (Hebrew
: nightingale). There he could observe the efforts of Jewish settlers who were working for the benefit of the future Jewish state.
The visit was interrupted by the outbreak of World War I
. Szyk, who was a Russian subject, had to leave Palestine, which was part of the Ottoman Empire
at that time, and go back to his home country in August 1914. He was conscripted into the Russian army and fought at the battle of Łódź in November/December 1914, but at the beginning of 1915 he managed to escape from the army and spent the rest of the war in his home city. He also used the time spent in the czarist army to draw Russian soldiers and published these drawings as postcards in the same year (1915).
On September 14, 1916, Arthur Szyk married Julia Liekerman. Their son George was born in the following year, and their daughter Alexandra in 1922.
, the first political book which was illustrated by him: Rewolucja w Niemczech (Revolution in Germany), which was a satire on the Germans, who need the Kaiser
's and the military's consent even to start a revolution. In the same year, Szyk had to take part in warfare again – during the Polish–Soviet War (1919–1920), in which he served as a cavalry officer, but first of all as the artistic director of the propaganda department of the Polish army in Łódź.
), the illustrations of the books which were published in Paris are already in full colour, with a fully developed style so characteristic of the artist's future works. The first book which was illustrated in this way was the Book of Esther
(Le livre d'Esther, 1925), followed by Gustave Flaubert
's dialogue The Temptation of Saint Anthony
(La tentation de Saint Antoine, 1926), Pierre Benoît
's novel Jacob's Well (Le puits e Jacob, 1927) and other books. Those illustrations, which are characterized by a rich diversity of colours and detailed presentation, deliberately referred to the medieval and renaissance traditions of illumination of manuscripts, often with interspersed contemporary elements, such as Szyk's self-portrait, who showed himself as one of the characters in the book. The only exception is illustrations to the two volume collection of anecdote
s about Jews Le juif qui rit (1926/27), in which the artist returned to simple black and white graphics (paradoxically, the book, one of the best known of his works, met with criticism as repeating anti-Semitic stereotypes).
The artist's reputation was also enhanced by exhibitions which were organized by Galeries Auguste Decour (the art gallery first exhibited Szyk's works in 1922). Szyk’s drawings were bought for example by the then Minister of Education and Fine Arts Anatole de Monzie
and the New York businessman Harry Glemby.
After Szyk had moved to Paris, he not only lived in France but also traveled a lot (mainly for artistic reasons). In 1922 he spent seven weeks in Morocco
, which was a French protectorate
then, where he drew the portrait of the pasha
of Marrakech
– as a goodwill ambassador he received the Ordre des Palmes Académiques from the French government for this work. In 1931 he was invited to the seat of the League of Nations
in Geneva
where he was asked to illustrate the statute of the League. The artist made some of the pages of the statute but did not complete that work as a result of his disappointment with the policies of the organization in the 1930s.
, a charter of liberties which were granted to the Jews by Boleslaw the Pious, the Duke of Kalisz
, in 1264. In the years 1926-1928, he created a rich graphic setting of the 45 page long Statute, showing the contribution of the Jews to Polish society, including their participation in Poland's pro-independence struggle, for example during the January Uprising
of 1863 or in the Polish Legions in World War I
commanded by Józef Piłsudski, to whom Szyk also dedicated his work. The Statute of Kalisz was published in book form in Munich
in 1932, but it gained popularity even earlier. Postcards with reproductions of Szyk's illustrations were published in Kraków around 1927, it was shown at exhibitions in Warsaw
, Łódź and Kalisz in 1929, and a "Traveling Exhibition of Artur Szyk's Works" was even held in 1932/33, displaying the Statute at exhibitions in 14 Polish towns and cities. In recognition for his work, Arthur Szyk was decorated with the Gold Cross of Merit by the Polish government.
Another great historical series created by Szyk was Washington and his Times, which he began in Paris in 1930. The series, which included 38 watercolours
, depicted the events of the American Revolutionary War
and was a tribute to the first president of the United States and the American nation in general. The series was presented at an exhibition at the Library of Congress
in Washington, D.C.
in 1934. It brought another decoration to Szyk – this time the George Washington Bicentennial Medal from the American government.
. These drawings anticipated another great series of Szyk's drawings – Haggadah, which is considered to be his magnum opus
.
The Haggadah
is a very important and popular story in Jewish culture and religion about the departure of the Israelites from ancient Egypt
, which is read every year during the Passover Seder
. Szyk illustrated it in 48 drawings in the years 1932-1938, and the development of the political situation in Germany at that time made him introduce some contemporary elements to it. These referred to, in particular, the parable
of the four sons, in which the "wicked son" was portrayed as a man wearing German clothes, with a Hitler-like moustache. The expression of the series was even stronger in its original version: the drawings showed snakes with swastika
s, there were also heads of Hermann Göring
and Joseph Goebbels
.
In 1937, Arthur Szyk went to London to supervise the publication of Haggadah. However, the artist had to agree to many compromises during that work which lasted three years, including painting over of all swastikas. It is not clear whether he did it as a result of the pressure by his publisher or the British politicians who pursued the policy of appeasement
in relation to Germany. Finally, Haggadah was published in London in 1940; the artist dedicated it to King George VI
. The work was widely acclaimed by critics; according to The Times
, it was "worthy to be placed among the most beautiful of books that the hand of man has ever produced".
The last big presentation of Szyk's works before the outbreak of the war was the presentation of his paintings at the 1939 New York World's Fair
, which was opened in April 1939. Szyk's twenty paintings, which were exhibited in the Polish Pavilion, depicted the contribution of the Poles to the history of the United States, and different connections between both countries.
The outbreak of World War II found Szyk in Britain where he not only supervised the publication of Haggadah but also kept on with creating and exhibiting his works. The artist reacted to the war immediately. In January 1940, the exhibition of his 72 caricatures entitled War and "Kultur" in Poland was opened at the Fine Art Society in London. The exhibition was appraised by critics very positively. As the reviewer of The Times
wrote:
Szyk drew more and more caricatures directed at the Axis powers and their leaders, his popularity was also growing. In 1940, the American publisher G.P. Putnam's Sons offered the artist to publish a collection of his drawings. Szyk agreed, and the result was the album The New Order, published in 1941, after the artist had arrived in America, but before the United States joined the war.
