[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 165 (Friday, November 19, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2479]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    ARTHUR SZYK: ARTIST FOR FREEDOM

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                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, November 18, 1999

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, Arthur Szyk is considered by many scholars 
to be the greatest illuminator who worked in the twentieth century in 
the style of sixteenth-century miniaturist painters. The Times of 
London described his Haggadah as ``worthy to be placed among the most 
beautiful of books that the hand of man has produced.'' He is indeed 
one of the most remarkable and talented artists of this century. Arthur 
Szyk's works on George Washington and the American Revolution hung in 
the White House during the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 
and these works are now on display at the Roosevelt Presidential 
Library at Hyde Park, New York. In recognition of his talent and 
commitment, the U.S. Congress presented Arthur Szyk the George 
Washington Bicentennial Medal in 1934.
  Mr. Speaker, Arthur Szyk was not just an artist, he was an artist 
with a point of view, and he used his art to speak out for freedom and 
democratic values. He was the leading political artist in America 
during World War II, and he wielded his pen and his brush as a sword in 
the fight against Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. During the war, his 
caricatures and cartoons appeared on the front covers of many of 
America's leading magazines--Colliers, Esquire, Time--where his graphic 
political editorials and brilliant parodies lampooned the Nazi and Axis 
leaders. His art seethed with mockery and scorn for the Fascist 
dictators. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt called Szyk a ``one-man army 
against Hitler.'' As Szyk himself said, ``Art is not my aim, it is my 
means.''
  In addition to his art advancing the fight against Germany and Japan, 
he used his art to attack racism, bigotry and inhumanity at all levels. 
He sought to close the gaps between Blacks and Whites, between Jews and 
non-Jews. He defended the rights of the soldier, and he expressed 
sympathy and compassion for the victims and refugees of war-torn 
Europe.
  Mr. Speaker, Arthur Szyk was born in Lodz Poland in 1894. He came to 
the United States in 1940 sent here by the Polish government-in-exile 
and by the government of Great Britain with a mission to bring the face 
of the war in Europe to the American public. That he did with great 
skill and vision. He remained in the United States, became an American 
citizen, and died in New York City in 1951.
  Mr. Speaker, I wish to call the attention of my colleagues to an 
excellent exhibit of the work of Arthur Szyk which will open in just a 
few days. The exhibit ``Arthur Szyk: Artist for Freedom'' will be on 
display in the Swann Gallery of the Jefferson Building of the Library 
of Congress from December 9, 1999 through May 6, 2000. I urge my 
colleagues to visit this exhibit, which is literally across the street 
from this Chamber. Arthur Szyk is one of the great artists of this 
century, and his art not only reflected and helped to define a critical 
period in the history of our nation, his art also helped to rally 
Americans in the fight for freedom and against brutal tyranny during 
World War II.

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