Fairfield University to display art of WWII political cartoonist

Arthur Szyk, Madness, 1941, watercolor, gouache, ink, and graphite on paper. Courtesy of Taube Family Arthur Szyk Collection, The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, University of California, Berkeley.

Contributed photo/Taube Family Arthur Szyk Collection, The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, University of California, Berkeley

Arthur Szyk, Madness, 1941; Arthur Szyk, “Untitled [Polish Soldier and Peasant],” 1940. Contributed Photo/Taube Family Arthur Szyk Collection, The Magnes Collection Of Jewish Art And Life, University Of California, Berkeley
Arthur Szyk, Madness, 1941; Arthur Szyk, “Untitled [Polish Soldier and Peasant],” 1940. Contributed Photo/Taube Family Arthur Szyk Collection, The Magnes Collection Of Jewish Art And Life, University Of California, Berkeley

An exhibition showcasing the work of artist and political cartoonist Arthur Szyk will be on display at the Fairfield University Art Museum starting Sept. 29, the university announced in a news release.

Szyk — a Polish immigrant who worked and died in New Canaan in 1951 — was one of America’s most famous caricaturists during World War II, according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. His anti-Nazi art aimed to mobilize American support for the rescue of Europe’s Jewish population during the Holocaust and his images made the covers of leading publications like “Time,” “Collier’s” and “Esquire.”

The exhibition “In Real Times. Arthur Szyk – Artist and Soldier for Human Rights” will present over 50 original pieces that Szyk created between 1926 and 1951, the university said in a news release. His work will be divided into six sections focused on different types of human rights in the 20th century, and the display will highlight issues that are still relevant today, according to the release.

“This important exhibition will allow the museum to so something it does very well, and that is to be a place where difficult conversations can take place. Szyk’s work will prompt frank discussion about antisemitism and the memory of the Holocaust at a time when antisemitism is once again on the rise in our country,” Carey Weber, executive director of the Fairfield University Art Museum, said in the news release.

Arthur Szyk, Israel (Heritage of the Nations series), 1948, watercolor and gouache, pen and ink and pencil on board. Courtesy of Taube Family Arthur Szyk Collection, The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, University of California, Berkeley.

Arthur Szyk (1894-1951)/Taube Family Arthur Szyk Collection, The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, University of California, Berkeley

Arthur Szyk, Thomas Jefferson’s Oath, 1951, watercolor, gouache, ink, and colored pencil on board. Courtesy of Taube Family Arthur Szyk Collection, The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, University of California, Berkeley.

Contributed photo/Taube Family Arthur Szyk Collection, The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, University of California, Berkeley.

Connecticut Humanities, a nonprofit that collaborates with the state to fund cultural programs and projects, granted the museum $30,000 to present the exhibit, the largest of Szyk’s work in the Northeast in over 50 years, according to the news release. The grant also allows the museum to host free programs that discuss themes presented in the exhibit, Weber added.

Szyk was born in a Jewish family in Poland and he emigrated from London to America at the beginning of World War II. Apart from his World War II political art, he is also known for his depiction of the Haggadah, the text read aloud at Passover Seder dinner.

According to the university, during World War II, he was one of the first public figures to take direct action in bringing attention to the Holocaust and his work was praised by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt as a weapon “against Hitlerism. His cartoons exposed human rights violations and advocated for religious and racial equality.

Szyk and his family moved to New Canaan in 1945 and he was later commissioned to illustrate works like “Andersen’s Fairy Tales” and “The Canterbury Tales.” In 1951, he was named by the House of Un-American Activities Committee as a suspected Communist, but he denied the accusations. He died Sept. 13 that year of a heart attack at 57.

Arthur Szyk, Defenders of Warsaw, 1939, watercolor, gouache, ink, and graphite on paper. Courtesy of Taube Family Arthur Szyk Collection, The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, University of California, Berkeley.

Contributed photo/Taube Family Arthur Szyk Collection, The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, University of California, Berkeley

The exhibit will be open to the public Sept. 29 through Dec. 16 at Fairfield University Art Museum’s Bellarmine Hall Galleries. An adjunct immersive exhibit, “Szyk: Interactive Experience,” will open on the same day in the Museum’s Walsh Gallery and will include a screening room with films about his life.

The exhibition was organized by Dr. Philip Eliasoph, a professor of art history and visual culture at Fairfield University, and was co-sponsored by the Bennett Center for Judaic Studies, the Center for Jewish History in New York and the Jewish Federation of Greater Fairfield County. The display originally opened in May 2021 and was organized by the University of California, Berkeley. It was on view at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, La., before moving to Fairfield University, its only stop in Northeast, according to Fairfield University.