The feature which distinguished Szyk from other caricaturists who were active during World War II was that he concentrated on the presentation of the enemy in his works and seldom depicted the leaders or soldiers of the Allies. This was a characteristic feature of Szyk's work till the end of the war.
in the New World. His first destination on the North American continent was Canada
, where he was welcomed enthusiastically by the media: they wrote about his engagement in the fight with Nazi Germany, and the Halifax-based Morning Herald even reported about the alleged bounty Hitler had put on Szyk. In December 1940 Szyk and his wife and daughter went to New York City where he lived till 1945. His son, George, had enlisted in the Free French Forces
commanded by General Charles de Gaulle
.
Soon after his arrival in the US, Szyk was inspired by Roosevelt's 1941 "Four Freedoms
" State of the Union
speech to illustrate the Four Freedoms, preceding Norman Rockwell
's Four Freedoms by two years; these were used as poster stamp
s during the war, and later illustrated a Four Freedoms Award which was presented to Harry Truman, George Marshall
, and Herbert H. Lehman
.
Szyk became an immensely popular artist in his new home country during the Second World War, especially after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
and the entry of the US into the war. His caricatures of the leaders of the Axis powers (Hitler, Mussolini, Hirohito) and drawings appeared practically everywhere: in newspapers, magazines (including Time
, Esquire
, and Collier's), on posters, postcards and stamps, in secular, religious and military publications, on public and military buildings. He also produced advertisements for Coca Cola and US Steel, and exhibited in the galleries of M. Knodler & Co., Andre Seligmann, Inc., Messrs. Wildenstein & Co., the Philadelphia Art Alliance
, the Brooklyn Museum
, the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, and the White House
. More than 25 exhibitions were staged altogether in the United States during the war years. At the end of the war, in 1945, his drawing Two down and One to go was used in a propaganda film calling American soldiers to the final crackdown on Japan. According to the Esquire
magazine, the posters with Szyk's drawings enjoyed even bigger popularity with American soldiers than pin-up girl
s put on the walls of American military bases. Szyk's works, however, were also praised by critics. Thomas Craven wrote on the dust jacket of The New Order as early as 1941 that Szyk:
Szyk's drawings were very important for the American war propaganda. In recognition for his services in the fight against Nazism, Fascism
and the Japanese aggression, Eleanor Roosevelt
, the wife of President F. D. Roosevelt, said of him: "This is a personal war of Szyk against Hitler, and I do not think that Mr. Szyk will lose this war!" She also dubbed him "one man army", which became Szyk's famous nickname. Szyk himself often called himself "soldier in art". Other famous quotations by him are: "Art is not my aim, it is my means", and "I am but a Jew praying in art."
Szyk generally felt good in his adopted home country, saying:
in a less favourable light. In relation to the United Kingdom, that was mainly criticism of the Middle East
policy of the country, especially of imposing limits on Jewish emigration to Palestine. Despite the fact that the British government had provided for the creation of a Jewish state in the Balfour Declaration of 1917, in May 1939, the House of Commons passed the so-called White Paper
, which limited the number of Jewish immigrants to the Holy Land to 10,000 yearly, which had tragic consequences to the fate of the Jews in Hitler-occupied Europe.
Szyk also criticized the passivity of American-Jewish organizations towards the tragedy of their European fellows. He supported the work of Hillel Kook
, also known as Peter Bergson, member of the Zionist
organization Irgun
, who fought a campaign in American society whose aim was to draw attention to the fate of the European Jews. Szyk illustrated for example full-page advertisements of his groups which were published in The New York Times
. The artist also perceived racial tensions in the United States and the fact that the black population did not have the same rights as the whites. In one of his drawings, there are two American soldiers – one black and one white – escorting German prisoners of war. When the white one asks the black: "And what would you do with Hitler?", the black one answers: "I would have made him a Negro and dropped him somewhere in the U.S.A."
Szyk's attitude to his mother country, Poland, was very interesting and full of contradictions. Even though he regarded himself both as Jewish and Polish and showed the suffering of the Poles (not only those of Jewish descent) in the occupied Polish territories in his drawings, even though he benefited from financial support of the Polish government-in-exile (at least at the beginning of the war), he also presented that government in a negative light, especially at the end of World War II. In a well-known drawing of 1944, a group of debating Polish politicians are shown as opponents of Roosevelt, Joseph Stalin
, the "Bolshevik agent" Winston Churchill
, and at the same time adherents of Father Charles Coughlin
, known for his anti-Semitic views, as well as "(national) democracy" and "(national) socialism." Around 1943, Szyk, a former participant in the Polish-Soviet war, also completely changed his opinions on the Soviet Union. His admiration for the Soviet Union started to grow after Germany's aggression against the USSR in 1941, and his drawing from 1944 already depicts outright a soldier of the Moscow-supported People's Army of Poland next to a Soviet soldier, both liberating Poland.
Even though caricatures dominated Szyk's works during the war, he was still engaged in other areas of art. In 1940, the American publisher George Macy, who saw his illustrations to Haggadah at an exhibition in London, asked him to illustrate Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam|Rubaiyat], a collection of poems of the Iran
ian poet Omar Khayyám
. In 1943, the artist started work on illustrations for the Book of Job
, published in 1946; he also illustrated collections of fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen
(Andersen's Fairy Tales, 1945) and Charles Perrault
(Mother Goose
).
where he lived till the end of his life. The end of the war released him from the duty to fight Nazism through his caricatures, a large collection of drawings from that period was published in book form as Ink and Blood in 1946. The artist returned to book illustrations, working for example on The Canterbury Tales
by Geoffrey Chaucer
and, first of all, books telling Old Testament
stories, such as Pathways through the Bible by Mortimer J. Cohen (1946), the The Book of Job (1946), The Book of Ruth (1947), The Ten Commandments (1947), The Story of Joseph and his Brothers (1949). Some of the books illustrated by Szyk were also published posthumously, including The Arabian Nights Entertainments (1954) and The Book of Esther (1974).
He was also commissioned by Canadian entrepreneur and stamp connoisseur, Kasimir Bileski
, to illustrate the United Nations Series of stamps.
Artur Szyk was granted American citizenship on May 22, 1948, but he reportedly experienced the happiest day in his life eight days earlier: on May 14, the day of the announcement of the Israeli Declaration of Independence. Arthur Szyk commemorated that event creating the richly decorated illumination of the Hebrew text of the declaration. Two years later, on July 4, 1950, he also exhibited the richly illuminated text of the United States Declaration of Independence
.
