The Cartoon Crusader Comes to America: Arthur Szyk’s Battle against the Nazis in the New World

This is an event of the Fritz Ascher Society's online project “Identity, Art and Migration” in which they investigate US immigration of European refugees during the first half of the 20th century through the lens of seven artist case studies: Anni Albers, Friedel Dzubas, Eva Hesse, Rudi Lesser, Lily Renee, Arthur Szyk and Fritz Ascher.

Prior to World War II, Polish-born Arthur Szyk (Lodz 1894 – 1951 New Canaan, CT) was best known for his ornately detailed renderings of historical subjects and Jewish themes. But after the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, he gained the accolades of international audiences for his biting caricatures of Nazi leaders and his efforts to garner support for the Allied cause and Europe’s persecuted Jews. In 1940, Szyk took his mighty pen to the United States, where he quickly became a popular artistic sensation. His images graced the covers and inside pages of leading magazines, like Time, Colliers, Esquire, Look, The American Mercury, Coronet, and Liberty. Szyk’s cartoons regularly appeared in The New York Post, The Chicago Sun, and PM. Millions of Americans knew his work, even if they could not pronounce his name.

Featuring
Steven Luckert, PhD, Senior Program Curator, Levine Institute for Holocaust Education 
at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington DC
Irvin Ungar, Arthur Szyk scholar

Moderator
Ori Z Soltes, PhD, Teaching Professor at Georgetown University, Washington DC

Register here.

This event is part of the online project "Identity, Art and Migration" organized by The Fritz Ascher Society for Persecuted, Ostracized and Banned Art, New York.

Generously sponsored by the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in New York.

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