Arthur Szyk

Arthur Szyk (June 16, 1894 – September 13, 1951) was a graphic artist, book illustrator, stage designer and caricaturist. Arthur Szyk was born into a Jewish family in Łódź, in the part of Poland which was under Russian rule in the 19th century. He always regarded himself both as a Pole and a Jew. From 1921, he lived and created his works mainly in France and Poland, and in 1937 he moved to the United Kingdom. In 1940, he settled permanently in the United States, where he was granted American citizenship in 1948.

Arthur Szyk became a renowned graphic artist and book illustrator as early as the interwar period – his works were exhibited and published not only in Poland, but also in France, the United Kingdom, Israel and the United States. However, he gained real popularity through his war caricatures, in which, after the outbreak of World War II, he depicted the leaders of the Axis powers. After the war, he also devoted himself to political issues, this time supporting the creation 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 drawing on the traditions of medieval and renaissance painting, especially illuminated manuscripts from those periods. Unlike most caricaturists, Szyk always showed great attention to the colouristic effects and details in his works.

Today, Szyk is a well-known and often exhibited artist only in his last home country – the United States. In Europe, since the late 1990s exhibitions of his art has been mounted in the Polish cities of Kraków, Warsaw and Łódź, as well as in Berlin, Germany. The recent publication of a Polish-language edition Szyk's biography and public broadcasts of the documentary film Arthur Szyk - Illuminator (Marta TV & Film, Telewizja Polska (Łódź), 2005) also have improved Szyk's stature in his mother country, Poland.