Zooming in teaching online with the exhibition in real times_ arthur szyk, art & human rights_
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This document discusses an online presentation by Francesco Spagnolo on the Magnes exhibition "In Real Times. Arthur Szyk, Art & Human Rights". The presentation provides an overview of artist Arthur Szyk and his work combating antisemitism and raising awareness of the Holocaust. It highlights some of Szyk's illustrations from the 1940s that brought attention to the plight of European Jews. Videos are included of scholars discussing Szyk's work and influence. The presentation aims to teach about the exhibition online and provides links to additional exhibition resources.
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Zooming in teaching online with the exhibition in real times_ arthur szyk, art & human rights_
- 1. Zooming In Teaching Online with the Magnes Exhibition In Real Times. Arthur Szyk, Art & Human Rights Francesco Spagnolo, PhD Curator The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life UC Berkeley
- 2. Arthur Szyk (Łódź, Poland, 1894 – New Canaan, Connecticut, 1951)
- 3. Breaking a visual “fourth wall” Arthur Szyk English dedicatory page for The Haggadah London 1940
- 4. A long lasting impact Arthur Szyk Ink and Blood, A Book of Drawings New York: The Heritage Press 1946 Art Spiegelman (b. 1948) Maus (1980-1991), vol. 2, p. 41
- 6. Collection Background Taube Family Arthur Szyk Collection established at The Magnes thanks to an unprecedented gift (Spring 2017) Ingredients ● Item 1 ● Item 2 ● Item 3 Preparation 1. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit 2. Sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et 3. Dolore magna aliqua
- 9. Chronologies & Contexts Ingredients ● Item 1 ● Item 2 ● Item 3 Preparation 1. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit 2. Sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et 3. Dolore magna aliqua
- 11. Let’s “Zoom” In Miniature Art & the Magnitude of History Most of Arthur Szyk’s artwork is not bigger than the size of the laptop you are likely watching this presentation from...
- 12. Making the Holocaust Known in America (Fall 1942-Spring 1943) “Friday, June 26 [1942] ...This morning, the English radio broadcast about the fate of Polish Jewry… For long months we had been suffering because the world was deaf and dumb to our unparalleled tragedy… But now it seems that all our interventions have finally achieved their purpose.” Emanuel Ringelblum, Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto (1958)
- 13. We Will Never Die A musical stage performance with a large cast and orchestra, raised awareness among Americans about the murder of European Jews. It was performed in many cities during the spring and summer of 1943, from Madison Square Garden to the Hollywood Bowl Ben Hecht | Peter Bergson | Kurt Weill | Arthur Szyk | Billy Rose | Moss Hart & others…
- 14. Ballad of the Doomed Jews of Europe [by Ben Hecht], New York, March 1943 The Answer, April 1943
- 15. Literary Narrative (Hecht) Left-to-right, top-to-bottom
- 17. 2 3
- 18. On the music stand: “The Four Freedoms” (Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1941): Freedom of speech | Freedom of worship | Freedom from want | Freedom from fear 4
- 19. De Profundis. Cain, Where is Abel Thy Brother?, New York, 1943 Chicago Sun, Feb. 1943
- 23. To be shot, as dangerous enemies of the Third Reich New York, 1943 (also on fundraising stamps booklet, 1944)
- 24. Scholar Deborah Lipstadt talks about Arthur Szyk
- 25. Seeing the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (April 19-May 16, 1943) “On April 19th, 1943, at 2 am, the first messages concerning the Germans' approach arrived from our outermost observation posts... At 7 o'clock... the SS-men... marched into the seemingly dead streets of the central ghetto. Their triumph appeared to be complete… But no, they did not scare us and we were not taken by surprise.” Marek Edelman, “The Ghetto Fights” (ca. 1988)
- 26. The Repulsed Attack (from "The Songs of the Ghetto") New York, 1943 My People. Samson in the Ghetto (The Battle of the Warsaw Ghetto) New York, 1945
- 28. Szyk’s Hitler "Half-way through making The Great Dictator, I began receiving alarming messages… that I would run into censorship trouble... But I was determined to go ahead, for Hitler must be laughed at." Charlie Chaplin, My Autobiography (1964)
