Father, Do Not Forgive Them, For They Know What They Do.

[wm]

Artur Szyk was an illuminator, illustrator, and caricaturist, one of the great artists of the 20th century.
He was born in Łódź, in a wealthy family, studied in Académie Julian in France and in Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków.

A Polish patriot, he volunteered during the Polish–Soviet War, and served first as an artistic director of the Polish Army Department of Propaganda, later as a cavalry officer.

At the beginning of July 1940 he was sent to the United States by the British Government, and the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile, with the task of influence the public opinion and popularize the struggle with the Nazism there.
He became immensely popular almost immediately, it was said Hitler himself put a bounty on his head because of his works.
During the war he produced hundreds of caricatures and editorial cartoons, more than two dozen exhibitions of Szyk’s caricatures were organized at fine art galleries and museums nationwide. His work appeared on the cover of Time, Colliers and other popular magazines.
Eleanor Roosevelt described him as a "one man army."

At the same time, in his own words:

In March 1943 my beloved seventy-year-old mother, Eugenia Szyk, was taken from the ghetto of Łódz to the Nazi furnaces of Majdanek. With her, voluntarily went her faithful servant the good Christian, Józefa, a Polish peasant.
Together, hand in hand, they were burned alive.

Father, Do Not Forgive Them, For They Know What They Do.jpg (84.47 KiB) Viewed 4825 times

Poland, Christ of Nations.jpg (53.07 KiB) Viewed 4825 times

The German Authority in Poland.jpg (55.71 KiB) Viewed 4825 times

Poland Has Not Yet Perished, And Never Will.jpg (102.45 KiB) Viewed 4825 times

sources: 1, 2, 3.

[wm]

Das Herrenvolk -1939.jpg (92.85 KiB) Viewed 4823 times

[wm]

Details from "Satan Leads the Ball":

4.jpg (26.34 KiB) Viewed 4817 times

3.jpg (84.29 KiB) Viewed 4817 times

5.jpg (141.86 KiB) Viewed 4817 times

2.jpg (26.87 KiB) Viewed 4817 times

[wm]

Enlumineur (1935).gif (257.9 KiB) Viewed 4749 times

Arthur Szyk, self-portrait.
The medals: Polish Gold Cross of Merit, L'Ordre des Palmes Académiques, George Washington Bicentennial.
The fantasy coats of arms: Jerusalem, Łódź (ship) - his birthplace.

Arthur Szyk - April 1945.jpg (148.42 KiB) Viewed 4749 times

family.jpg (44.27 KiB) Viewed 4749 times

wife Julia Likerman - an actress, son George (born 1917), daughter Alexandra (1922).

parents.jpg (127.45 KiB) Viewed 4749 times

his father Solomon (died 1922),
mother Eugenia, deported 10.9.42, listed as housewife,
brother Bernard (in the middle), deported 28.12.42, listed as clerk,
both died in gas vans of the Chełmno extermination camp.

[wm]

The Order.jpg (111.3 KiB) Viewed 4746 times

Samson in the Ghetto (the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising - 1943), the edge inscription reads:
to the german people
sons of cain
be ye damned for ever and ever
amen

Jesus Christ, the Ten Commandments.jpg (117.54 KiB) Viewed 4746 times

De profundis (1943):
Cain, Where is Abel thy brother?

[wm]

His ticket to fame was the made at the end of the twenties Statute of Kalisz. Before he was just a recognized artist, after the greatest illuminator since the medieval times, a master of miniature painting and calligraphy.
It was a medieval-style 45-page manuscript showing the contribution made by the Jews to Polish history, till the 17th century the most tolerant country in Europe, paradisus Iudaeorum - paradise for the Jews.

With the support and sponsorship of the Polish government the manuscript was shown for years at numerous exhibitions in Poland and abroad. In recognition for his work for the country Szyk was awarded the Gold Cross of Merit, the highest civilian award in Poland.

The pages are small - no larger than a hand in width, but extremely detailed and colorful. They say he frequently painted with a single bristle from an artist brush. To see the beauty the $100 copies of the Statute are barely adequate, quality begins at $500 per page.

Plate three: the Jews were granted their rights in 1264, confirmed in 1334, 1447, 1467.

Plate six: the Jews - the kingdom's moneyers and bankers.

Plate seven: the indispensable Jewish craftsmen.

Plate eight: Jewish traders/exporters in Polish Danzig. The traders, exports, Danzig were the backbone of the Polish economy. By then the multi-ethnic country was one of the largest, and most populous in Europe.

