Antifascist collages that made Hitler crazy
RJ sez, "Very few people have heard of John Heartfield, the German born artist whose photomontages in the late nineteen thirties outraged Adolf Hitler. However, as part of the resistance against the inexorable rise of Nazism, he contributed some of the most biting satirical photographic mashups of the day - and all without the aid of Photoshop. Nice."
The Extraordinary Anti-Nazi Photomontages of John Heartfield
the latest
latest episodes
These are phenomenal.
When I studied visual communication (fancy way of saying graphic arts / graphic design) the one thing I can say I learnt is an appreciation for hand manipulated layouts, photoart, collages and text. When done well it shits all over photoshop jobs that strive for a certain aesthetic.
They're a bit wrong to use as a wallpaper, but I am anyway.
I first learned of Heartfield by way of the Slovenian industrial band/political group Laibach (
http://www.laibach.nsk.si), who have used his artwork in their albums and even have a song 'Herz-field' named after him.
Powerful images; I'm glad to see them brought to the internet.
"Very few people have heard of John Heartfield?"
Everyone who studies art, art history, history, modern literature or politics is probably aware of his phenomenal work.
He anglicized his name, originally Helmut Herzfeld, as a further protest against the Third Reich.
He and George Grosz are my favourites from the Dada movement.
Max Ernst did some crazy collage stuff from Victorian etchings that are kind of proto-Photoshop.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Une_Semaine_de_Bont%C3%A9
John Heartfield is a very influential artist and propagandist for peace. I think every photomontagist published in Maximum Rock'n'Roll or other hardcore punk zines in the 80s was straight-up mining Heartfield's claim.
I remember reading a book entitled "Art Against War" in my high school library. The image chosen for the cover was Heartfield's The Spirit of Geneva which immediatly struck me.
There was an excellent documentary, Heartfield, that aired on Ovation TV recently.
I hope they air it again so you can take a look.
there's another documentary about him titled Zygosis. it was floating around on torrent trackers some years ago. http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/453935 - sadly the dvd is listed at almost $300 :(
Yep, very famous artist!
We were all over Heartfield in high school in west philly in the late 80's, and definitely ripped him off for zines and band flyers.I bought a lush monograph on his work that came out in the mid-90's for my friend Nick that put me on to him, and he showed it to his mother-in-law, an old school German who would translate the original wording into english, muttering and clucking "ohh he shouldn't say such things"
Part of my job is doing news-related collaging so I'm kind of in awe right now.
Without a doubt Heartfield is the most influential artist of 70s and 80s punk montage. He airbrushed his own shadows and often shot his own images when he could not find the right one. He took big risks and was in a prisoner of war camp in the UK when he fled Germany. Even in the 1960s, he was still making peace posters aginst the Vietnam war. He is the man!
But did he do it without scissors??
The Getty in LA exhibited a bit of his work a few years ago. The work was incredible. The exhibit small and badly produced.
Like previous posts, I've been aware of him for decades, as I'm sure all or most punks were in the 70's. Maybe peeps don't know his name, but his work is quite ubiquitous and iconic.
J France, I like the look of work that's done by
hand, but I was just now reminded of my annoying
anal retentive Luddite typography teacher who wouldn't let us do work on computers. (Hi Brett :-)
Back in '83 or so I did some Heartfield-influenced collages for Exit, a NY-based serial art mag, and like Laibach, took off on totalitarian propaganda.
This stuff is great, but I'm not sure I get the political satire of the particular one in this post.
Is it that the Nazis were all nuts?
...
I also take issue with the claim that "very few people have heard of John Heartfield." His work is included in nearly every major survey of 20th century graphic design! He got about as much fame as one could hope for in that line of work.
Granted, even famous graphic designers rarely become household names. So maybe that should have been worded "most people haven't heard of John Heartfield..."
The name didn't ring a bell, but the images certainly did. So yes, what Brainspore said :)
Just to be clear, wasn't Hitler already crazy?
I'll add to the objections that 'few people have heard of' Heartfield. At art school in the 60s he loomed large, along with Grosz. However, I think more to the point is the 'without Photoshop' aspect of his work. P'shop is without doubt a useful tool - but that's all it is. Unfortunately, its near ubiquity is in danger of putting it in the same category as Powerpoint, a substitute for thought and originality - so it's good to see the output of scissors, scalpel and gum getting some kudos.
@Rock Steadily: The cartoon was made during the 1930s, before WWII had broken out, but at a time when the memory of WWI was still very fresh in European minds. The images on the tree - tin helmets, artillery shells and gas masks, are iconic of some of the worst of that war.
In the 1930s, the Nazi Party had just risen to power in Germany. Their "canvassers" marched around the streets in full military uniform, and physically attacked people disagreeing with their political views. It was quite clear from this, and from Hitler's own stated intentions in Mein Kampf and elsewhere, that the goal was war.
All the cartoon was saying was that Hitler was encouraging and nurturing a second world war, an idea which was anathema to many in Europe at the time. It's less satirical and more prophetic. Or, put another way, the irony wasn't intended to be funny.