- 29. Madness New York, September 1941 Published on the cover of Collier’s
- 32. Charlie Chaplin, The Great Dictator (1940): globe scene
- 33. Chaplin’s Regret “Had I known of the actual horrors of the German concentration camps, I could not have made The Great Dictator, I could not have made fun of the homicidal insanity of the Nazis.” Charlie Chaplin, My Autobiography (1964)
- 34. Taika Waititi, Jojo Rabbit (2019): "running with Adolf"
- 36. Walhalla G.m.b.H. (The Niebelungen, Valhalla) New York, 1942 Cosmopolitan, 1943
- 39. Joseph Goebbels quote controversy: Brazil culture chief Roberto Alvim sparks anger in video EuroNews YouTube Channel (1.17.2020)
- 40. In Real Times: Exhibition Resources Online The basics ● Arthur Szyk: Art & Human Rights | Chronology ● Exhibition webpage ● Exhibition Catalog (PDF) Images Video ● Exhibition Images ● Exhibition Installation photos ● Digital Humanities Tools ● Video Resources (YouTube Playlist) ● Deborah Lipstadt (Emory) ● Barbara Kirshenblatt- Gimblett (NYU & Polin Museum)
- 41. Zooming In Teaching Online with the Magnes Exhibition In Real Times. Arthur Szyk, Art & Human Rights Francesco Spagnolo, PhD Curator The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life UC Berkeley Still want more? magnes.berkeley.edu
Editor's Notes
- Born into a middle-class Polish Jewish family, Arthur Szyk (Łódź, Poland, 1894 – New Canaan, Connecticut, 1951) lived a life framed by two world wars, the collapse of European democracies, and the rise of totalitarianism. A refugee, he ultimately settled in the United States in 1940. Throughout his work as a miniature artist and political caricaturist, he used motifs drawn from religion, history, politics, and culture, pairing extraordinary craftsmanship with searing commentary on a diverse range of subjects including Judaism, the American Revolution, the Second World War, the Holocaust, and the founding of the State of Israel.
- English dedication (1936) "At the feet of your most gracious Majesty I humbly lay these works of my hands, shelving forth the Afflictions of my People Israel. Arthur Szyk, Illuminator of Poland."
- Ink and Blood Magnes Accession nos: 2017.5.2.166 and 2017.5.2.167
- The exhibition showcases over fifty original works of art from the Taube Family Arthur Szyk Collection, acquired by The Magnes in 2017. It also includes two interactive workstations. Visitors can explore Szyk’s miniatures in high resolution, reconstructing the artist’s gaze through a “digital magnifying glass,” and are encouraged to remix and repurpose individual elements, characters, and motifs drawn from the Collection, and create new cartoons. This work is projected on large wall surfaces within the gallery itself, and can be instantly published online, giving the contemporary exploration and reinterpretation of Szyk’s art a broad audience “in real time.”
- A poignant example of digital research into Szyk’s original artwork: isolating (“cropping”) individual visual elements (Adobe Photoshop) and creating a digital animation (Adobe After Effects and Premiere).
- A poignant example of digital research into Szyk’s original artwork: isolating (“cropping”) individual visual elements (Adobe Photoshop) and creating a digital animation (Adobe After Effects and Premiere).
- Arthur Szyk’s artistic life intersected with the domino effect of European democracies collapsing in the hands of authoritarian and Fascist regimes. This collapse brought about the collapse of global human rights, which the international community attempted to restore in the aftermaths of WW2. Broad concerns for human rights are woven into Szyk’s entire production. In paintings and political cartoons, the artist exposed the Nazi genocide, supported the Polish resistance, exalted the establishment of the United Nations, and ridiculed dictators of all stripes. His unwavering denunciation of Fascist crimes in Europe, the suppression of national rights worldwide, and the endless violations of civil rights in America, are rooted in the experience of marginalization that characterized Jewish life in Eastern Europe in modern times. In our times, these concerns are still resounding strongly.
- An overview of the exhibition is provided through beautiful installation images, available online via Flickr.com.
