John Heartfield
German Graphic Designer and Photomonteur
Movement: Dada
Born: June 19, 1891 - Berlin, Germany
Died: April 26, 1968 - Berlin, former East Germany
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"The important man is not the artist, but the businessman who, in the marketplace and on the battlefield, holds the reins in his hands."
Synopsis
Only recently has John Heartfield's work been studied on its own terms, as progressive graphic design. Heartfield's formative training in advertising and experiences with Dada theatricality provided him with the visual tools to affect and persuade viewers to action and critical thinking. Heartfield's pro-communist, anti-capitalist photomontages emerge in a moment of war and revolution, and in dialogue with the late Weimar Republic's commodity culture. His provocative photomontages aroused both critical acclaim as well as controversy at the time - especially famous are his anti-fascist montages, for which he was persecuted by the Nazis and spied on by Gestapo agents. The capacity of Heartfield's photomontages to provide a technique through which to conceive alternative views of reality is his contribution to artistic practice across the media arts.
Key Ideas
Biography
Childhood
John Heartfield was born Helmut Franz Josef Herzfeld in Berlin on June 19, 1891. His father Franz Herzfeld was a Jewish socialist writer, dramaturg, and poet; and his mother was a textile worker and political activist. Helmut may have grown up poor, because his father chose to become a radical, almost anarchist writer under the pen name Franz Held. Yet, his father came from an established middle-class family. His grandfather Jonas had a successful cotton textile business in Neuss bei Düsseldorf and his wealth was divided among four sons. How this inheritance benefitted Helmut's family is uncertain. Grandfather and grandson Herzfeld shared similar leftist political views. Karl Marx was a frequent guest at grandfather Jonas' house.
Important Art by John Heartfield | |
 Artwork Images | Cover for Der Dada, "The Tire Travels the World" (1920)Artwork description & Analysis: This photomontage suggests the dynamic movement of the Republic automotive tire that runs over, crashes against, moves around emphatic slogans, ads, world news, and various Dada nonsense. The cut-out words and images drawn from newspapers, advertisements, and magazines are used to spell non-words, such as "DADA," and project the Dadaist outrage at the status quo (its rational norms and values), as seen in the shouting face of the dandy Raoul Hausmann in the bottom left corner of the montage. This Dada montage intended to playfully jolt the viewer to confront the contemporary moment of social and political crisis. Newsprint - The Art Institute of Chicago |
 Artwork Images | The Hand Has Five Fingers (1928)Artwork description & Analysis: An oversized grasping hand energetically confronts the viewer. This popular 1928 election poster equates the five fingers of the laboring hand with the number 5 of the Communist Party's electoral list. On the morning of May 13, 1928, commuters, pedestrians, and all city dwellers would have seen this affective poster plastered throughout the urban areas of Berlin, and even on the front page of the Red Flag (Die Rote Fahne), Sunday issue, as readers opened the folded paper to its length. This image unequivocally urged them to vote the party's electoral list. It demonstrates how Heartfield used advertising techniques for the purpose of political persuasion to great effect. This symbol of the working hand was one among the many political symbols Heartfield produced that resonated with the working classes. Gravure - Akademie der Künste, Berlin |
 Artwork Images | Self-Portrait with the Police Commissioner Zörgiebel (1929)Artwork description & Analysis: This self-portrait captures Heartfield in the act of "cutting off" with scissors the police commissioner Zörgiebel's head in a printed photograph. It is a literal description of his technique of gathering needed printed and visual material to construct his montaged-images. This is also a mock execution, a satirical critique of this police commissioner's ruthless policies - for example, the unprecedented police violence unleashed against the Communist demonstrators on May Day, 1929 in Berlin. Here in this mock-up of the montage, it is evident how the abutting images of Heartfield with scissors and the head of Zörgiebel are simultaneously hinged together and severed by the scissors. Heartfield intentionally aimed to show his technique and perform his social identity as an artist, as he conceived it in 1929. He designed this violent image for the well-established mass-circulating leftist AIZ. The image insists on being understood in pictorial terms due to the absence of any text. This self-portrait provides an opportunity to see his self-constructed visual utterance about himself and his artistic project to counter social injustice. Mock-up - Akademie der Künste, Berlin |
More John Heartfield Artwork and Analysis:
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Useful Resources on John Heartfield
Videos
Books
Websites
Articles
biography
John Heartfield and the Agitated Image: Photography, Persuasion, and the Rise of Avant-Garde Photomontage (2012)  An investigative look at the art making practices of the artist | John Heartfield: Art and Mass Media (1986) Images and Essays analyzing the connection between John Heartfield's work and mass media |
artworks
| John Heartfield: Laughter is a Devastating Weapon (2015) Index of 150 reproductions of the artist's works | Revolutionary Beauty: The Radical Photomontages of John Heartfield (2014) Compilation of works by the artist | ||
| John Heartfield (1992) Comprehensive collection of the artist's works over the span of his career | John Heartfield, AIZ/VI 1930-1938 (1992) |
| John Heartfield Official Website | Agitated Images: John Heartfield & German Photomontage, 1920 - 1938 Getty Museum artist page | ||
| John Heartfield, Anti-Nazi Artist Arts, Artists, Artwork page for John Heartfield |
| The Original Meme King By Jack Doyle | John Heartfield: Photomontages Press release to accompany 1993 MoMA exhibition of the artist's works | ||
| Listing of articles about the artist from the official website | John Heartfield's Insects and the "Idea" of Natural History By Cristina Cuevas-Wolf |
| Heartfield Documentary on the artist and his work | Zygosis: John Heartfield and the Political Image (Part 1 of 3) Documentary about the artist, split into three brief parts | ||
| John Heartfield, Fotomonteur by Hellmuth Herbst Brief video about the artist's practices |
Content compiled and written by Cristina Cuevas-Wolf
Edited and published by The Art Story Contributors
" Artist Overview and Analysis". [Internet]. . TheArtStory.org
Content compiled and written by Cristina Cuevas-Wolf
Edited and published by The Art Story Contributors
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