Arthur Szyk (1894 - 1951) was one America's leading political artists during
World War II, when he produced hundreds of anti-Axis illustrations and cartoons
in aid of the Allied war effort. Throughout his career he created art in the
service of human rights and civil liberties -- in his native Poland, in Paris
where he was trained during the 1920s, and in America, the country he adopted in
1940. Settling in the United States, Szyk announced, "At last, I have found the
home I have always searched for. Here I can speak of what my soul feels. There
is no other place on earth that gives one the freedom, liberty and justice that
America does."
Born of Jewish parents in Lodz, Poland, Szyk acquired his early art training
in Paris and Cracow. Between 1919 and 1920, during Poland's war against the
Soviet Bolsheviks, he served as artistic director of the Department of
Propaganda for the Polish army regiment quartered in Lodz. In 1921, he moved to
Paris where he lived and worked for ten years. In 1934, Szyk traveled to the
United States for exhibitions of his work, including one at the Library of
Congress where a series of thirty-eight miniatures commemorating George
Washington and the Revolutionary period were shown. In late 1940, after a period
of residence in England, he immigrated to the United States.
In America, Arthur Szyk embraced the patriotic and democratic spirit of his
adopted country. His work entitled The United States of America,
includes portrayals of an African American and Native American, representing the
diversity of American society, as well as familiar imagery -- Hoover Dam, the
Manhattan skyline, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the Pony Express. His anti-Axis
cartoons appeared frequently in such popular magazines as Collier's
and in two published compilations, The New Order (1941) and
Ink & Blood (1946). He also illustrated numerous works,
including a richly rendered, magnificently printed Haggadah (1940),
reflecting his passion for his own Jewish heritage and concern for the Jewish
people in the face of Nazi hostility.
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