New Exhibition of Celebrated Artist Arthur Szyk

Opening on the day that the US entered World War II

Art of Freedom: The Life and Work of Arthur Szyk opens December 7, 2025

New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust announces it will open a landmark exhibition, Art of Freedom: The Life & Work of Arthur Szyk, on December 7, 2025 in its Rita Lowenstein Gallery.

The exhibition offers a focused study of celebrated anti-fascist artist Arthur Szyk (1894–1951). Featuring over 100 objects, including original drawings, rare prints, illuminated manuscripts, commercial cartoons, and political ephemera, the exhibition examines the intertwined themes of Jewish identity, Zionism, and universal freedom that define Szyk’s career. 

Highlights include 18 never-before-seen pieces and 38 original artworks, such as:

• An original sketchbook (1928–1929) for the Washington and His Times series, on view for the first time, offering a rare glimpse into Szyk’s creative process for the landmark suite that hung in Roosevelt’s White House.
  
• Original artworks from the Four Freedoms series (1942), once widely reproduced during WWII by the Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe, on public display for the first time in over 80 years.
  
• Anti-Christ (1942), Szyk’s searing critique of Adolf Hitler and Nazi crimes, back on view in New York City for the first time in over 80 years.

Opening on December 7, 2025, the anniversary of the United States’ entry into World War II, the exhibition will present a wide-ranging selection of Szyk’s prolific work, with loans from distinguished private collections as well as newly acquired pieces from the Museum’s Permanent Collection, which will be on view for the first time. Art of Freedom: The Life and Work of Arthur Szyk positions the artist not only as an anti-fascist propagandist with a significant impact on 20th-century history, but also as a profoundly Jewish voice. 

Irvin Ungar, a noted collector of Szyk works and a subject matter expert, is serving as Advisor for the exhibition.

Art of Freedom: The Life & Work of Arthur Szyk is made possible, in part, thanks to generous support from: Stefany and Simon Bergson, The Goldie and David Blanksteen Foundation, Matthew F. and Terry Schwartz Breitenbach, Elyse and Howard J. Butnick, Michael Eberstadt and Nina Beattie, Nancy Fisher, Peter and Mary Kalikow, and Bruce C. Ratner and Linda Johnson. Original works of art on loan from the private collection of Irvin Ungar and the Barry and Sindy Liben Collection. 

For more information about the upcoming exhibition, visit: https://mjhnyc.org/exhibitions/art-of-freedom-the-life-work-of-arthur-szyk/

About Arthur Szyk 

Born to a Jewish family in Łódź in 1894, Szyk was recognized for his creative talent from an early age. At 15, he moved to Paris to study art. While there, he experimented with various techniques and immersed himself in Romantic and Orientalist styles. With a cohort of fellow Polish-Jewish artists and writers, he made a formative visit to Palestine in 1914, deepening his connection to Judaism and shaping his fervent and lifelong Zionist advocacy.

Szyk’s life and work are shaped by exile, migration, and resistance. Propelled both by the rising threat of Nazism and the international recognition of his artistic voice, Szyk and his wife Julia left continental Europe in 1940 for London, Canada, New York, and ultimately New Canaan, Connecticut. Prolific and multi-talented, he pressed his art into service with extraordinary devotion and wit. At the core of his work lies a steadfast belief in the power of visual expression to confront atrocity, mobilize righteousness, and promote freedom in all its forms (religious, national, cultural, and political), for Jews and for all.

About The Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust

The Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust is New York’s contribution to the global responsibility to Never Forget. Opened in 1997, the Museum is committed to the crucial mission of educating diverse visitors about Jewish life before, during, and since the Holocaust.  

The Museum plays a leading role in Holocaust education in New York City and the tri-state area, serving many thousands of school children each year, through its exhibitions,  initiatives including its Holocaust Educator School Partnership Program (HESP), professional development opportunities, its Speakers Bureau which enables conversations with survivors, and the creation of tools and resources to support educators in teaching about both historical and contemporary antisemitism. 

 The Museum’s current exhibitions include Courage to Act: Rescue in Denmark, about the extraordinary rescue of Denmark’s Jewish population in 1943, a story of mutual aid and communal upstanding in difficult times for visitors aged 9 and up; and The Holocaust: What Hate Can Do, which offers a timely and expansive presentation of Holocaust history, on view in the main galleries. 

In addition to 25,000 square feet of exhibition galleries, the Museum maintains a permanent collection of more than 40,000 artifacts, photographs, and survivor testimonies, and contains classrooms, a 375-seat theater (Edmond J. Safra Hall), special exhibition galleries, a memorial art installation  The Garden of Stones, designed by internationally acclaimed sculptor Andy Goldsworthy, The Peter & Mary Kalikow Jewish Genealogy Resource Center, and JewishGen the largest Jewish Genealogy database in the world.  The Museum also hosts LOX at Café Bergson, an OU-certified café serving Eastern European specialties. And it has a special events hall for non-religious events and corporate rentals that seats 400.  

Each year, the Museum presents over 100 public programs, connecting our community in person and online through lectures, book talks, concerts, and more. The Museum provides free admission to Holocaust Survivors, active members of the military, first responders, New York City educators with current ID cards, and New York City public school K-12 students, and is free to the public on Thursdays between 4 – 8 PM. 

 The Museum receives general operating support from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and New York State Council on the Arts. For more information, visit mjhnyc.org.