The artist continued getting politically engaged in his country, criticizing the McCarthyism
policy (the ubiquitous atmosphere of suspicion and searching for sympathizers of communism
in American artistic and academic circles) and signs of racism
. One of his well-known drawings from 1949 shows two armed members of Ku Klux Klan
approaching a tied-up African American. The caption for the drawing is: "Do not forgive them, oh Lord, for they do know what they do." Owing to this criticism, Szyk was also interrogated by the House Un-American Activities Committee
, which accused him of being a member of the Joint Ant-Fascist Refugee Committee and six other suspicious organizations. Szyk himself, however, repudiated these accusations of alleged sympathy for communism in a written statement.
Arthur Szyk died of a heart attack
in New Canaan on September 13, 1951. He was eulogized by Rabbi Ben Zion Bokser
, who said: "Arthur Szyk was a great artist. Endowed by God with a rare sensitivity to beauty and with a rare skill in giving it graphic representation, he used his talents to create a series of works of splendor and magnificence that will live forever in the history of art. But Arthur Szyk was more than a great artist. He was a great man, a champion of justice, a fearless warrior in the cause of every humanitarian endeavor. His art was his tool and he used it brilliantly. It was in his hands a weapon of struggle with which he fought for the causes close to his heart"; and by Judge Simon H. Rifkind, who said: "The Arthur Szyk whom the world knows, the Arthur Szyk of the wondrous color, and of the beautiful design, that Arthur Szyk whom the world mourns today—he is indeed not dead at all. How can he be when the Arthur Szyk who is known to mankind lives and is immortal and will remain immortal as long as the love of truth and beauty prevails among mankind?"
. The founder of the Society was George Gooche, who discovered Szyk's unknown works and staged the exhibition "Arthur Szyk – Illuminator" in Los Angeles
. In 1997, the seat of the Society was transferred to Burlingame, California
, and a new Board of Trustee
s was elected, headed by rabbi, curator and antiquarian Irvin Ungar. The Society's work resulted in staging many exhibitions of Szyk's works in American cities in the 1990s, the Society also holds lectures and publishes books on the artist. Szyk's recent exhibitions include: "A One-Man Army: The Art of Arthur Szyk" at the Holocaust Museum Houston
(October 20, 2008 – February 8, 2009); "The Art and Politics of Arthur Szyk" at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
in Washington, D.C. (April 10 – October 14, 2002); "Arthur Szyk: Artist for Freedom" at the Library of Congress
(December 9, 1999 – May 6, 2000); and "Justice Illuminated: The Art of Arthur Szyk" at the Spertus Museum in Chicago (August 16, 1998 – February 28, 1999). "Justice Illuminated: The Art of Arthur Szyk" is also a traveling exhibition of The Arthur Szyk Society.
Recent major publications about the art of Arthur Szyk include: a new edition of The Szyk Haggadah and its Companion Volume Freedom Illuminated: Understanding The Szyk Haggadah; and Justice Illuminated: The Art of Arthur Szyk, produced in conjunction with the 1998-99 Spertus Museum exhibition.
In Europe, Arthur Szyk practically sank into oblivion after World War II. This is true even for his mother country Poland, where Szyk's drawings were exhibited only once after the war. That was in 2005 when the traveling exhibition "Justice Illuminated: The Art of Arthur Szyk" was brought from The Arthur Szyk Society in the United States and presented at the Jewish Historical Institute
in Warsaw, the Izrael Poznański Palace in Łódź and the Judaica Foundation - Center For Jewish Culture
in Kraków. The biggest exhibition of Szyk's art on the European Continent after the war was staged at the German Historical Museum
in Berlin
from August 2008 to January 2009; later, in 2009, it was also shown at the German Museum of Caricature and Drawings, Wilhelm Busch in Hanover
.
Book illustration
The book illustration is specific type of illustration, which appears in books. Some of modern illustrations are performed by American Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators....
, stage designer and caricaturist. Arthur Szyk was born into a Jewish family in Łódź, in the part of Poland which was under Russian rule in the 19th century. He always regarded himself both as a Pole and a Jew. From 1921, he lived and created his works mainly in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and Poland, and in 1937 he moved to the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. In 1940 he settled permanently in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, where he was granted American citizenship in 1948.
Arthur Szyk became a renowned graphic artist and book illustrator as early as the interwar period – his works were exhibited and published not only in Poland, but also in France, the United Kingdom, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, and the United States. However, he gained real popularity through his war caricatures, in which, after the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he depicted the leaders of the Axis powers
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
– mainly Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
, Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
and Emperor Hirohito
Hirohito
, posthumously in Japan officially called Emperor Shōwa or , was the 124th Emperor of Japan according to the traditional order, reigning from December 25, 1926, until his death in 1989. Although better known outside of Japan by his personal name Hirohito, in Japan he is now referred to...
. After the war, he also devoted himself to political issues, this time supporting the creation of Israel.
Szyk's work is characterized in its material content by social and political commitment, and in its formal aspect by its rejection of modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
and drawing on the traditions of medieval
Medieval art
The medieval art of the Western world covers a vast scope of time and place, over 1000 years of art history in Europe, and at times the Middle East and North Africa...
and renaissance painting, especially illuminated manuscript
Illuminated manuscript
An illuminated manuscript is a manuscript in which the text is supplemented by the addition of decoration, such as decorated initials, borders and miniature illustrations...
s from those periods. Unlike most caricaturists, Szyk always showed great attention to the colouristic effects and details in his works.
Today, Szyk is a well-known and often exhibited artist only in his last home country – the United States. In Europe, since the late 1990s exhibitions of his art has been mounted in the Polish cities of Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
, Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
, and Łódź as well as in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Germany. The recent publication of a Polish-language edition Szyk's biography and public broadcasts of the documentary film "Arthur Szyk - Illuminator" (Marta Tv & Film, Telewizja Polska
Telewizja Polska
Telewizja Polska Spółka Akcyjna is Poland's public broadcasting corporation...
(Łódź), 2005) also have improved Szyk's stature in his mother country, Poland.
