Jacob Burck
Encyclopedia
Jacob "Jake" Burck was an American painter, sculptor, and Pulitzer Prize
-winning editorial cartoonist
.
, to the United States when Jacob was 7 years old.
Burck lived in Cleveland
until 1924. He attended the Cleveland School of Art on a scholarship
after he was discovered on a Cleveland sidewalk sketching instead of attending elementary school
.
Thereafter, Burck moved to New York City where he studied at the Art Students League of New York
with Albert Sterner and Boardman Robinson
. It was there that he met and married fellow art student Esther Kriger.
In 1926 Burck began to draw occasional editorial cartoons for the Communist Party's
daily newspaper, The Daily Worker
, as well as its monthly artistic-literary magazine, The New Masses
. He was added to the staff of The Daily Worker as a full-time cartoonist in 1929.
Burck was close friends with Alexander Calder
, Whittaker Chambers
, Langston Hughes
, Meyer Schapiro
and many other figures in the New York art and progressive scene. During this period his art was exhibited with other prominent artists such as George Grosz
, Diego Rivera
and José Clemente Orozco
.
During the middle 1930s, Burck was a contributing editor of Labor Defender, the monthly magazine of the Communist Party's legal defense organization, International Labor Defense
. He also contributed work to the official organ of the party's social and fraternal organization, the International Workers Order
.
In 1935, Burck traveled to Moscow with Kriger and their young son to complete and install a set of murals commissioned by Intourist
, Inc. A New York Times review of studies for the murals stated, "Mr. Burck has arranged his figures with uncommon skill, achieving a pattern of splendidly organized vitality." This was a period in which the so-called "Cult of Personality
" around Soviet leader Joseph Stalin
was in full swing and Burck took umbrage to the Soviet government's insistence that he modify the content of his work so as to glorify Stalin. The couple returned without completing the mural. This episode seems to have marked the end of Burck's connection with the Communist movement.
in 1938. Burck's incisive and biting style led to his daily cartoons being syndicated
in more than 200 newspapers across the United States.
Burck won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning
while at the Chicago Times in 1941 for a cartoon titled, If I Should Die Before I Wake. In 1942, he received the inaugural Society of Professional Journalists
prize for editorial cartooning, the Sigma Delta Chi Award
.
Burck's continued style and criticism through cartooning of politicians, hypocrisy, and social injustice left him an open target during the Second Red Scare of the 1950s. Senator Joseph McCarthy
and the House Un-American Activities Committee
investigated his early, radical associations. In 1953, they attempted to have the bohemian Burck (who had neglected to formalize his US citizenship) deported
. The Government claimed that Burck had joined the Communist Party in 1934 and remained a member at least through 1936. Burck denied ever joining the Party, claiming membership had been pressed on him by his employer, the Daily Worker.
Burck's defense was able to satisfactorily demonstrate what "a long record of anti-communism... exemplified in his political cartoons." Charges were eventually dropped after a sustained legal defense funded personally by the publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times
, Marshall Field III
. The deportation order was formally vacated by an act of the United States Congress
in April 1957.
Burck's syndications dropped drastically because of the government case, but he continued to produce daily editorial cartoons for the Chicago Sun-Times, successor to the Chicago Times, over a 44 year career.
Burck's final published editorial cartoon appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times on February 23, 1982. Over the course of his career he was responsible for drawing over 10,000 editorial cartoons.
Burck's original works were collected by Richard Nixon
and are in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Institution
, The Art Institute of Chicago, the Cleveland Museum of Art
and the University of Michigan Museum of Art.
His evocative portrait of Hugh Hefner
, the smoke from his pipe forming a group of writhing bodies, hung in the Playboy mansion in Chicago.
His work is part of the "Capital and Labor" portion of the Library of Congress
online exhibit Life of the People: Realist Prints and Drawings from the Ben and Beatrice Goldstein Collection, 1912–1948.
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning editorial cartoonist
Editorial cartoonist
An editorial cartoonist, also known as a political cartoonist, is an artist who draws editorial cartoons that contain some level of political or social commentary....
.
Early years
Jacob Burck was born January 10, 1907, near Białystok, Poland, the son of ethnic Jewish parents, Abraham Burck and Rebecca Lev Burck. The family emigrated from Poland, then part of the Russian empireRussian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
, to the United States when Jacob was 7 years old.
Burck lived in Cleveland
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
until 1924. He attended the Cleveland School of Art on a scholarship
Scholarship
A scholarship is an award of financial aid for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...
after he was discovered on a Cleveland sidewalk sketching instead of attending elementary school
Elementary school
An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...
.
Thereafter, Burck moved to New York City where he studied at the Art Students League of New York
Art Students League of New York
The Art Students League of New York is an art school located on West 57th Street in New York City. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists, and has maintained for over 130 years a tradition of offering reasonably priced classes on a...
with Albert Sterner and Boardman Robinson
Boardman Robinson
Boardman Robinson was a Canadian-American artist, illustrator and cartoonist.-Early years:Boardman Robinson was born September 6, 1876 in Nova Scotia, Canada. He spent his childhood in England and Canada, before coming to Boston in the first half of the 1890s...