Plate nine: the Jews - the Polish kings' doctors.
But here sent by Roxelana, the most powerful woman in Ottoman Empire's history, to the dying Polish queen Barbara Radziwiłł.

source: Artur Szyk Statut Kaliski.

[Halle]

wm , thank you for posting - a very interesting story , and the most beautiful artwork .

[wm]

1794: the first Jewish military formation in modern history, the cavalry regiment of colonel Berek Joselewicz was wiped out defending the Polish capital against the Russian hordes led by Aleksandr Suvorov. A few hours later the Russian troops in an orgy of killing, rape and looting slaughtered twenty thousand defenceless citizens of Warsaw.

Below: the last stand of the Light Cavalry Old Law Regiment.

1861: in Warsaw the Russian troops opened fire on a peaceful demonstration of Poles and Jews, killing a hundred and wounding many more.

In an act of defiance a Jewish student Michał Landy is lifting high the Holy Cross taken from the hands of a dying priest. He himself was mortally wounded a few seconds later.

1861.jpg (122.62 KiB) Viewed 4576 times

1905: the Russian revolution directed against Tsar’s incompetent dictatorship spread to all parts of the empire. Szyk's birthplace - Łódź was a hotbed of revolutionary activity. His father - a brutal factory administrator lost sight after being attacked by his own workers.

Polish and Jewish revolutionaries on the barricades of Łódź.

1915: heroic death of the legionary Bronisław Mansperl in the battle of Kukle.
A Jewish student of medicine, lieutenant of the I Brigade of Piłsudski's Legions. As Joselewicz, a knight of the Virtuti Militari Cross - Poland's highest, wartime only, military decoration.
At that time most of the future Polish political and military leaders were officers in this brigade.

source: Artur Szyk Statut Kaliski.

[wm]

A postcard sold during the exhibitions, the handwriting says disappointingly It's from an exhibition.

postcard.jpg (85.83 KiB) Viewed 4450 times

source: http://www.kedem-auctions.com/en/Items/ ... z%E2%80%9D

A better version of the family photo above, Paris (1929).
It's said he lived on bread and water especially in Paris, but here the poverty doesn't seem particularly crippling.

with his wife in Kraków (1932):

in London (1932), the albino looking man in the center is the Polish ambassador to Britain, former Minister of Foreign Affairs - Konstanty Skirmunt. On his right Nahum Sokolow - president of the World Zionist Congress, born in Poland.

one of the exhibitions (1936), with Szyk's inscription to the largest Polish daily IKC (the photographs are from its photo archive).

[wm]

In the photo above In front of him are paintings from Statute of Kalisz.
In his hands he's holding a painting from his next work Covenant of the League of Nations. He abandoned the project early in disappointment at the utter ineptness of that organization.
Below another page from that work:

source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/rocor/set ... l/?page=11

[wm]

Poland welcomes its good old neighbors:

Польшу приветствуют ее старые добрые соседи (1939).jpg (60.09 KiB) Viewed 4266 times

Lebensraum (brothers in arms):

Companions - four death riders:

Two comrades:

Stalin pays respects to his executioners:

stalin.jpg (41.59 KiB) Viewed 4266 times

source:http://tipolog.livejournal.com/25260.html

[wm]

1941.jpg (79.15 KiB) Viewed 3967 times

source: 1, 2, and the same as above

[wm]

Pearl Harbor I.jpg (111.48 KiB) Viewed 3685 times

Pearl Harbor II.jpg (25.66 KiB) Viewed 3685 times

[ChristopherPerrien]

Beautiful/Powerful illustrations, I was not aware, I will look into this man further.
, no mere copyist.

I don't like the "red letter" Gospel quote as a topic header/title .It should have been changed immediately as it was presented. It is as inappropriate, as using a quote out of the Torah/Talmud or the Koran, or etc.

I will ask, "Did this man consider himself Christian or Jewish" ?


Chris

[wm]

Well, those are his words, his hate, his feelings - do not forgive them, the Russian hordes, sons of Cain, the Pearl Harbor bat, the grotesque faces of the Japanese because he so strongly identified with their Chinese victims.
He wasn't just a propagandist for hire, he really hate those people, who destroyed almost everything he valued in life.
It's like those slave workers laughing and applauding as the carpet bombings of Dresden were progressing - you can't show that writing some political correct, sensitive, soothing to the soul words. It's all about hate.

He considered himself a Jew, and his greatest works are purely Jewish.