Back آرثر زيك Arabic ارثر سزيك ARZ Arthur Szyk German Arthur Szyk French ארתור שיק HE Arthur Szyk NB Artur Szyk Polish Arthur Szyk Portuguese Шик, Артур Russian

Arthur Szyk

Arthur Szyk
Szyk, circa 1945
Born
Artur Szyk

(1894-06-03)3 June 1894
Łódź, Congress Poland, Russian Empire
Died13 September 1951(1951-09-13) (aged 57)
New Canaan, Connecticut, United States
Resting placeNew Montefiore Cemetery, Farmingdale, New York
NationalityPolish
American
EducationAcadémie Julian, Paris
Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts, Kraków
Known forDrawing, caricature, book illustration, illuminated manuscript, watercolor painting
Notable workStatute of Kalisz (1932); Washington and his Times (1932); Twenty Pictures from the Glorious Days of the Polish-American Fraternity (1939); The Haggadah (1940); The New Order (1941); Andersen's Fairy Tales (1945); Ink & Blood: A Book of Drawings (1946); Pathways Through the Bible (1946); Visual History of Nations (1945–1949)
AwardsOrdre des Palmes Académiques (France), 1923; Gold Cross of Merit (Poland), 1931; George Washington Bicentennial Medal (United States), 1932

Arthur Szyk (Polish: Artur Szyk [ˈar.tur ʂɨk]; see Polish phonology); June 3, 1894 – September 13, 1951[1]) was a Polish-born Jewish artist who worked primarily as a book illustrator and political artist throughout his career. Arthur Szyk was born into a prosperous middle-class Jewish family in Łódź,[2][3] in the part of Poland under Russian rule in the 19th century. An acculturated Polish Jew, Szyk always proudly regarded himself both as a Pole and a Jew.[4] From 1921, he lived and created his works mainly in France and Poland; in 1937 he moved to the United Kingdom. In 1940, he settled permanently in the United States, and was granted American citizenship in 1948.

Arthur Szyk became a renowned artist and book illustrator as early as the interwar period. His works were exhibited and published in Poland and France, the United Kingdom, Israel and the United States. However, he gained broad popularity in the United States primarily through his political caricatures, in which, after the outbreak of World War II, he savaged the policies and personalities of the leaders of the Axis powers. After the war, he also devoted himself to Zionist political issues, especially the support of the creation of the state of Israel.

Szyk's work is characterized in its material content by social and political commitment, and in its formal aspect by its rejection of modernism and embrace of the traditions of medieval and renaissance painting, especially illuminated manuscripts from those periods.

Today, Szyk is known and exhibited only in his last country of residence, the United States.

  1. ^ Miller, Rhoda (16 November 2017). "Documents as a Palette of Life: The Genealogical Self-Portrait of Arthur Szyk". The Arthur Szyk Society Art History Publication Series (4): 2.
  2. ^ "Szyk, Arthur : Benezit Dictionary of Artists - oi". oxfordindex.oup.com. doi:10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.b00178831. Archived from the original on June 15, 2018. Retrieved September 16, 2019.
  3. ^ Ansell, Joseph P. Arthur Szyk: Artist, Jew, Pole. Oxford: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2004. p. 5
  4. ^ Ansell, p. 7

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