. It was there that he met and married fellow art student Esther Kriger.
New York years
Burck first worked professionally as an artist as a portrait painter, an occupation which he pursued full time for one year. He subsequently worked for a short time as a sign painter, his 1935 official biography claiming this decision was related to Burck's belief that this constituted "a more wholesome means of earning a living [than painting society portraits]." Nevertheless, Burck continued his artistic practice, including portraiture.In 1926 Burck began to draw occasional editorial cartoons for the Communist Party's
Communist Party USA
The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....
daily newspaper, The Daily Worker
Daily Worker
The Daily Worker was a newspaper published in New York City by the Communist Party USA, a formerly Comintern-affiliated organization. Publication began in 1924. While it generally reflected the prevailing views of the party, some attempts were made to make it appear that the paper reflected a...
, as well as its monthly artistic-literary magazine, The New Masses
The New Masses
The "New Masses" was a prominent American Marxist publication edited by Walt Carmon, briefly by Whittaker Chambers, and primarily by Michael Gold, Granville Hicks, and Joseph Freeman....
. He was added to the staff of The Daily Worker as a full-time cartoonist in 1929.
Burck was close friends with Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder was an American sculptor and artist most famous for inventing mobile sculptures. In addition to mobile and stable sculpture, Alexander Calder also created paintings, lithographs, toys, tapestry, jewelry and household objects.-Childhood:Alexander "Sandy" Calder was born in Lawnton,...
, Whittaker Chambers
Whittaker Chambers
Whittaker Chambers was born Jay Vivian Chambers and also known as David Whittaker Chambers , was an American writer and editor. After being a Communist Party USA member and Soviet spy, he later renounced communism and became an outspoken opponent later testifying in the perjury and espionage trial...
, Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes
James Mercer Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry. Hughes is best known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance...
, Meyer Schapiro
Meyer Schapiro
Meyer Schapiro was a Lithuanian-born American art historian known for forging new art historical methodologies that incorporated an interdisciplinary approach to the study of works of art...
and many other figures in the New York art and progressive scene. During this period his art was exhibited with other prominent artists such as George Grosz
George Grosz
Georg Ehrenfried Groß was a German artist known especially for his savagely caricatural drawings of Berlin life in the 1920s...
, Diego Rivera
Diego Rivera
Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez was a prominent Mexican painter born in Guanajuato, Guanajuato, an active communist, and husband of Frida Kahlo . His large wall works in fresco helped establish the Mexican Mural Movement in...
and José Clemente Orozco
José Clemente Orozco
José Clemente Orozco was a Mexican social realist painter, who specialized in bold murals that established the Mexican Mural Renaissance together with murals by Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and others...
.
During the middle 1930s, Burck was a contributing editor of Labor Defender, the monthly magazine of the Communist Party's legal defense organization, International Labor Defense
International Labor Defense
The International Labor Defense was a legal defense organization in the United States, headed by William L. Patterson. It was a US section of International Red Aid organisation, and associated with the Communist Party USA. It defended Sacco and Vanzetti, was active in the civil rights and...
. He also contributed work to the official organ of the party's social and fraternal organization, the International Workers Order
International Workers Order
The International Workers Order was a Communist Party-affiliated insurance, mutual benefit and fraternal organization founded in 1930 and disbanded in 1954 as the result of legal action undertaken by the state of New York in 1951...
.
In 1935, Burck traveled to Moscow with Kriger and their young son to complete and install a set of murals commissioned by Intourist
Intourist
Intourist is a Russian travel agency, 66%-owned by Moscow-based holding company Sistema.Before privatisation in 1992, Intourist was renowned as the official state travel agency of the Soviet Union. It was founded in 1929 by Joseph Stalin and was staffed by NKVD and later KGB officials...
, Inc. A New York Times review of studies for the murals stated, "Mr. Burck has arranged his figures with uncommon skill, achieving a pattern of splendidly organized vitality." This was a period in which the so-called "Cult of Personality
Cult of personality
A cult of personality arises when an individual uses mass media, propaganda, or other methods, to create an idealized and heroic public image, often through unquestioning flattery and praise. Cults of personality are usually associated with dictatorships...
" around Soviet leader Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
was in full swing and Burck took umbrage to the Soviet government's insistence that he modify the content of his work so as to glorify Stalin. The couple returned without completing the mural. This episode seems to have marked the end of Burck's connection with the Communist movement.
Chicago years
After returning from the USSR, Burck went to work as an editorial cartoonist for the St. Louis Post Dispatch, before moving to the Chicago TimesChicago Times
The Chicago Times was a newspaper in Chicago from 1854 to 1895 when it merged with the Chicago Herald.The Times was founded in 1854, by James W. Sheahan, with the backing of Stephen Douglas, and was identified as a pro-slavery newspaper. In 1861, after the paper was purchased by Wilbur F...
in 1938. Burck's incisive and biting style led to his daily cartoons being syndicated
Print syndication
Print syndication distributes news articles, columns, comic strips and other features to newspapers, magazines and websites. They offer reprint rights and grant permissions to other parties for republishing content of which they own/represent copyrights....
in more than 200 newspapers across the United States.