- In the wake of news reporting the mass extermination of Jews in Eastern Europe (by BBC radio in June of 1942, and by the Washington Post and other print outlets in November of the same year), Hollywood screenwriter Ben Hecht (1893-1964) wrote an article exposing Nazi crimes that was eventually excerpted in Readers’ Digest, thus reaching a wide readership. Hecht also co-authored We Will Never Die, a dramatic pageant staged as part of a sold-out rally that took place in Madison Square Garden (March 9, 1943), raising the awareness of Nazi crimes among Americans. The rally had been planned by the "Committee for a Jewish Army of Stateless and Palestinian Jews," one of several organizations created on behalf of the Revisionist Zionist movement by the activist Peter H. Bergson (born Hillel Kook, 1915-2001). Szyk created the cover art for the pageant, and also illustrated a poem by Hecht, titled Ballad of the Doomed Jews of Europe, for a Zionist magazine (The Answer, April 1943). Szyk’s illustrations dramatically depicted an emergency telephone call made from Europe to the United Nations going unanswered. The poem also appeared in the New York Times, in an ad purchased by Bergson's Committee (September 1943).
- The narrative in Ben Hecht’s poem proceeds from top to bottom
- The visual narrative in Arthur Szyk’s artwork proceeds from the bottom right of the page, surrounding the text of Hecht’s poem, and ends at the top right of the page.
- A visual meditation on the massacre of Jews during the Second World War, featuring motifs drawn from classical Jewish and Christian texts. The Latin title, De Profundis ("out of the depths," Ps. 130), written at the top, is followed by a question in English: "Cain, where is Abel thy brother?" (Genesis 4:9). Within the words of the title are visual and textual quotations from both the Hebrew Bible and the Gospels. Jewish victims are depicted as piles of bodies, which prominently feature Jesus holding the Tablets listing the Ten Commandments in Hebrew, and men, women, and children dressed in both secular and religious garments. The drawing was first published in the Chicago Sun in February of 1943.
- Hidden in plain sight: a memento mori, an angel, and Job crying “Eli Eli” (my god, my god)
- * To Be Shot, as Dangerous Enemies of the Third Reich!, New York, 1943 https://flic.kr/p/2hDnAW8 Also used in this fundraising brochure of the Emergency Committee to Save The Jewish People of Europe (1943-1945; same organization that produced We Will Never Die) * Save Human Lives [Stamps booklet], New York, 1944 https://flic.kr/p/2iQ51AV
- This exhibition showcases over fifty original works of art from the Taube Family Arthur Szyk Collection, acquired by The Magnes in 2017. It also includes two interactive workstations. Visitors can explore Szyk’s miniatures in high resolution, reconstructing the artist’s gaze through a “digital magnifying glass,” and are encouraged to remix and repurpose individual elements, characters, and motifs drawn from the Collection, and create new cartoons. This work is projected on large wall surfaces within the gallery itself, and can be instantly published online, giving the contemporary exploration and reinterpretation of Szyk’s art a broad audience “in real time.”
- The Warsaw Ghetto uprising broke out on April 19, and continued until May 16, 1943, when the German troops left the ghetto in ruins and deported the last survivors. Jewish resistance organizations involved in the uprising spanned the entire spectrum of political activism in the ghetto. They included the left-wing Zionist Jewish Combat Organization (Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa, or ZOB) and the Jewish Military Union (Zydowski Zwiazek Wojskowy, or ZZW), which was led by members of Betar, the youth group of the Revisionist Zionist movement, with logistical support provided by the Home Army (Armia Krajowa, or AK), one of the national resistance groups established in Poland in 1940. In his depictions of the uprising, Arthur Szyk portrayed some of its military leaders, including Mordecai Anielewicz (1919-1943; ZOB) and Dawid Wdowiński (1895-1970; ZZW).
- The Warsaw Ghetto uprising broke out on April 19, and continued until May 16, 1943, when the German troops left the ghetto in ruins and deported the last survivors. Jewish resistance organizations involved in the uprising spanned the entire spectrum of political activism in the ghetto. They included the left-wing Zionist Jewish Combat Organization (Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa, or ZOB) and the Jewish Military Union (Zydowski Zwiazek Wojskowy, or ZZW), which was led by members of Betar, the youth group of the Revisionist Zionist movement, with logistical support provided by the Home Army (Armia Krajowa, or AK), one of the national resistance groups established in Poland in 1940. In his depictions of the uprising, Arthur Szyk portrayed some of its military leaders, including Mordecai Anielewicz (1919-1943; ZOB) and Dawid Wdowiński (1895-1970; ZZW).
