I’m the paternal grandson of the German Dada, Collage Art, and Theater Design genius John Heartfield. In 2008, I began creating an extensive website to display the vast artistic legacy of my grandfather and display the art of the important artists worldwide who cite him as a key influence. The John Heartfield has grown into a major online source of innovative political art.
Many of today’s finest collage artists around the world consider John Heartfield’s art to be their most important influence. These artists, and many more, constantly add their own work to The Official John Heartfield Exhibition, Art and Artists with Integrity and Courage. Thousands of visitors view this modern art, experience my grandfather’s work, and learn about his astonishing journey from a young art student to a tireless fighter against the propaganda of fascism and the Third Reich.
Please visit The Official John Heartfield Exhibition. Spread the word by sharing his art on websites and social media. Be sure to include a live visible link to “JohnHeartfieldExhibition.com” so people will be inspired by one of the most innovative and courageous artist of all time to take positive political action.
The Berlin-born artist John Heartfield was a lifelong pacifist. But Heartfield’s antifascist anti-Nazi art was so effective he rose to number-five on The Gestapo’s Most Wanted List. He used his “weapons” (scissors, glue, and paste) to create 240 works of art that were a blow-by-blow description of the threat of fascism and the Nazi Party. These works were warnings that saved lives. Working day and night, constantly risking his life, Heartfield fought Nazi propaganda. His Berlin Dada work with George Grosz was a foreshadowing of Heartfield’s genius. From 1920 to 1929, Heartfield’s revolutionized advertising with his book jackets featuring groundbreaking typography. Their images “told a story” from the front cover to the back. For the German theater, he created stage projections and costumes for his good friend, Bertolt Brecht. Heartfield pioneered the art form “photomontage” (photo surrealism).
My “Truth-Will-Art” Presentation
After I launched The John Heartfield Exhibition (JohnHeartfieldExhibition.com) art events around the world have asked me to come and speak about the cinematic life and courageous political art of my famous grandfather, John Heartfield. I’ve spoken to wonderful audiences in cities such as Liverpool, London, New York, San Francisco, and San Lorenz, Austria. I had spoken to audiences using PowerPoint slides to underline my points. However, I wanted to have a way for the audience to be more engaged. So my presentations have evolved into what I call “interactive salons.”
My interactive salon invites the audience to journey to a pivotal moment in history. As they see images and hear true stories about my grandfather, they take part in an exploration of what transformed twentieth-century Berlin, a cosmopolitan city steeped in all aspects of art, the center of a vibrant democracy, into the burned-out ruins of a fascist dictatorship.
The John Heartfield Exhibition curator, John J Heartfield, express his gratitude to the artist, Martin Krenn. Herr Krenn was instrumental in winning the St. Lorenz competition and completing the challenging Mahmal Friedenskreuz St. Lorenz installation. The curator told Herr Krenn that his grandfather, John Heartfield, would be delighted to see his political photo montage, “Deutsche Eicheln” standing in front of a well-known war memorial to the Wehrmacht. It was his grandfather’s core philosophy that his art should be out in the open and available to the people so they might make their own decisions as to its messages and its merit.