Background and youth
Arthur Szyk was born into a Jewish family, as a son of Solomon Szyk and his wife Eugenia, in Łódź, in Russian-occupied Poland, on June 16, 1894. The family of the future artist belonged to the upper class. Solomon Szyk was a textile factory director, an occupation that, eventually, tragically determined his fate: in June 1905, during the so-called Łódź insurrection, he lost his eyesight after one of his workers threw acid in his face.Little Arthur showed artistic talent as a child; when he was six years old, he reportedly drew sketches of the Boxer Rebellion
Boxer Rebellion
The Boxer Rebellion, also called the Boxer Uprising by some historians or the Righteous Harmony Society Movement in northern China, was a proto-nationalist movement by the "Righteous Harmony Society" , or "Righteous Fists of Harmony" or "Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists" , in China between...
in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. Even though his family was culturally assimilated and did not practice Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
, Arthur also liked drawing biblical scenes from the Hebrew Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
. These interests and talents prompted his father, upon the advice of Szyk's teachers, to send Szyk to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
to study at Académie Julian
Académie Julian
The Académie Julian was an art school in Paris, France.Rodolphe Julian established the Académie Julian in 1868 at the Passage des Panoramas, as a private studio school for art students. The Académie Julian not only prepared students to the exams at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts, but offered...
, a studio school popular among French and foreign students. In Paris, Szyk was exposed to all modern trends in art; however, he decided to follow his own way, which hewed closely to tradition. He was especially attracted by the medieval art of illuminating manuscripts, which greatly influenced his later works.
When studying in Paris, Szyk remained closely involved with the social and civic life of Łódź. During the years 1912-1914 the teenage artist produced numerous drawings and caricatures on contemporary political themes that were published in the Łódź satirical magazine Śmiech.
After four years spent in France, Szyk returned to Polish lands in 1913 and continued his studies in Teodor Axentowicz
Teodor Axentowicz
Teodor Axentowicz was a Polish-Armenian painter and university professor. A renowned artist of his times, he was also the rector of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków...
's class at Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts
Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts
The Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts, or Kraków Academy of Fine Arts , located in Kraków, Poland, is the oldest Polish fine-arts academy, established in 1818.It is a state-run university that offers 5- and 6-year Master's degree programs...
in Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
, which was under Austrian rule at that time. He not only attended lectures and classes, but he also actively participated in Kraków's cultural life. He did not forget about his home city Łódź either – he designed the stage sets and costumes for the Łódź-based Bi Ba Bo cabaret. The political and national engagement of the artist also deepened during that time – Szyk regarded himself as a Polish patriot but he was also proud of being Jewish and he often opposed anti-Semitism in his works. At the beginning of 1914, Szyk and a group and other Polish-Jewish artists and writers set off on a journey to Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
, which was organized by the Jewish Cultural Society Hazamir (Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
: nightingale). There he could observe the efforts of Jewish settlers who were working for the benefit of the future Jewish state.
The visit was interrupted by the outbreak of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Szyk, who was a Russian subject, had to leave Palestine, which was part of the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
at that time, and go back to his home country in August 1914. He was conscripted into the Russian army and fought at the battle of Łódź in November/December 1914, but at the beginning of 1915 he managed to escape from the army and spent the rest of the war in his home city. He also used the time spent in the czarist army to draw Russian soldiers and published these drawings as postcards in the same year (1915).
On September 14, 1916, Arthur Szyk married Julia Liekerman. Their son George was born in the following year, and their daughter Alexandra in 1922.
In reborn Poland
After Poland had regained independence in 1918, Szyk fully developed his artistic activity, combining it with political engagement. In 1919, influenced by the events of the German Revolution of 1918–19, he published, together with poet Julian TuwimJulian Tuwim
Julian Tuwim , sometimes used pseudonym "Oldlen" when writing song lyrics. He was a Polish poet, born in Łódź, Congress Poland, Russian Empire, of Jewish parents, and educated in Łódź and Warsaw where he studied law and philosophy at Warsaw University...
, the first political book which was illustrated by him: Rewolucja w Niemczech (Revolution in Germany), which was a satire on the Germans, who need the Kaiser
Kaiser
Kaiser is the German title meaning "Emperor", with Kaiserin being the female equivalent, "Empress". Like the Russian Czar it is directly derived from the Latin Emperors' title of Caesar, which in turn is derived from the personal name of a branch of the gens Julia, to which Gaius Julius Caesar,...
's and the military's consent even to start a revolution. In the same year, Szyk had to take part in warfare again – during the Polish–Soviet War (1919–1920), in which he served as a cavalry officer, but first of all as the artistic director of the propaganda department of the Polish army in Łódź.
Szyk in France
In 1921 Arthur Szyk and his family moved to Paris where they were staying till 1937. The stay in Paris is marked by a breakthrough in the formal aspect of Szyk's works. While the illustrations of the previous books on which Szyk had worked previously were ordinary drawings in pen and ink (Szyk had illustrated six books before 1925, including three published in the Yiddish languageYiddish language
Yiddish is a High German language of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, spoken throughout the world. It developed as a fusion of German dialects with Hebrew, Aramaic, Slavic languages and traces of Romance languages...
), the illustrations of the books which were published in Paris are already in full colour, with a fully developed style so characteristic of the artist's future works. The first book which was illustrated in this way was the Book of Esther
Book of Esther
The Book of Esther is a book in the Ketuvim , the third section of the Jewish Tanakh and is part of the Christian Old Testament. The Book of Esther or the Megillah is the basis for the Jewish celebration of Purim...
(Le livre d'Esther, 1925), followed by Gustave Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert was a French writer who is counted among the greatest Western novelists. He is known especially for his first published novel, Madame Bovary , and for his scrupulous devotion to his art and style.-Early life and education:Flaubert was born on December 12, 1821, in Rouen,...
's dialogue The Temptation of Saint Anthony
The Temptation of Saint Anthony
The Temptation of Saint Anthony is a book which the French author Gustave Flaubert spent practically his whole life fitfully working on, in three versions he completed in 1849, 1856 and 1872 before publishing the final version in 1874...
(La tentation de Saint Antoine, 1926), Pierre Benoît
Pierre Benoit (novelist)
Pierre Benoît was a French novelist and member of the Académie française.Pierre Benoit, born in Albi was the son of a French soldier. Benoit spent his early years and military service in Northern Africa, before becoming a civil servant...
's novel Jacob's Well (Le puits e Jacob, 1927) and other books. Those illustrations, which are characterized by a rich diversity of colours and detailed presentation, deliberately referred to the medieval and renaissance traditions of illumination of manuscripts, often with interspersed contemporary elements, such as Szyk's self-portrait, who showed himself as one of the characters in the book. The only exception is illustrations to the two volume collection of anecdote
Anecdote
An anecdote is a short and amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person. It may be as brief as the setting and provocation of a bon mot. An anecdote is always presented as based on a real incident involving actual persons, whether famous or not, usually in an identifiable place...
s about Jews Le juif qui rit (1926/27), in which the artist returned to simple black and white graphics (paradoxically, the book, one of the best known of his works, met with criticism as repeating anti-Semitic stereotypes).
