37 Facts About Arthur Szyk

Arthur Szyk became a renowned artist and book illustrator as early as the interwar period.

Arthur Szyk's works were exhibited and published in Poland and France, the United Kingdom, Israel and the United States.

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

Arthur Szyk showed artistic talent as a child; when he was six, he reportedly drew sketches of the Boxer Rebellion in China.

In Paris, Arthur Szyk was exposed to all modern trends in art; however, he decided to follow his way, which hewed closely to tradition.

Arthur Szyk was especially attracted by the medieval art of illuminating manuscripts, which greatly influenced his later works.

Arthur Szyk used the time spent in the Imperial Russian army to draw Russian soldiers and published these drawings as postcards in the same year.

Arthur Szyk drew himself as one of the characters in the Book of Esther.

Arthur Szyk's drawings were purchased by the Minister of Education and Fine Arts Anatole de Monzie and the New York businessman Harry Glemby.

Arthur Szyk often visited his home country, illustrated books, and exhibited his works there.

Postcards with reproductions of Arthur Szyk's illustrations were published in Krakow around 1927.

In recognition of his work, Arthur Szyk was decorated with the Gold Cross of Merit by the Polish government.

Arthur Szyk's art became even more politically engaged when Adolf Hitler took power in Germany in 1933.

Arthur Szyk started drawing caricatures of Germany's Fuhrer as early as 1933; probably the first was a pencil drawing of Hitler dressed as an ancient Egyptian pharaoh.

The antisemitic politics in Germany led Arthur Szyk to introduce some contemporary elements to it.

In 1937, Arthur Szyk went to London to supervise the publication of the Haggadah.

Arthur Szyk drew more and more caricatures directed at the Axis powers and their leaders, and his popularity steadily grew.

Arthur Szyk agreed, and the result was the 1941 book The New Order, available months before the United States joined the war.

Arthur Szyk's designs are as compact as a bomb, extraordinarily lucid in statement, firm and incisive in line, and deadly in their characterizations.

At the beginning of July 1940, with the support of the British government and the Polish government-in-exile, Arthur Szyk left Britain for North America, on assignment to popularize in the New World the struggle of the British and Polish nations against Nazism.

Arthur Szyk became an immensely popular artist in his new home country the war, especially after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the entry of the United States into the war.

Arthur Szyk criticized the United Kingdom for its policies in the Middle East, especially its practice of imposing limits on Jewish emigration to Palestine.

Arthur Szyk criticized the apparent passivity of American-Jewish organizations towards the tragedy of their European fellows.

Arthur Szyk supported the work of Hillel Kook, known as Peter Bergson, a member of the Zionist organization Irgun, who mounted a publicity campaign in American society whose aim was to draw the American public's attention to the fate of the European Jews.

Arthur Szyk illustrated for example full-page advertisements which were published in The New York Times.

Arthur Szyk's drawing from 1944 already depicts outright a soldier of the Moscow-supported People's Army of Poland next to a Red Army soldier, both liberating Poland.

Some books illustrated by Arthur Szyk were published posthumously, including The Arabian Nights Entertainments and The Book of Esther.

Arthur Szyk was commissioned by Canadian entrepreneur and stamp connoisseur, Kasimir Bileski, to create illustrations for the Visual History of Nations series of stamps; though the project never came to fruition, Szyk did design stamp album frontispieces for more than a dozen countries, including the United States, Poland, the United Kingdom, and Israel.

Arthur Szyk was granted American citizenship on May 22,1948, but he reportedly experienced the happiest day in his life eight days earlier: on May 14, the day of the announcement of the Israeli Declaration of Independence.

Arthur Szyk commemorated that event by creating the richly decorated illumination of the Hebrew text of the declaration.

Arthur Szyk himself repudiated these accusations of alleged sympathy for communism; his son George sent Judge Simon Rifkind a memorandum outlining his father's innocence.

Arthur Szyk died of a heart attack in New Canaan on September 13,1951.

Arthur Szyk was eulogized by Rabbi Ben Zion Bokser, who said:.

Arthur Szyk was a great man, a champion of justice, a fearless warrior in the cause of every humanitarian endeavor.

Arthur Szyk's art was his tool and he used it brilliantly.

The immense popularity Arthur Szyk enjoyed in the United States and Europe in his lifetime gradually flagged after his death.