Page 8 - Centrum Dialogu im. Marka Edelmana w Łodzi. Artur Szyk, Man of Dialogue.

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BIOGRAPHY

Man and Boy in Turbans, Łódź 1910

Szyk's parents, or at least his father, did not want The principal of the Merchants School, Mr. Klos,
their son to become an artist; Szyk senior was encouraged the Szyks to send the talented boy to
hoping that he would be a merchant, so he sent him Paris. In 1910, as a 16−year−old, he began studying
to a Trade School in Zgierz and later to the painting at Académie Julian, learnig the craft under
Merchants Assembly School at 41 Narutowicza. His distinguished professors H. Royet and M.A. Baschet.
notebooks, filled with colourful drawings, impressed However, instead of sitting in classes, he spent hours
the teachers. They were less enthusiastic about his at the Louvre, copying the old masters.
caricatures. In one of his interviews, he said: "my
hate of mathematics has made me a caricaturist". "When studying in Paris, I became closely
From the very beginning, he was involved politically. acquainted with the so−called modernism. I know
He was said to have been expelled from the Zgierz that people will be angry with me for that, but I can't
School for having drawn a caricature of the Tsar, help it ... I realized then – apart from a few
although this might just be a family anecdote. outstanding and unquestionable talents, how much
In 1905, a revolution broke out in Łódź. Szyk's of a hogwash it was, unhealthy sensationalism and
father was attacked by a factory worker, losing sight disregard for solid painting technique." A. Szyk
as a result. Still, the revolutionary experiences
forever remained a significant experience to Szyk. Even before World War One, he made his
In one of the miniatures in his Statute of Kalisz, debut in Łódź as a cartoonist and illustrator. Later,
dedicated to his home city of Łódź, he painted he devoted himself almost exclusively to miniature.
barricades in the streets of the city. He saw illuminated codices of Eastern
miniatures for the first time during his trip to
Palestine and Constantinople in 1914. "It was a
revelation for me" – he said. He set out for the
journey with a group of painters from Łódz.
He marveled at the craft of the eastern artists and
their extremely serious approach to their work.
As he explained to a journalist, "The old
masters of miniature worked diligently,
whole−souled, with a thorough knowledge of their
craft. They poured their love and adoration for the
Creator into their work. They were animated by
their religious ideal, which they served. And I have
Portrait of the always thought that art is not a goal in itself but a
artist before
World War One service to humanity. "