The artist's reputation was also enhanced by exhibitions which were organized by Galeries Auguste Decour (the art gallery first exhibited Szyk's works in 1922). Szyk’s drawings were bought for example by the then Minister of Education and Fine Arts Anatole de Monzie
Anatole de Monzie
Anatole de Monzie was a French administrator, encyclopaedist , political figure and scholar. His father was a tax collector in Bazas, Gironde where Anatole - a name he disliked from an early age - was born in 1876...
and the New York businessman Harry Glemby.
After Szyk had moved to Paris, he not only lived in France but also traveled a lot (mainly for artistic reasons). In 1922 he spent seven weeks in Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
, which was a French protectorate
Protectorate
In history, the term protectorate has two different meanings. In its earliest inception, which has been adopted by modern international law, it is an autonomous territory that is protected diplomatically or militarily against third parties by a stronger state or entity...
then, where he drew the portrait of the pasha
Pasha
Pasha or pascha, formerly bashaw, was a high rank in the Ottoman Empire political system, typically granted to governors, generals and dignitaries. As an honorary title, Pasha, in one of its various ranks, is equivalent to the British title of Lord, and was also one of the highest titles in...
of Marrakech
Marrakech
Marrakech or Marrakesh , known as the "Ochre city", is the most important former imperial city in Morocco's history...
– as a goodwill ambassador he received the Ordre des Palmes Académiques from the French government for this work. In 1931 he was invited to the seat of the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
in Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
where he was asked to illustrate the statute of the League. The artist made some of the pages of the statute but did not complete that work as a result of his disappointment with the policies of the organization in the 1930s.
Statute of Kalisz. Washington and his Times
During his stay in France, Szyk did not break contact with Poland. He often visited his home country, illustrated books and exhibited his works there. During the second half of the 1920s, he mainly illustrated the Statute of KaliszStatute of Kalisz
The General Charter of Jewish Liberties known as the Statute of Kalisz was issued by the Duke of Greater Poland Boleslaus the Pious on September 8, 1264 in Kalisz...
, a charter of liberties which were granted to the Jews by Boleslaw the Pious, the Duke of Kalisz
Kalisz
Kalisz is a city in central Poland with 106,857 inhabitants , the capital city of the Kalisz Region. Situated on the Prosna river in the southeastern part of the Greater Poland Voivodeship, the city forms a conurbation with the nearby towns of Ostrów Wielkopolski and Nowe Skalmierzyce...
, in 1264. In the years 1926-1928, he created a rich graphic setting of the 45 page long Statute, showing the contribution of the Jews to Polish society, including their participation in Poland's pro-independence struggle, for example during the January Uprising
January Uprising
The January Uprising was an uprising in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth against the Russian Empire...
of 1863 or in the Polish Legions in World War I
Polish Legions in World War I
Polish Legions was the name of Polish armed forces created in August 1914 in Galicia. Thanks to the efforts of KSSN and the Polish members of the Austrian parliament, the unit became an independent formation of the Austro-Hungarian Army...
commanded by Józef Piłsudski, to whom Szyk also dedicated his work. The Statute of Kalisz was published in book form in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
in 1932, but it gained popularity even earlier. Postcards with reproductions of Szyk's illustrations were published in Kraków around 1927, it was shown at exhibitions in Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
, Łódź and Kalisz in 1929, and a "Traveling Exhibition of Artur Szyk's Works" was even held in 1932/33, displaying the Statute at exhibitions in 14 Polish towns and cities. In recognition for his work, Arthur Szyk was decorated with the Gold Cross of Merit by the Polish government.
Another great historical series created by Szyk was Washington and his Times, which he began in Paris in 1930. The series, which included 38 watercolours
Watercolor painting
Watercolor or watercolour , also aquarelle from French, is a painting method. A watercolor is the medium or the resulting artwork in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water-soluble vehicle...
, depicted the events of the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
and was a tribute to the first president of the United States and the American nation in general. The series was presented at an exhibition at the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
in 1934. It brought another decoration to Szyk – this time the George Washington Bicentennial Medal from the American government.
The Haggadah. Moving to London. New York 1939 World's Fair
Szyk's drawings and paintings became even more politically engaged when Hitler took power in Germany in 1933. Szyk started drawing Führer's caricatures as early as 1933; probably, the first work of the artist directed against the leader→ of the Third Reich was a drawing of Hitler, made in pencil, in which he was shown as a new pharaohPharaoh
Pharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. The title originates in the term "pr-aa" which means "great house" and describes the royal palace...
. These drawings anticipated another great series of Szyk's drawings – Haggadah, which is considered to be his magnum opus
Magnum opus
Magnum opus , from the Latin meaning "great work", refers to the largest, and perhaps the best, greatest, most popular, or most renowned achievement of a writer, artist, or composer.-Related terms:Sometimes the term magnum opus is used to refer to simply "a great work" rather than "the...
.
The Haggadah
Haggadah of Pesach
The Haggadah is a Jewish text that sets forth the order of the Passover Seder. Reading the Haggadah at the Seder table is a fulfillment of the Scriptural commandment to each Jew to "tell your son" of the Jewish liberation from slavery in Egypt as described in the Book of Exodus in the Torah...
is a very important and popular story in Jewish culture and religion about the departure of the Israelites from ancient Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, which is read every year during the Passover Seder
Passover Seder
The Passover Seder is a Jewish ritual feast that marks the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover. It is conducted on the evenings of the 14th day of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar, and on the 15th by traditionally observant Jews living outside Israel. This corresponds to late March or April in...
. Szyk illustrated it in 48 drawings in the years 1932-1938, and the development of the political situation in Germany at that time made him introduce some contemporary elements to it. These referred to, in particular, the parable
Parable
A parable is a succinct story, in prose or verse, which illustrates one or more instructive principles, or lessons, or a normative principle. It differs from a fable in that fables use animals, plants, inanimate objects, and forces of nature as characters, while parables generally feature human...
of the four sons, in which the "wicked son" was portrayed as a man wearing German clothes, with a Hitler-like moustache. The expression of the series was even stronger in its original version: the drawings showed snakes with swastika
Swastika
The swastika is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing form in counter clock motion or its mirrored left-facing form in clock motion. Earliest archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization of Ancient...
s, there were also heads of Hermann Göring
Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring, was a German politician, military leader, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. He was a veteran of World War I as an ace fighter pilot, and a recipient of the coveted Pour le Mérite, also known as "The Blue Max"...
and Joseph Goebbels
Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism...
