IRVIN UNGAR:

I’m delighted to introduce you to Arthur Szyk, who was a Polish-Jewish artist born in Lodz, Poland in 1894, in the same year as Norman Rockwell was born. And Arthur Szyk came to America in 1940 as an immigrant, and died 1951. When he ultimately arrived in America in 1940, he saw himself as a one man army in his fight against Hitler. He also considered himself to be FDR’s “soldier in art”, as he signed a few of his works. And became very famous in America, even though many people have forgotten who he was, what he accomplished during his lifetime, but he was as famous as famous could be. And to give you an idea of that, Norman Rockwell was illustrating, the early 1940s, the covers of The Saturday Evening Post. At that time, Arthur Szyk was illustrating the covers of Collier’s Magazine. What was the circulation of the Saturday Evening Post about 3 million people got each copy. How many people received each copy of Collier’s? Two and a half million? So that meant that virtually everyone who was seeing Rockwell’s art in the early forties was also seeing that of Arthur Szyk.

Szyk went to work as an artist diligently for many magazines and newspapers in the early forties. His work was also seen in the American Mercury Magazine. It was also seen in the New York Post and the Chicago Sun, for which he was syndicated. And his art also appeared at over 500 USO recreation centers. So virtually every GI who was going overseas was seeing Arthur Szyk’s artwork. And Szyk, in 1942, had indicated that he had created already a thousand works of art that dealt with fighting against the Axis against Hitler since he had started his work, anti-Nazi art, in the 1930s. Eleanor Roosevelt would write about Arthur Szyk in her column, My Day, saying about Szyk that he was fighting as a fighting artist, just as if anyone who was on the fighting fronts today. So this gives us some idea of who Arthur Szyk was within the context of World War II.

In his early days he was, as a teenager, growing up in Poland, Szyk went off to Paris in 1910, where he studied at The Académie Julian. At the time that he was in Paris, for about three and a half, four years, he would send political caricatures and cartoons critiquing daily life, commenting on the ills of society. And he would send these back to newspapers in Poland. So already from the early days, Szyk was a social activist through his art. Later in 1914, he traveled to Palestine for the first time. Was conscripted into the Russian army. Fought briefly during World War I, but shortly thereafter, when the war was over and Poland was at war with the Soviet Union, Arthur Szyk became the director of art propaganda for Poland in its work against the Soviet Union.

And then Szyk set out to illustrate many beautiful books that were published. Some of the most expensive books in Paris in the twenties were illustrated by Szyk. And he completed numerous, numerous works, then. His travels then took him to London, ultimately, in 1937, where Szyk worked on his magnum opus, within Jewish tradition, that is the Passover Haggadah. It was published in London in 1940. Was the most expensive new book in the entire world. Each copy of that book sold for $500, which is… Some people could buy a house at that time in 1940 for that amount of money. And then, Szyk came to America again in 1940. But this give you some of his background in Europe.

He didn’t do preliminary drawings. That’s the amazing thing. So if you look at the detail, he took the piece of paper or the board, and he went to work. Now, I once had in my possession all of his sketches and doodles that he had done, several hundred of them. And you can see that he’s working different things out. But there was no real full blown sketch or drawing of anything. He would create often, and pencil, under drawing, and then go to work. Quite often, you don’t see the pencil under drawing. And he would work off into the edge of the page and you would think, “Oh, he cut this off.” No. It was intended to be that way.

When he sat down to work, he didn’t use a magnifying glass. I have spoken to members of his family, people who watched him work. No one ever indicated that he used a magnifying glass except, Szyk once shared with them that he kept one near his desk and that was for everyone else to use when they would come by. He was very near-sighted. He had a few pairs of glasses. And he worked very rapidly. Even the most complex works of art of his could take him a week or less. And when you look at them, it’s really hard to believe, but I still don’t understand how he worked and how he did what he did.

It begins with Arthur Szyk creating a series entitled Washington and His Times. These are 38 paintings dealing with George Washington and the American Revolution. Arthur Szyk completed those works in 1930. It was published as a portfolio in 1932. In 1935, Arthur Szyk was exhibiting these works and they were purchased by the President of Poland, Moscicki. And in 1935, he presented these to Franklin Roosevelt as a gift, in a way to create closer relations between Poland and the United States, virtually on the eve of World War II. The Nazis has been in power already. The National Socialists had been in power already for two years. And when Roosevelt gave his Four Freedoms Speech in January of 1941, 38 paintings of freedom were hiding in the White House and these were works by Arthur Szyk.