- The Warsaw Ghetto uprising broke out on April 19, and continued until May 16, 1943, when the German troops left the ghetto in ruins and deported the last survivors. Jewish resistance organizations involved in the uprising spanned the entire spectrum of political activism in the ghetto. They included the left-wing Zionist Jewish Combat Organization (Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa, or ZOB) and the Jewish Military Union (Zydowski Zwiazek Wojskowy, or ZZW), which was led by members of Betar, the youth group of the Revisionist Zionist movement, with logistical support provided by the Home Army (Armia Krajowa, or AK), one of the national resistance groups established in Poland in 1940. In his depictions of the uprising, Arthur Szyk portrayed some of its military leaders, including Mordecai Anielewicz (1919-1943; ZOB) and Dawid Wdowiński (1895-1970; ZZW).
- Many of Arthur Szyk's political cartoons were devoted to exposing the crimes of Adolf Hitler, his associates, and their allies. Created to achieve a great impact through the printing press in Europe and the United States, these drawings display a harrowing tension between tragedy and farce. Individuals are often portrayed with emphasized facial and bodily traits, and groups are carefully choreographed to expose inner power dynamics, political proclivities, and petty idiosyncrasies. To the historian, these portraits point to specific events in the development of the Third Reich, and the long-range effects of its crimes. To the general public, they offer a gallery of historical characters portrayed with a blend of intimacy and satire. Adolf Hitler is the undisputed archvillain of Szyk’s pictorial imagination. Just as Charlie Chaplin created a new character named Adenoid Hynkel (the dictator of “Tomania” in the 1940 movie, The Great Dictator), Szyk often referred to the tyrant with the ironic name of Schicklgruber, the surname of Hitler’s illegitimately-born father, Alois. At the same time, most of Szyk's works are also layered with nuanced aesthetic and political messages. They include sophisticated references to Nazi ideology (such as its repurposing of the German nationalist concept of Lebensraum, or “living space,” and of Wagnerian myths), to the inner politics of European Fascist regimes, and to their global impact, from North Africa to Latin America.
- In this cartoon, published on the cover of Collier’s, Nazil eaders Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), Hermann Göring (1893-1946), Heinrich Himmler (1900-1945) and Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945) stand together, pinning Nazi flags on a globe threatened by a Nazi rattlesnake. At their feet lay collaborators Philippe Pétain (1856-1951) and Benito Mussolini (1883-1945). The scene is complemented by literary quotations ranging from Dante’s Inferno to a German folk song that became the anthem of the Hitler Youth movement.
- Arthur Szyk in the Digital World Since its acquisition by The Magnes in 2017, the circa 450 works of art that are part of the Taube Family Arthur Szyk Collection have been the object of intense digital scrutiny by a team of scholars, curators, and students. Digitally investigating Szyk’s work leads to a closer understanding of the artist’s gaze, and of his methodologies. Decorative elements, frames, and a host of “characters” that populate Szyk’s painted images have been isolated, described, and digitally cropped. Some of these works have been digitally animated for this exhibition. This video, created by Tamara Berkover (UCB Economics, 2020) using Adobe software (Photoshop, After Effects, and Premiere), showcases our process and methodologies in revisiting Szyk’s art in the 21st century. It focuses on two artworks. Madness, created in 1941 for the cover of Collier’s magazine, centers on a series of haunting caricatures of Nazi leaders and their collaborators. The illustration of Szyk’s own poem, Love for Man and Nature has been My Guide (1940), celebrated Canadian involvement in the Second World War, including a host of characters representing Canada’s heritage and military might. Among these characters, Szyk added a portrait of himself as a militant artist-worker.
- In this cartoon, published on the cover of Collier’s, Nazil eaders Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), Hermann Göring (1893-1946), Heinrich Himmler (1900-1945) and Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945) stand together, pinning Nazi flags on a globe threatened by a Nazi rattlesnake. At their feet lay collaborators Philippe Pétain (1856-1951) and Benito Mussolini (1883-1945). The scene is complemented by literary quotations ranging from Dante’s Inferno to a German folk song that became the anthem of the Hitler Youth movement.
- "Half-way through making The Great Dictator, I began receiving alarming messages… that I would run into censorship trouble... But I was determined to go ahead, for Hitler must be laughed at."Charlie Chaplin, My Autobiography (1964)
- If you think that Nazi’s mythologies are no longer viable today, think again! Theater director Roberto Alvim, Special Secretary for Culture under the auspices of Brasil’s Ministry of Tourism (2019-2020), gave a speech modeled after Joseph Goebbels’, accompanied by music by Richard Wagner, only a few months ago.