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"An artist, and especially a Jewish artist,...
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jewish artist
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Moses, Aaron, and Hur, 1935; Detail
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...can not be neutral in these times.
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jewish artist
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He can not escape to still lifes, abstractions, and experiments.
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Szyk’s
artworks and illuminations portrayed the Jews as a heroic nation that had resisted oppression through the ages and eventually triumphed. His Jews were fighters for their own freedom and the freedom of others. Szyk sought to redefine how Jews viewed themselves and how others viewed them. His works thus challenged the notion that Jewish history was merely one long saga of suffering and recast the Jews as assertive actors in shaping their own destiny. Zionism played a crucial role in Arthur Szyk’s art and politics and his artwork glorified biblical heroes as models for the “new Jew.”
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Art that is purely cerebral
is dead. Our life
is involved in
a terrible tragedy, and I am
resolved to
serve my
people
with all
my art,
with all
my talent,
with all
my knowledge.
- Arthur Szyk, 1934
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[USHMM #25831]
Arthur Szyk (left) with his friend, Revisionist Zionist leader Vladimir (Ze'ev) Jabotinsky.
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