The book, published in a small edition in Israel in the early 1950s, is dedicated to the memory of the “Palmach” member Menachem Sofer. In 1948, during the Palestinian War, Sofer fought in this paramilitary unit of the Jewish underground organization “Hagana” and two years later became the victim of a lethal landmine accident.In his drawings, he describes his everyday life as a military police officer and reports on the events of this first Arab-Israeli war. The extremely idiosyncratic, posthumous compilation contains, apart from Popeye-like cartoons of army-life and documentary sketches, examples of Sofers ambitious artistic work. The then 16-year-old had to postpone his plans to apply to an art academy due to his military service.
Alexander Roob’s “History of Press Graphics. 1819-1921. The Age of Graphic Journalism” is out now. (Taschen Cologne, Hardcover, 24.6 x 37.2 cm). In over 600 pages, this far-reaching compendium presents press illustration and graphic journalism as a distinct and unique genre and a laboratory for developing avant-garde aesthetics. The images are largely taken from the […]
What sails here under the flag of caricature is nothing other than an early form of blunt and bleak social realism. The group makes a powerful and monumental impression, misery in the dimension of a history picture, and that’s exactly how it was meant to be. The publisher of La Caricature, Charles Philipon, like most […]
Theo Matejko’s dynamic and sensationalist style, which had a lasting influence on press graphic culture from the early 1920s onwards, was significantly influenced by cinematic views. The fact that he was commissioned by the UFA in 1924 to sketch the shooting of Murnau’s silent movie The Last Laugh (1924) underlines this connection. In this groundbreaking […]