Then Szyk set out, actually, in 1942, to illustrate the Four Freedoms. They really featured a medieval knight, almost fighting for freedom, meaning all the freedoms had to be fought for. And Szyk’s way was to use a medieval knight who would have a lance, a dagger, a sword, almost accompanying almost each one of them. And these were reproduced in two formats. One as poster stamps that were widely distributed, as if one would distribute Easter Seals. And secondly, they were reproduced as enlarged postcards and also distributed. This was Arthur Szyk’s connection to the Four Freedoms, both in terms of his artwork being in the White House when the speech was given, and then also, literally, to reproduce them as well.

So Arthur Szyk, in his artwork, combined so many styles. But one of which he’s clearly drawn to is that of medieval illuminated manuscripts. And in fact, in Paris, in the 1920s, it was said of Szyk that was the greatest illuminator in the style of the 16th century miniaturists. What does it mean to be an illuminator? To be an illuminator, it means to take a text and to create illustrations around it that aluminate the texts, that bring light to it, that shed light on what the text wants you to understand. Szyk was very literal in his art. He was very… A realist. And so the style of illuminated manuscripts lended itself quite well to what ship wanted to do, because he always believed that, “Art is not my aim. It’s my means.” So he wanted to deliver a message. And I think that the intricacy of detail and paying attention to something very exact could help him deliver the exact message he wanted to. And his art was almost always used to fight against evil and oppression and bigotry and racism, and for dignity and for freedom.

We’re here in the gallery at the New York Historical Society. And I’m standing in front of the Historic Poker Game. This work turned out to be the first cover that Szyk had done for Collier’s magazine that appeared in November of 1941, even though this piece is dated September, 1941. And Szyk, by the way, almost always never put the month when he created a work of art, but we do see it on some of them. And what is going on in Historic Poker Game? It turns out, for you World War II history buffs, that when World War II began Germany and Russia invaded Poland in September of 1939. But in January of 1941, Hitler decided to invade them Soviet Union. So now all bets are off, and Szyk sees this standoff between Germany and Russia as a historic poker game.

So what we’re really looking at here is Hitler is playing poker against Ivan of Russia. Now, why is he called Ivan? Because in America, we call… America, Uncle Sam. And in England, we refer to England often as John Bull. This is Ivan of Russia. Now Hitler is holding three cards in his hand. Who are those three cards? These are jokers. It’s Mussolini of Italy, Petain of the Vichy French, and Hirohito of Japan. And who is Ivan holding in his hand? He’s holding a pair of aces. Who’s the aces? America and Great Britain. Now, if you’ve ever played poker, or you haven’t played poker, you would know the three of a kind always beats two of a kind. So Hitler really should be the defeating the Russian. But for Szyk, he’s put more money, a stack of money, more in front of the Russian who holds the pair than he puts in front of Hitler. And that is because Szyk is betting on the Russian.

Now America, at that time, sending gold and milk and material [inaudible 00:10:29] allies to Great Britain and to Russia, so Szyk is betting on the Russian. And the reason he’s doing that is because Hitler is holding three jokers. These are wild cards, and no one knows what wild cards are going to do. But a pair of aces, you can always count on them. So Szyk is betting this historic poker game on the allies, even though America is not in the war in September of 1941, because it’s only a few months later, in December, we entered the war. But meanwhile, death is looking on. His clothes are un-tattered, unlike Hitler’s, who’s boots and who’s butt have a patch on it. But death is sterling, because death is going to win no matter who comes out on top in this poker game.

And here you see puppets, the acolytes who are part of the Axis that Hitler’s pulling along. And in November, this appears as the first Colliers cover. And there’s an insert into Collier’s, by the way, a broadsheet that’s put in there, where Szyk talks about, here, how he’s an immigrant, how it’s a privilege. He says, “You don’t know what a privilege it is for an immigrant such as me to have my work shown on the cover of Collier’s.” That, “I know this work personally, because my own son is now fighting somewhere in Europe for de Gaulle and this war is personal to me.” And you can see how honored he is for his work to be shown to the American public.

So I’m standing in front of Arthur Szyk’s cover for Collier’s magazine, Arsenal of Democracy. And this was the Labor Day cover that appeared exactly 75 years ago on the cover of Colliers. And what you see in this work of art is the Nazi serpent who’s strangling the pillars of democracy, here, while Szyk is motivating the American workers to take up the sword of freedom, the sword of democracy, encapsulating Roosevelt’s Arsenal of Democracy talk in December of 1940, where American industry would actually work together in common cause to fight a common enemy. And here are Szyk’s art, where he is called upon to create this Colliers cover. Previously, his first work on Collier’s appeared in November of 1941, was the first cover, and then in January of 42. This work appeared in September of 1942.

