| Arthur Szyk- Anti-fascist art with Curlicues | |
|
by Molly Crabapple, March 13, 2007
|
|
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Szyk because famous skewering the Axis on paper
Ruth and Naomi: Szyk's Haggadah now goes for a quarter of a million
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising: Whether making the desert bloom or fighting Nazis, Szyk's Jewish men were hot.Did you know illustrators used to be big stars? Norman Rockwell could buy a house on his fees from doing one magazine cover. Little Nemo creator Windsor McCay got to trod the boards on the vaudeville stage, just cause of his overwhelming celebrity.
It's like how we let Britney Spears act.
Now, illustrators are mostly underpaid drudges, being rapidly edged out by stock photography. But I still pine for our lost status.
At the Holocaust Museum, I found another star of illustration’s Golden Age. Arthur Szyk was a book illustrator and anti-fascist, Zionist artist whose work drips with such exoticism, such sensuality and venom, that I’ve got to show it to you now.
![]() |
Molly Crabapple is a New York artist, the author of Dr. Sketchy's Official Rainy Day Colouring Book, and the founder of an art More... |
Post new comment