.
In 1937, Arthur Szyk went to London to supervise the publication of Haggadah. However, the artist had to agree to many compromises during that work which lasted three years, including painting over of all swastikas. It is not clear whether he did it as a result of the pressure by his publisher or the British politicians who pursued the policy of appeasement
Appeasement
The term appeasement is commonly understood to refer to a diplomatic policy aimed at avoiding war by making concessions to another power. Historian Paul Kennedy defines it as "the policy of settling international quarrels by admitting and satisfying grievances through rational negotiation and...
in relation to Germany. Finally, Haggadah was published in London in 1940; the artist dedicated it to King George VI
George VI of the United Kingdom
George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death...
. The work was widely acclaimed by critics; according to The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, it was "worthy to be placed among the most beautiful of books that the hand of man has ever produced".
The last big presentation of Szyk's works before the outbreak of the war was the presentation of his paintings at the 1939 New York World's Fair
1939 New York World's Fair
The 1939–40 New York World's Fair, which covered the of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park , was the second largest American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904. Many countries around the world participated in it, and over 44 million people...
, which was opened in April 1939. Szyk's twenty paintings, which were exhibited in the Polish Pavilion, depicted the contribution of the Poles to the history of the United States, and different connections between both countries.
Reaction to the outbreak of the war
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
wrote:
Szyk drew more and more caricatures directed at the Axis powers and their leaders, his popularity was also growing. In 1940, the American publisher G.P. Putnam's Sons offered the artist to publish a collection of his drawings. Szyk agreed, and the result was the album The New Order, published in 1941, after the artist had arrived in America, but before the United States joined the war.
The feature which distinguished Szyk from other caricaturists who were active during World War II was that he concentrated on the presentation of the enemy in his works and seldom depicted the leaders or soldiers of the Allies. This was a characteristic feature of Szyk's work till the end of the war.
Moving to the United States. War caricatures
At the beginning of July 1940, Arthur Szyk left Britain to North America, with the support of the British government and the Polish government-in-exile, on assignment to popularize the struggle of the British and Polish nations with NazismNazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
in the New World. His first destination on the North American continent was Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, where he was welcomed enthusiastically by the media: they wrote about his engagement in the fight with Nazi Germany, and the Halifax-based Morning Herald even reported about the alleged bounty Hitler had put on Szyk. In December 1940 Szyk and his wife and daughter went to New York City where he lived till 1945. His son, George, had enlisted in the Free French Forces
Free French Forces
The Free French Forces were French partisans in World War II who decided to continue fighting against the forces of the Axis powers after the surrender of France and subsequent German occupation and, in the case of Vichy France, collaboration with the Germans.-Definition:In many sources, Free...
commanded by General Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
.
Soon after his arrival in the US, Szyk was inspired by Roosevelt's 1941 "Four Freedoms
Four Freedoms
The Four Freedoms were goals articulated by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt on January 6, 1941. In an address known as the Four Freedoms speech , he proposed four fundamental freedoms that people "everywhere in the world" ought to enjoy:# Freedom of speech and expression# Freedom of worship#...
" State of the Union
State Of The Union
"State Of The Union" is the debut single from British singer-songwriter David Ford. It had previously been featured as a demo on his official website, before appearing as a track on a CD entitled "Apology Demos EP," only on sale at live shows....
speech to illustrate the Four Freedoms, preceding Norman Rockwell
Norman Rockwell
Norman Percevel Rockwell was a 20th-century American painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of American culture. Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening...
's Four Freedoms by two years; these were used as poster stamp
Poster stamp
The poster stamp was an advertising label, a little larger than most postage stamps, that originated in the mid-19th century and quickly became a collecting craze, growing in popularity up until World War One and then declining by World War Two until they are now almost forgotten except by...
s during the war, and later illustrated a Four Freedoms Award which was presented to Harry Truman, George Marshall
George Marshall
George Catlett Marshall was an American military leader, Chief of Staff of the Army, Secretary of State, and the third Secretary of Defense...
, and Herbert H. Lehman
Herbert H. Lehman
Herbert Henry Lehman was a Democratic Party politician from New York. He was the 45th Governor of New York from 1933 to 1942, and represented New York in the United States Senate from 1950 to 1957.-Lehman Brothers:...
.
Szyk became an immensely popular artist in his new home country during the Second World War, especially after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
and the entry of the US into the war. His caricatures of the leaders of the Axis powers (Hitler, Mussolini, Hirohito) and drawings appeared practically everywhere: in newspapers, magazines (including Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, Esquire
Esquire (magazine)
Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
, and Collier's), on posters, postcards and stamps, in secular, religious and military publications, on public and military buildings. He also produced advertisements for Coca Cola and US Steel, and exhibited in the galleries of M. Knodler & Co., Andre Seligmann, Inc., Messrs. Wildenstein & Co., the Philadelphia Art Alliance
Philadelphia Art Alliance
The Philadelphia Art Alliance is a multidisciplinary arts center located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the Rittenhouse Square neighborhood. It is the oldest multidisciplinary arts center in the United States for visual, literary and performing arts...
, the Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum is an encyclopedia art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At 560,000 square feet, the museum holds New York City's second largest art collection with roughly 1.5 million works....
, the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, and the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
. More than 25 exhibitions were staged altogether in the United States during the war years. At the end of the war, in 1945, his drawing Two down and One to go was used in a propaganda film calling American soldiers to the final crackdown on Japan. According to the Esquire
Esquire (magazine)
Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
magazine, the posters with Szyk's drawings enjoyed even bigger popularity with American soldiers than pin-up girl
Pin-up girl
A pin-up girl, also known as a pin-up model, is a model whose mass-produced pictures see wide appeal as popular culture. Pin-ups are intended for informal display, e.g. meant to be "pinned-up" on a wall...
s put on the walls of American military bases. Szyk's works, however, were also praised by critics. Thomas Craven wrote on the dust jacket of The New Order as early as 1941 that Szyk:
Szyk's drawings were very important for the American war propaganda. In recognition for his services in the fight against Nazism, Fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
and the Japanese aggression, Eleanor Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and became an advocate for civil rights. After her husband's death in 1945, Roosevelt continued to be an international...
, the wife of President F. D. Roosevelt, said of him: "This is a personal war of Szyk against Hitler, and I do not think that Mr. Szyk will lose this war!" She also dubbed him "one man army", which became Szyk's famous nickname. Szyk himself often called himself "soldier in art". Other famous quotations by him are: "Art is not my aim, it is my means", and "I am but a Jew praying in art."
