<< HEARTFIELD CHRONOLOGY - ALL YEARS1928 1929 1930 1931 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939

 “A Feeling For Objects As Such Is More Important Than A Feeling For Painting.” 
Vincent Van Gogh
Vincent Van Gogh

Prague Manes Exhibition, 1936. Anti-Nazi Artist Activist Heartfield Fights Fascism With Art

The Prague Mánes international photo exhibition, 1936, enables John Heartfield to exhibit his anti-fascist photomontages.

An excerpt from Peter Lang’s book Unmasking Hitler, Cultural Representations of Hitler from the Weimar Republic to the Present: “The reaction from Berlin to Heartfield’s photomontages in Münzenberg’s Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung was predicable. As expected, the National Socialists did not take these attacks lightly and intervened already in 1934 through the German ambassador in the Czechoslovakian Republic where Heartfield’s political satires were being shown in an international caricatures exhibition at the gallery Manes in Prague. However, because of the solidarity with Heartfield’s work that was expressed by the Czech, Russian, and French artists and writers, only seven of his 35 works were removed from the show. But, in 1937, when his satires were again exhibited in the gallery Manes in Prague, the Czech Ministry of Cultural Affairs succumbed to Nazi pressure and had most of Heartfield’s polemical works against Hitler and his followers removed from the exhibition. Heartfield’s international acclaim during these years led the Nazis to demand that the Czech government hand him over to the German authorities in 1938. The Czech government refused…”

Within two years, The Nazis will invade Czechoslovakia. Heartfield will be -five on The Gestapo’s Most Wanted List for his anti-Nazi art as a weapon collages that appear weekly on the cover of the AIZ Magazine. Once again, he narrowly escapes execution by The Third Reich.

Sergei Tretyakov publishes first monograph about Heartfield in Moscow.

Professor John J Heartfield is John Heartfield’s paternal grandson. He gives live interactive presentations around the world that focus on his grandfather’s life and work and modern political art. Please write to him to request his presence at your event or ask any question. He is always pleased to hear from exhibition visitors.

Dada Political Artist John Heartfield grandson, John Heartfield, Curator Official John Heartfield Exhibition