Burck won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning
Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning
The Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning has been awarded since 1922 for a distinguished cartoon or portfolio of cartoons published during the year, characterized by originality, editorial effectiveness, quality of drawing, and pictorial effect...
while at the Chicago Times in 1941 for a cartoon titled, If I Should Die Before I Wake. In 1942, he received the inaugural Society of Professional Journalists
Society of Professional Journalists
The Society of Professional Journalists , formerly known as Sigma Delta Chi, is one of the oldest organizations representing journalists in the United States. It was established in April 1909 at DePauw University, and its charter was designed by William Meharry Glenn. The ten founding members of...
prize for editorial cartooning, the Sigma Delta Chi Award
Sigma Delta Chi Award
The Sigma Delta Chi Awards are presented annually by the Society of Professional Journalists for excellence in journalism.- History :The Awards, according to the SPJ, did not begin in 1932 when the society chose six individuals for their contributions to journalism. In 1939 the awards program began...
.
Burck's continued style and criticism through cartooning of politicians, hypocrisy, and social injustice left him an open target during the Second Red Scare of the 1950s. Senator Joseph McCarthy
Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond "Joe" McCarthy was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957...
and the House Un-American Activities Committee
House Un-American Activities Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities or House Un-American Activities Committee was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. In 1969, the House changed the committee's name to "House Committee on Internal Security"...
investigated his early, radical associations. In 1953, they attempted to have the bohemian Burck (who had neglected to formalize his US citizenship) deported
Deportation
Deportation means the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. Today it often refers to the expulsion of foreign nationals whereas the expulsion of nationals is called banishment, exile, or penal transportation...
. The Government claimed that Burck had joined the Communist Party in 1934 and remained a member at least through 1936. Burck denied ever joining the Party, claiming membership had been pressed on him by his employer, the Daily Worker.
Burck's defense was able to satisfactorily demonstrate what "a long record of anti-communism... exemplified in his political cartoons." Charges were eventually dropped after a sustained legal defense funded personally by the publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
, Marshall Field III
Marshall Field III
Marshall Field III was an American investment banker, publisher, racehorse owner/breeder, philanthropist, heir to the Marshall Field department store fortune and a leading financial supporter and founding board member of Saul Alinsky's community organizing network Industrial Areas Foundation.Born...
. The deportation order was formally vacated by an act of the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
in April 1957.
Burck's syndications dropped drastically because of the government case, but he continued to produce daily editorial cartoons for the Chicago Sun-Times, successor to the Chicago Times, over a 44 year career.
Burck's final published editorial cartoon appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times on February 23, 1982. Over the course of his career he was responsible for drawing over 10,000 editorial cartoons.
Death and Legacy
Jacob Burck died on May 11, 1982, at the age of 75, of injuries sustained in a fire in his home caused by a smoldering cigarette. He was preceded in death by his wife, Esther, who died in 1975, and survived by his children, Joseph and Conrad.Art
Burck was a prominent painter and sculptor through the 1960s and 1970s.Burck's original works were collected by Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
and are in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
, The Art Institute of Chicago, the Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland Museum of Art
The Cleveland Museum of Art is an art museum situated in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on Cleveland's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian art, the museum houses a diverse permanent collection of more than 43,000...
and the University of Michigan Museum of Art.
His evocative portrait of Hugh Hefner
Hugh Hefner
Hugh Marston "Hef" Hefner is an American magazine publisher, founder and Chief Creative Officer of Playboy Enterprises.-Early life:...
, the smoke from his pipe forming a group of writhing bodies, hung in the Playboy mansion in Chicago.
His work is part of the "Capital and Labor" portion of the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
online exhibit Life of the People: Realist Prints and Drawings from the Ben and Beatrice Goldstein Collection, 1912–1948.
Books
- Red Cartoons from the Daily Worker. With Fred Ellis. Sender Garlin, editor. New York: The Daily Worker, 1926
- Hunger and Revolt: Cartoons. New York: The Daily Worker, 1935
- Our 34th President: Ike's Campaign, Election and Inauguration in Historic Cartoons. Chicago: Chicago Sun-Times, 1953
Awards
- 1941 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning for If I Should Die Before I Wake
- 1942 Sigma Delta Chi Award, inaugural prize for editorial cartooning from the Society of Professional Journalists
External links
- "If I Should Die Before I Wake." 1941 Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoon, accompanied by biographical information pulled from an earlier incarnation of this Wikipedia biography. Retrieved October 18, 2009.
- Index to Jacob Burck's Work on the Internet, Art Cyclopedia. Retrieved October 18, 2009.
- Jacob Burck Internet Archive at Marxists Internet ArchiveMarxists Internet ArchiveMarxists Internet Archive is a volunteer based non-profit organization that maintains a multi-lingual Internet archive of Marxist writers and other similar authors...
. Retrieved October 19, 2009. - Hugh Hefner portrait in The Modernist
- Comrades in Art: Jacob Burck
- Comrades in Art: Esther Kriger