Szyk generally felt good in his adopted home country, saying:
Criticism of the Allies in Szyk's works
Even though Szyk was a fierce opponent of Nazism throughout the war, this does not mean that he avoided themes in drawings which presented the AlliesAllies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
in a less favourable light. In relation to the United Kingdom, that was mainly criticism of the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
policy of the country, especially of imposing limits on Jewish emigration to Palestine. Despite the fact that the British government had provided for the creation of a Jewish state in the Balfour Declaration of 1917, in May 1939, the House of Commons passed the so-called White Paper
White Paper of 1939
The White Paper of 1939, also known as the MacDonald White Paper after Malcolm MacDonald, the British Colonial Secretary who presided over it, was a policy paper issued by the British government under Neville Chamberlain in which the idea of partitioning the Mandate for Palestine, as recommended in...
, which limited the number of Jewish immigrants to the Holy Land to 10,000 yearly, which had tragic consequences to the fate of the Jews in Hitler-occupied Europe.
Szyk also criticized the passivity of American-Jewish organizations towards the tragedy of their European fellows. He supported the work of Hillel Kook
Hillel Kook
Hillel Kook , also known as Peter Bergson , was a Revisionist Zionist activist, politician, and prominent member of the Irgun.-Early life:...
, also known as Peter Bergson, member of the Zionist
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
organization Irgun
Irgun
The Irgun , or Irgun Zevai Leumi to give it its full title , was a Zionist paramilitary group that operated in Mandate Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of the earlier and larger Jewish paramilitary organization haHaganah...
, who fought a campaign in American society whose aim was to draw attention to the fate of the European Jews. Szyk illustrated for example full-page advertisements of his groups which were published in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
. The artist also perceived racial tensions in the United States and the fact that the black population did not have the same rights as the whites. In one of his drawings, there are two American soldiers – one black and one white – escorting German prisoners of war. When the white one asks the black: "And what would you do with Hitler?", the black one answers: "I would have made him a Negro and dropped him somewhere in the U.S.A."
Szyk's attitude to his mother country, Poland, was very interesting and full of contradictions. Even though he regarded himself both as Jewish and Polish and showed the suffering of the Poles (not only those of Jewish descent) in the occupied Polish territories in his drawings, even though he benefited from financial support of the Polish government-in-exile (at least at the beginning of the war), he also presented that government in a negative light, especially at the end of World War II. In a well-known drawing of 1944, a group of debating Polish politicians are shown as opponents of Roosevelt, Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
, the "Bolshevik agent" Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
, and at the same time adherents of Father Charles Coughlin
Charles Coughlin
Father Charles Edward Coughlin was a controversial Roman Catholic priest at Royal Oak, Michigan's National Shrine of the Little Flower church. He was one of the first political leaders to use radio to reach a mass audience, as more than thirty million tuned to his weekly broadcasts during the...
, known for his anti-Semitic views, as well as "(national) democracy" and "(national) socialism." Around 1943, Szyk, a former participant in the Polish-Soviet war, also completely changed his opinions on the Soviet Union. His admiration for the Soviet Union started to grow after Germany's aggression against the USSR in 1941, and his drawing from 1944 already depicts outright a soldier of the Moscow-supported People's Army of Poland next to a Soviet soldier, both liberating Poland.
Book illustrations
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
ian poet Omar Khayyám
Omar Khayyám
Omar Khayyám was aPersian polymath: philosopher, mathematician, astronomer and poet. He also wrote treatises on mechanics, geography, mineralogy, music, climatology and theology....
. In 1943, the artist started work on illustrations for the Book of Job
Book of Job
The Book of Job , commonly referred to simply as Job, is one of the books of the Hebrew Bible. It relates the story of Job, his trials at the hands of Satan, his discussions with friends on the origins and nature of his suffering, his challenge to God, and finally a response from God. The book is a...
, published in 1946; he also illustrated collections of fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet noted for his children's stories. These include "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," "The Snow Queen," "The Little Mermaid," "Thumbelina," "The Little Match Girl," and "The Ugly Duckling."...
(Andersen's Fairy Tales, 1945) and Charles Perrault
Charles Perrault
Charles Perrault was a French author who laid the foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, with his works derived from pre-existing folk tales. The best known include Le Petit Chaperon rouge , Cendrillon , Le Chat Botté and La Barbe bleue...
(Mother Goose
Mother Goose
The familiar figure of Mother Goose is an imaginary author of a collection of fairy tales and nursery rhymes which are often published as Mother Goose Rhymes. As a character, she appears in one "nursery rhyme". A Christmas pantomime called Mother Goose is often performed in the United Kingdom...
).
After the war. Last years of life
In 1945, Arthur Szyk and his family moved from New York City to New Canaan, ConnecticutNew Canaan, Connecticut
New Canaan is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, northeast of Stamford, on the Fivemile River. The population was 19,738 according to the 2010 census.The town is one of the most affluent communities in the United States...
where he lived till the end of his life. The end of the war released him from the duty to fight Nazism through his caricatures, a large collection of drawings from that period was published in book form as Ink and Blood in 1946. The artist returned to book illustrations, working for example on The Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the 14th century. The tales are told as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey from Southwark to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at...
by Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer , known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey...
and, first of all, books telling Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
stories, such as Pathways through the Bible by Mortimer J. Cohen (1946), the The Book of Job (1946), The Book of Ruth (1947), The Ten Commandments (1947), The Story of Joseph and his Brothers (1949). Some of the books illustrated by Szyk were also published posthumously, including The Arabian Nights Entertainments (1954) and The Book of Esther (1974).
He was also commissioned by Canadian entrepreneur and stamp connoisseur, Kasimir Bileski
Kasimir Bileski
Kasimir Bileski was a noted Canadian philatelist and stamp dealer based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He is best known for his discovery and promotion of the famous "Seaway Inverted" stamps of 1959....
, to illustrate the United Nations Series of stamps.
Artur Szyk was granted American citizenship on May 22, 1948, but he reportedly experienced the happiest day in his life eight days earlier: on May 14, the day of the announcement of the Israeli Declaration of Independence. Arthur Szyk commemorated that event creating the richly decorated illumination of the Hebrew text of the declaration. Two years later, on July 4, 1950, he also exhibited the richly illuminated text of the United States Declaration of Independence
United States Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence was a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. John Adams put forth a...
.
