ARTHUR SZYK [La Muerte] Du Negro Primero

Sale 2526 - Lot 130

Unsold

Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000

ARTHUR SZYK.
"[La Muerte] Du Negro Primero." Illustration number 34 titled "Death of Negro Primero" published in "Simón Bolívar and His Time: 51 Miniatures by Arthur Szyk: April 14 to May 12, 1952" (Pan American Union, 1952). Gouache, watercolor, and graphite on board with printed decorative border, created circa 1929. 145x110 mm; 5 3/4x4 1/4 inches, image, on 10 1/4x7 1/2-inch board. Not signed but partially titled in Spanish, lower left (abraded).

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A sympathetic portrait of Bolívar, known as "el Liberador" (the Liberator). In his Bolívar series, which was created in the late 1920s but not published until 1952, Szyk aimed to reinforce the myth of racial equality, fraternity, and harmony by depicting pardos (mulattos and free blacks), mestizos, and creoles fighting in a unified front against Spanish forces for the common cause of independence. However, many of the images have been criticized for sympathizing with the creole soldiers over the pardos, thus reinforcing the narrative of racial hierarchy of Latin American society. This touching image is therefore notable and particularly poignant, as Bolívar is mourning the death of the first slain mulatto fighter.
Szyk considered Bolívar a figure of liberation and would depict him again, looking down from the heavens upon Hitler, Franco, Ramírez, and Perón, decrying their embracement of slavery, for an illustration in an Argentinian newspaper in 1944. See Irvin Ungar and Steven Heller, "Arthur Szyk: Soldier in Art" (Burlingame: Historicana and the Arthur Szyk Society; London, in association with D. Giles Limited, 2017).