But you’ll see the Statue of Liberty here. You’ll see… I think this is the Brooklyn Navy Yard that’s in the background. And in the sword you’ll see, even, “democracy”. And I’ve watched… I’ve seen people looking at this work, even with a magnifying glass and they can’t see the word “democracy” there. That’s how tiny it is. But it’s a brilliant work of art. And again, this appeared at the time that Norman Rockwell was illustrating the Saturday Evening Post covers.

He was a hater of hate. No one hated hatred more than Arthur Szyk did. And on the other side was a man who was a short man, who was bald, who was the life of the party. He would sing. He would sing in numerous languages whenever people would gather. He had the spirit of great humor. He was very, very social man. Humorous, fun, loved his grandchildren. In fact, he once illustrated Andersen’s Fairy Tales. Among the political works and the Judaic works that he did, also illustrated many children’s books and many classics. And the inscription on the front cover of the Andersen’s Fairy Tales, Arthur Szyk dedicated this to his granddaughter, and he said that “She is the only dictatorship I will ever accept.”

Following the war, Szyk turned to a great deal of Americana, turned to attacking even racism in America. Actually, he had begun to do that in the early forties. And when he created artwork, seeing that America was fighting racism abroad, Szyk also felt that America wasn’t taking care of business at home. And so there are famous works of a white soldier, a Black soldier walking side by side. The white soldier says to the Black soldier, “What would you do with Hitler?” The Black soldier responds, “I would make him a Negro and drop him somewhere in the USA.” And that’s how bad racism was here, and Szyk was willing to attack that. So here you have an artist who is multifaceted, not limiting his artwork to one specific area of society or one country, but really willing to take a stand wherever he thought injustice was raising it’s evil head.

His work was… I think they gave him free license to create what he wished to do. I mean, many of his works were appearing in left-wing, at that time left-wing, journals. And they would be in PM. They would be in the New York Post. They would be in Esquire magazine. They would be on the covers of Collier’s. In other words, Szyk’s artwork was fitting the place that was willing to publish his art.

Now, of course he would create artworks also that would attack racism and some people weren’t going to be publishing it. But he created an amazing piece that’s even after the wars over in 1949, where he’s attacking lynching in America. And there’s a great piece of a Black soldier, a hero during World War II, who was wearing a Purple Heart cross around his neck, and his hands are tied behind him. And standing over his shoulder are two members of the Klu Klux Klan. And Szyk’s caption on this piece is, it takes a caption from the Book of Luke and he flips it on his head and Szyk’s words are, “Do not forgive them, oh Lord, for they know what they do.” And that work of art was published in a newspaper called The Compass. It was the Sunday Compass in 1949. And Szyk would take the strongest of stands and his work would be published. So I think that was the kind of man he was. That was the convincing man he was. And that was the attention that he paid to issues that he thought were the right issues to be addressed in the manner in which he addressed them.

It turns out that, in 1949, sweeping across America was this fear of communism. The House on Un-American Activities led by Senator Joseph McCarthy was formed. And Szyk, together with other great writers and playwrights and artists, were all investigated by the House on Un-American Activities. This had to tear Szyk apart because, you have to understand, that he came here to the land of his ideals. What was Szyk’s response to being investigated by the House on Un-American Activities? It was then in 1949 and ’50 that he created his greatest Americana. And one of those works of art was the Four Freedoms Prayer. In it we have a prayer and it’s all written by hand in calligraphy. And Szyk always create both the art and he was also the scribe. So he created both. This is a prayer that’s ascribed quite often to Thomas Jefferson. We’re not quite sure of its origins. But this is a national prayer for freedom that is on the left-hand side of this image.

And then around the borders of the illumination itself are the Four Freedoms that go around the border. And in the center of it you’ll find Virgin Mary holding Jesus, as this indicate the birth of the nation. And together with them, you’ll find the Black man, and the Jew, and the Anglo-Saxon Protestant who is there. All three men, all three individuals, are bringing the gifts to the new nation that’s to be born of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And so what Szyk has tried to do is to bring to life the greatness of America through this Four Freedoms Prayer.

The idea that someone can discover who Arthur Szyk is, to learn of an advocate for his own people, to learn how one can use their value system in caring about their own people to be an advocate for humanity at large, this to me is a genius of Arthur Szyk. I think what he’s really saying is that no matter what your tradition is, whether you’re a Christian or a Muslim or a Jew, use the work for your own people, but use the best of that tradition to help make the world a better place. I think that’s who Arthur Szyk is. I think his message is directed to each of us. I think he tried to show it during his lifetime. And that’s why I believe that his art, really, while it addressed issues of its own day, were really issues that are, really, issues for all time. And I think in Szyk, we do find an artist for all time.