The artist continued getting politically engaged in his country, criticizing the McCarthyism
McCarthyism
McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by...
policy (the ubiquitous atmosphere of suspicion and searching for sympathizers of communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
in American artistic and academic circles) and signs of racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
. One of his well-known drawings from 1949 shows two armed members of Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
approaching a tied-up African American. The caption for the drawing is: "Do not forgive them, oh Lord, for they do know what they do." Owing to this criticism, Szyk was also interrogated by the House Un-American Activities Committee
House Un-American Activities Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities or House Un-American Activities Committee was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. In 1969, the House changed the committee's name to "House Committee on Internal Security"...
, which accused him of being a member of the Joint Ant-Fascist Refugee Committee and six other suspicious organizations. Szyk himself, however, repudiated these accusations of alleged sympathy for communism in a written statement.
Arthur Szyk died of a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
in New Canaan on September 13, 1951. He was eulogized by Rabbi Ben Zion Bokser
Ben Zion Bokser
-Biography:Bokser was born in Lubomi, Poland, and emigrated to the United States at the age of 13 in 1920. He attended City College of New York and Rabbi Isaac Elhanan Theological Seminary, followed by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and Columbia University...
, who said: "Arthur Szyk was a great artist. Endowed by God with a rare sensitivity to beauty and with a rare skill in giving it graphic representation, he used his talents to create a series of works of splendor and magnificence that will live forever in the history of art. But Arthur Szyk was more than a great artist. He was a great man, a champion of justice, a fearless warrior in the cause of every humanitarian endeavor. His art was his tool and he used it brilliantly. It was in his hands a weapon of struggle with which he fought for the causes close to his heart"; and by Judge Simon H. Rifkind, who said: "The Arthur Szyk whom the world knows, the Arthur Szyk of the wondrous color, and of the beautiful design, that Arthur Szyk whom the world mourns today—he is indeed not dead at all. How can he be when the Arthur Szyk who is known to mankind lives and is immortal and will remain immortal as long as the love of truth and beauty prevails among mankind?"
Legacy
The immense popularity Szyk enjoyed in the United States in his lifetime gradually flagged after his death. From the 1960s to the end of the 1980s, the artist's works were seldom exhibited in American museums. This changed in 1991 when The Arthur Szyk Society was set up in Orange County, CaliforniaOrange County, California
Orange County is a county in the U.S. state of California. Its county seat is Santa Ana. As of the 2010 census, its population was 3,010,232, up from 2,846,293 at the 2000 census, making it the third most populous county in California, behind Los Angeles County and San Diego County...
. The founder of the Society was George Gooche, who discovered Szyk's unknown works and staged the exhibition "Arthur Szyk – Illuminator" in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. In 1997, the seat of the Society was transferred to Burlingame, California
Burlingame, California
Burlingame is a city in San Mateo County, California. It is located on the San Francisco Peninsula and has a significant shoreline on San Francisco Bay. The city is named after diplomat Anson Burlingame. It is renowned for its many surviving examples of Victorian architecture, its affluence, and...
, and a new Board of Trustee
Trustee
Trustee is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, can refer to any person who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility for the benefit of another...
s was elected, headed by rabbi, curator and antiquarian Irvin Ungar. The Society's work resulted in staging many exhibitions of Szyk's works in American cities in the 1990s, the Society also holds lectures and publishes books on the artist. Szyk's recent exhibitions include: "A One-Man Army: The Art of Arthur Szyk" at the Holocaust Museum Houston
Holocaust Museum Houston
The Holocaust Museum Houston, is located in Houston, Texas and was opened in 1996. The museum is located in the Houston Museum District.The museum is the fourth largest Holocaust memorial museum in the United States. The museum's mission is to make people aware of the dangers which prejudice,...
(October 20, 2008 – February 8, 2009); "The Art and Politics of Arthur Szyk" at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust. Adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the USHMM provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust history...
in Washington, D.C. (April 10 – October 14, 2002); "Arthur Szyk: Artist for Freedom" at the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
(December 9, 1999 – May 6, 2000); and "Justice Illuminated: The Art of Arthur Szyk" at the Spertus Museum in Chicago (August 16, 1998 – February 28, 1999). "Justice Illuminated: The Art of Arthur Szyk" is also a traveling exhibition of The Arthur Szyk Society.
Recent major publications about the art of Arthur Szyk include: a new edition of The Szyk Haggadah and its Companion Volume Freedom Illuminated: Understanding The Szyk Haggadah; and Justice Illuminated: The Art of Arthur Szyk, produced in conjunction with the 1998-99 Spertus Museum exhibition.
In Europe, Arthur Szyk practically sank into oblivion after World War II. This is true even for his mother country Poland, where Szyk's drawings were exhibited only once after the war. That was in 2005 when the traveling exhibition "Justice Illuminated: The Art of Arthur Szyk" was brought from The Arthur Szyk Society in the United States and presented at the Jewish Historical Institute
Jewish Historical Institute
The Jewish Historical Institute is a research institute in Warsaw, Poland, primarily dealing with the history of Jews in Poland.The Jewish Historical Institute was created in 1947 as a continuation of the Central Jewish Historical Commission, founded in 1944. The Jewish Historical Institute...
in Warsaw, the Izrael Poznański Palace in Łódź and the Judaica Foundation - Center For Jewish Culture
Judaica Foundation - Center For Jewish Culture
The Judaica Foundation located at ul. Meiselsa 17 street in Kraków, Poland, was created in 1991. The idea for the foundation was established already in the 1980s, influenced by the President of the Jewish community of Kraków...
in Kraków. The biggest exhibition of Szyk's art on the European Continent after the war was staged at the German Historical Museum
Deutsches Historisches Museum
The German Historical Museum , DHM for short, is a museum in Berlin devoted to German history and defines itself as a place of enlightenment and understanding of the shared history of Germans and Europeans....
in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
from August 2008 to January 2009; later, in 2009, it was also shown at the German Museum of Caricature and Drawings, Wilhelm Busch in Hanover
Hanover
Hanover or Hannover, on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony , Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg...
.
External links
- The Arthur Szyk Society
- Justice Illuminated – The Art of Arthur Szyk Traveling exhibition of The Arthur Szyk Society
- Arthur Szyk – Illuminator, Activist, Master
- Arthur Szyk – Drawing against National Socialism and Terror Exhibition at the German Historical Museum, Berlin
- The Art and Politics of Arthur Szyk Exhibition at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
- Arthur Szyk's drawings in American Art Archives