John Heartfield and the Agitated Image

Photography, Persuasion, and the Rise of Avant-Garde Photomontage

Zervigon Andres Mario

Working in Germany in the interwar era, John Heartfield (born Helmut Herzfeld, 1891-1968) developed an innovative method of appropriating and reusing photographs to powerful political effect. A pioneer of modern photomontage, he assembled images that transformed the meaning of the mass-media photos from which they were taken. In "John Heartfield and the Agitated Image", Andres Mario Zervigon explores this crucial period in the life and work of this brilliant, radical artist whose desire to disclose the truth obscured by the mainstream press and the propaganda of politicians made him a de facto prosecutor of Germany's visual culture. Zervigon charts the evolution of Heartfield's photomontage from an act of antiwar resistance into a formalized and widely disseminated political art in the Weimar Republic, when his work appeared on everything from campaign posters to book covers. He explains how Heartfield's engagement with montage arose from dissatisfaction with photography's capacity to represent the modern world, and the result was likely the most important combination of avantgarde art and politics in the twentieth century. A rare look at Heartfield's early and middle years as an artist and designer, this book provides a new understanding of photography's role at this critical juncture in history.

About the Author

Andres Mario Zervigon is assistant professor in the Department of Art History at Rutgers University.

Reviews

"Impeccably researched and grippingly told, Andres Mario Zervigon's 'John Heartfield and the Agitated Image' presents a fundamentally new picture of the German photomontage pioneer: as an artist who took his cues from Hollywood starlets just as much as from Marxist theoreticians, and who crafted his images to function as both physical punch and intellectual appeal. Tracing Heartfield's passage into and beyond Dada with singular care, Zervigon reveals the range of projects and decisions by which he managed to reinvent photography – indeed art itself – during a period of unparalleled historical turbulence" – Graham Bader, Rice University

"'John Heartfield and the Agitated Image' offers a compelling reconstruction, based on new archival research, of the slow but steady trajectory of John Heartfield, George Grosz, and Wieland Herzfelde toward Dada, photomontage, and critical publishing in the Weimar Republic. With Heartfield as the book's center, Andres Mario Zervigon emphasizes the formative role of postcards, book cover designs, animation, and film stills as strategies in the creation of a radical political image sphere. At stake for Heartfield was nothing less than the reinvention of photographic truth, and in that endeavor he remains a key figure in the history of photography and political aesthetics" – Andreas Huyssen, Columbia University

"This lively and original book is a cogently formulated work that will make a welcome addition to the rapidly growing literature on John Heartfield. Andres Mario Zervigon provides a narrative arc for the development of Heartfield's career as a photomonteur, adding much to the story by looking at his work from 1916-1919 and 1921-1929. Useful and instructive as well as thought-provoking, 'John Heartfield and the Agitated Image' is an enjoyable read" – Matthew Witkovsky, Art Institute of Chicago

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