John Heartfield, 1891-1968

A close friend who's an accomplished artist/ graphic designer and college professor stayed over last night.

So I was explaining my recent travails with a 1930's movie poster for the documentary film Triumph of the Will, when she interrupted, "Do you know about John Heartfield?"

Never heard of him.

John Heartfield (born Helmut Herzfeld) is a giant in the world of graphic design; he was a German political satirist known for his use of Nazi iconography. Consider these works, largely photo-montages, were done long before the days of Photoshop and other tools of computer graphics.


Fancy that. The use of Nazi iconography to subvert the message of the icons themselves.

After my bout with Beth Mason's peddling of an image created for this blog to the NJDC, ADL and any other Jewish organization that would listen, that I had created "anti-Semitic art" I found his satire particularly resonant.

Because using the symbols or iconography or making reference to those icons of a movement does not make you part of that movement or philosophy.


Of course, the image-peddlers knew that.

The political calculations of the Mason-Russo hyenas of the impact of actual Nazi iconography on the politically-correct, their vulgar exploitation of sincere Holocaust sensitivities, their blind lust for another seat on Hoboken's Zoning Board, propelled their smear campaign.

But, hands caught in the NJDC cookie jar, NJDC donor Beth Mason and NJDC Board of Director Larry Stempler have a lot of explaining to do as to the chain-of-custody that got an obscure Hoboken political satirist on the pages of a Washington-PAC, and more damning, linking to Mason-tabloid Hoboken411.com.

Back to Heartfield...

From the J. Paul Getty Museum:

At a time of great uncertainty, Heartfield's agitated images forecasted and reflected the chaos Germany experienced in the 1920s and '30s as it slipped toward social and political catastrophe. In this climate, communists, Nazis, and other partisans clashed in the press, at the ballot box, and on the streets.

The impact of Heartfield's images was so great that they helped transform photomontage into a powerful form of mass communication. Heartfield devised photo-based symbols for the Communist Party of Germany, allowing the organization to compete with the Nazis' swastika. His images of clenched fists, open palms, and raised arms all implied bold action and determination.

Photomontage allowed Heartfield to create loaded and politically contentious images. To compose his works, he chose recognizable press photographs of politicians or events from the mainstream illustrated press. He then disassembled and rearranged these images to radically alter their meaning.

Heartfield's strongest work used variations of scale and stark juxtapositions to activate his already gruesome photo-fragments. The result could have a frightening visual impact, as in this image warning that the country's rearmament exposed a dangerous impulse toward war and its profits.


Here's my favorite Heartfield photo-montage.

It's called, "Whoever Reads Bourgeois Newspapers Becomes Blind and Deaf: Away with These Stultifying Bandages!"


Now, if the Weasel with the Easel and Weasels on the City Council have a bone to pick with Mr. Heartfield, you may contact him this way:



GA note: In no way do I liken myself to a genius of this stature.

I hope you've enjoyed looking at his work.