- Artist/Maker:
- Paul Strand
- Bio:
- American, 1890-1976
- Title:
- Swastika (a.k.a. Hitlerism)
- Date:
- 1938, printed c. 1960
- Medium:
- Gelatin silver print
- Dimensions:
- 9 1/2 × 7 9/16 in. (24.1 × 19.2 cm)
- Credit Line:
- Purchase: Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Fund
- Accession Number:
- 2008-30
Not On View
This rare explicitly political photograph by Strand was published in the journal Theatre Arts Committee in January 1939, accompanied by Dashiell Hammett’s text, which declared, “Humanity must not be crucified on a swastika!” The iconography may have been inspired by John Heartfield’s antifascist photomontages, which were regularly featured in the German newspaper Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung (Workers’ Illustrated Newspaper) and were exhibited in New York in 1938.
Information may change as a result of ongoing research.