Bidspirit auction | Signatures of Arthur Szyk; one

Signatures of Arthur Szyk; one on a personal check from 1946 and one on a First Day Issue envelope from 1950, with an image of an illustration (12 tribes) that he created. - Arthur Szyk (1894-1951) was a Polish-Jewish artist who worked primarily as a book illustrator and political artist throughout his career.  Arthur Szyk became a renowned 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 broad popularity in the United States primarily through his political caricatures, in which, after the outbreak of World War II, he savaged the policies and personalities of the leaders of the Axis powers. After the war, he also devoted himself to political issues, especially the support of the creation of the state 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 embrace of 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.