John Heartfield

John Heartfield (born Helmut Herzfeld; 19 June 1891 – 26 April 1968) was an artist and a pioneer in the use of art as a political weapon. Some of his photomontages were anti-Nazi and anti-fascist statements. Heartfield also created book jackets for authors such as Upton Sinclair, as well as stage sets for such noted playwrights as Bertolt Brecht and Erwin Piscator.

John Heartfield (Helmut Herzfeld) was born on 19 June 1891 in Berlin-Schmargendorf. His father was Franz Herzfeld, a socialist writer, and his mother was Alice (née Stolzenburg), a textile worker and political activist.

In 1899, Helmut, his brother Wieland Herzfelde, and his sisters Lotte and Hertha were abandoned in the woods by their parents. For a while, the four children resided with an uncle in the small town of Aigens.

Heartfield, his brother and George Grosz launched the publishing house Malik-Verlag in 1917.

In 1908, Heartfield studied art in Munich at the Royal Bavarian Arts and Crafts School. Two commercial designers, Albert Weisgerber and Ludwig Hohlwein, were early influences.

On the back of a photograph which was taken in 1912, his name is written as "Helmut." While living in Berlin, in 1917, he anglicised his name from "Helmut Herzfeld" to "John Heartfield," an English name to protest against the anti-British fervour sweeping Germany. In 1916, crowds in the street were shouting, "Gott strafe England!" ("May God punish England!").

In 1916, John Heartfield and George Grosz experimented with pasting pictures together, a form of art later named photomontage.

In January, 1918, Heartfield joined the newly founded German Communist Party (KPD).

In 1917, Heartfield became a member of Berlin Club Dada. Heartfield later became active in the Dada movement, helping to organise the Erste Internationale Dada-Messe (First International Dada Fair) in Berlin in 1920. Dadaists were the young lions of the German art scene, provocateurs who disrupted public art gatherings and ridiculed the participants. They labeled traditional art trivial and bourgeois. Heartfield was a member of a circle of German titans that included Erwin Piscator, Bertolt Brecht, Hannah Höch, and a host of others.

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