Arthur Szyk: Soldier in Art On view September 15, 2017 – January 21, 2018

Selected PR Images

More than 40 gorgeously rendered and politically incisive artworks by celebrated illustrator and miniaturist Arthur Szyk (1894–1951), made during his years in New York City, will be on view at the New-York Historical Society. The exhibition shows the Polish-Jewish artist fighting in his watercolors and drawings as a “one-man army” against Hitler and other Nazi leaders, Mussolini, and Hirohito. Szyk’s brilliant and outspoken works testify to his horror at the ongoing murder of European Jewry, his anger at restrictions on Jewish immigration to British Mandate Palestine, his commitment to American democratic values, and his revulsion to racial injustice in his adopted country.

Arthur Szyk (1894−1951) Self-portrait from Ink and Blood: A Book of Drawings, 1946 Paint, colored pencil, graphite, and ink on paper Joseph and Alexandra Braciejowski Collection, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C.

In this self-portrait, Arthur Szyk depicted himself engaged in his mission as a soldier in art. The artist sits at his drawing table with rolled sleeves, assiduously illustrating a defeated Adolf Hitler. In the wastebasket are Italy’s Fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini, and Marshal Pétain, leader of France’s collaborative Vichy government.

Arthur Szyk (1894−1951) The Four Sons, 1934, from The Haggadah Watercolor and gouache on paper Robbins Family Collection, Palo Alto, California

Szyk’s illustrated Haggadah, a book that chronicled the Jewish exodus from ancient Egypt, interpreted the Passover story as a clarion call. The prescient illustrations, created soon after Hitler’s rise to power, suggested that the Nazi leader was a modern Pharaoh intent on slaughtering Europe’s Jews. Traditionally, the Passover story is told at a celebratory meal called a Seder and begins with the recitation of the Four Questions. Szyk’s interpretation of the Four Sons includes a Wicked Son who resembles Adolf Hitler.

Arthur Szyk (1894−1951) “We’re running short of Jews!,” 1943 Ink and graphite on paper Taube Family Arthur Szyk Collection, Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, University of California, Berkeley, 2017.5.1.115

Szyk captured the peril facing Europe’s Jews in this drawing of Adolf Hitler and his loyal triumvirate, Hermann Göring, Joseph Goebbels, and Heinrich Himmler, confronting the news that by 1943 they had murdered two million Jews. The drawing responded to a World Jewish Congress report released in November 1942, revealing Hitler’s plan to exterminate all Jews in German-occupied territories. Szyk later dedicated the drawing to his mother, who died at the Chelmno extermination camp near the Łódź ghetto.

Arthur Szyk (1894−1951) My People. Samson in the Ghetto (The Battle of the Warsaw Ghetto), 1945 Watercolor, gouache, ink, and graphite on paper Taube Family Arthur Szyk Collection, Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, University of California, Berkeley, 2017.5.1.129

Szyk’s crusade against the Nazis infused this memorial to the Jews who bravely fought during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Constructed by the Nazis in 1940 to contain the city’s Jews, the Ghetto confined over 400,000 people. On April 19, 1943, a small number of the remaining 70,000 resisted an order of deportation by attacking their Nazi captors. In this illustration, a weary but well-armed Samson holds the order of extermination. Warsaw fighters and inhabitants surround him, including a female warrior, a dying man holding fast to a Zionist flag, a rabbi, and a Jewish child.

Arthur Szyk (1894−1951) Murder Incorporated: Hirohito, Hitlerhito, Benito, December 1941 Watercolor and gouache on paper Harlan Crow Library, Dallas, Texas

In the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Szyk caricatured the Axis’ evil leaders as deadly swashbucklers. Fully uniformed, armed, and festooned with medals, the three appear callously indifferent, irate and disheveled, or dazed and confused, yet each has blood on their hands. A natty Hirohito holds a bloody “Pearl Harbor” dagger. An unravelling Hitler holds a sheathed sword and Jolly Roger, the traditional pirate flag that signaled imminent attack, with a tiny skeletal SS charm. Although ragged, Mussolini is decked out with a sheathed dagger and dozens of meaningless medals.

Arthur Szyk (1894−1951) Japan’s Aggressor: Admiral Yamamoto, Time, December 22, 1941 Taube Family Arthur Szyk Collection, Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, University of California, Berkeley, 2017.5.4.1

Szyk’s campaign against Japanese militarism escalated in the wake of Japan’s surprise attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. His portrait of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the commander-in-chief of the Japanese Navy who masterminded the attack, was featured on the cover of Time two weeks later.

Arthur Szyk (1894−1951) Arsenal of Democracy, also known as Democracy at Work, 1942 Watercolor and gouache on paper Property of a Private Collector, New York

American factories supported the Allies with warplanes, tanks, ships, and arms even before the U.S. entered the war. Arsenal of Democracy, which appeared on the cover of Collier’s on Labor Day 1942, celebrates the nation’s wartime productivity. The bustling scene features muscular American workers and an impressive output of weapons. The Statue of Liberty surveys the smoking factories and busy shipyards working around-the-clock. The sinister, swastika- decorated snake poised for a strike reminded readers that American manufacturing was essential to defeating the Nazis.

Arthur Szyk (1894−1951) Pilgrims, also known as Mayflower and “Illegal” Passenger Ship, 1946 Pen, ink, and pencil on board Robbins Family Collection, Palo Alto, California

Here, Szyk likens the displacement of Europe’s Jews and their need for a homeland to the religious freedom sought by the Pilgrims in the New World. Created for the American League for a Free Palestine, the drawing

highlights the parallels between the two groups: both sought escape from persecution in pursuit of freedom in new lands.

Arthur Szyk (1894−1951) And what would you do with Hitler?, 1944 Pen and ink on paper Collection of Anthony J. Mourek and Dr. Karole Schafer Mourek

In this small but powerful drawing, Szyk expresses dismay about racial segregation in the U.S. Armed Services and the discrimination faced by black servicemen. A black and a white soldier ponder a suitable punishment for Hitler. The African American offers: “I would have made him a Negro and dropped him somewhere in the U.S.A.”

Arthur Szyk (1894−1951) Do not forgive them, oh Lord, for they do know, what they do!, 1949 Ink and graphite on paper Taube Family Arthur Szyk Collection, Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, University of California, Berkeley, 2017.5.1.214

This haunting drawing shows a black veteran kidnapped by members of the Ku Klux Klan, who are contemplating the decorated soldier’s lynching. In the caption, Szyk cautions: “Each Negro lynching is a national disaster, is a stab in the back to our government in its desperate struggle for democracy.”