Heartfields photos also illustrate a book by Kurt Tucholsky "Deutschland über alles", it was written in 1929 by a very angry man and the pictures fit it perfectly.
Strangely enough, I'm not sure if Tucholsky was ever translated into English, he should be, because he is one of the few german voices against facism, war, militarism. If you can get anything by Tucholsky, do read it, simply because he's not only political, but also entertaining and funny.
Heartfield is covered in history and in art history but not in English Lit or in technical subjects. So it's mostly a matter of which "people" you ask. ;-)
"But did he do it without scissors??"
Scalpel, cow gum, airbrush I reckon. Unless he went crazy with masking in the darkroom.
First, I would like to thanks about this article.
It is really very nice and excellent.
John Heartfield is the anglicized name of the German photomontage artist Helmut Herzfeld.
His photo montages satirising Adolf Hitler and the Nazis often subverted Nazi symbols such as the
Swastika in order to undermine their propaganda message. One of his more famous pieces, made in 1935 entitled Hurrah, die butter 1st Alle. Some another pieces like Blood and iron, Kaiser Adolf etc.
Metal Postcard on Siouxsie and the Banshees debut album The Scream is dedicated to John Heartfield.
@20 Teapunk: Tucholsky and Heartfield went together like a fist and a boxing glove.
(And, yes, there are at least a few Tucholsky readers available in English.)
See also Hannah Höch
OMG! I used to do a spoken-word poem cycle about the history of science linking each era to its humanities, and for the early 20th century I used 1920's Germany as a unifying theme. Since some people didn't understand this, I'd append a prologue where I contrasted the scientifically-minded and quite humanistic John Heartfield, who said that his heart was full of motors, to the Vegetarian New Ager from Hell, our beloved Adolf Hitler.
Few people I spoke to considered this to be ironic, in fact most would praise the rediscovery of the "gentle vegetarian pacifist", Heartfield, that spoke against the "cold scientist" Hitler. When I reiterated that it was Hitler who was the vegetarian, they'd look at me oddly. One girl, trying to keep her intellectual proggie creds at any cost, exclaimed "But Hitler used machines to fight with!"
@14 The german word eichel (acorn) can also refer to the glans penis. I'm not sure about german, but in dutch the word (eikel) is commonly used when someone is being a bit of a dick.
Glans is Latin for acorn.
Shhh, Antinous! Now everyone will know what I mean when I say I'm going out to gather acorns!
Antinous, what Hitler did was what western science was clamoring for. Now we call that madness. Back then he was practically mainstream.
Hell, people in your neck of the woods used to go out and shoot Indians for fun, and the local law enforcement permitted this in the name of "manifest destiny" and "survival of the fittest".
I suggest you read the pre-war proceedings of the Royal Society, or of the American Academy of Natural Sciences, with special attention to people like Samuel Morton and any of Galton's disciples. The white, privileged classes of America and Europe went from "pick up the white man's burden" to "improve the species by sterilising the lesser races" remarkably quickly...
Whoah! I must come here more often!
As the writer of the article, I would like to say thanks for all the comments and debate that this has stimulated. Thank you, Ls&G.
I liked comment #27 in particular. That Hitler guy was hardly (and remains so) the pinup for vegetarian politicos. In fact, the propaganda posters celebrating the end of vivisection (my mind has moved on now) in Germany are still quite startling. Contradiction in terms is not quite the word. Take a look:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AnimalRightsNaziGermany.jpg
Again - thanks.
RJ
Thanks for bringing this guy's work out back into the memesphere. I actually did my German Language senior paper (auf Deutsch) on John Heartfield, and I love his body of work.
Also notable was his use of paper stickers as vandalism--he made up bits of paper with phrases like "Dada Siegt!" (Victory to Dada or Dada Wins) and would put them on smooth surfaces using wasserglass (which at the time meant a silicon compound used as a clear adhesive) which was almost impossible to remove once dry.
So, not only did this man out-Photoshop Photoshop without Photoshop; he did sticker art way before it was hip! I highly suggest seeing his works in person if an exhibit comes to your town.
PS--MoMA did a retrospective of his stuff a few years ago; get the catalog book if you can.
Anonymous "Hell, people in your neck of the woods used to go out and shoot Indians for fun, and the local law enforcement permitted this in the name of "manifest destiny" and "survival of the fittest"."
Both terms are easily substituted with "they're in the way".
"The white, privileged classes of America and Europe went from "pick up the white man's burden" to "improve the species by sterilising the lesser races" remarkably quickly..."
1) Too bad there's more difference within races than between them, eh? "Modern" thinking just put a new "scientific" sheen on very old prejudices (see Luther).
2) Have you ever noticed how people always pick their own race as the superior one? Odd, init?
3) Didn't they find it odd that the "Aryans" were the superior "race", but they had to make the Japanese "honorary Aryans". What value is a study that fudges its numbers?
3) Lastly, how are Hitler's kids doing?
yeah, he did it with scissors!
Heartfield on show : sept 20th - jan 3th 2010
'John Heartfield - Photography as a weapon'
Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle, The Netherlands
www.museumdefundatie.nl