Heartfield published his political photomontages, many of which savagely satirized the Nazi regime, in AIZ. In this widely disseminated workers' newspaper (500,000 readers in 1931), the deceptively realistic montages appeared cheek-by-jowl with straight documentary photographs. That Heartfield understood the propaganda power of the press is also evident in this montage, which shows a trussed man smothered by the (socialist) newspapers Tempo and Vorwärts (Forward). The caption states: "Those who read bourgeois newspapers will become blind and deaf. Away with these blinders!"
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[Suzanne Pastor, Cologne, to Waddell, June 29, 1987]; John C. Waddell
The montage depicts a man whose head is bandaged with front pages of two newspapers, Tempo and Vorwörts. For a variant see: Wieland Herzfelde, John Heartfield, Leben und Werk, Dresden: VEB Verlag der Kunst, 1971, pl. 133. Text in lower right corner reads: "I am a cabbagehead. Do you know my leaves? From worries I am at my wit's end, but I keep quiet and hope for a savior, I want to be a black-red-gold cabbagehead! I don't want to see and hear anything, or to interfere with public affairs. And you can strip me right down to my shirt, but I'm not having any red press in my house!" Two pages of this issue were separated and are filed Photo - medium - Heartfield.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 23–December 31, 1989.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 28–April 22, 1990.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," May 10–July 15, 1990.
High Museum of Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 5–April 28, 1991.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," June 8–August 4, 1991.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Faces and Figures: German and Austrian Artists, 1918–1933," December 15, 1992–April 12, 1993.
IVAM, Centre Julio Gonzalez, Valencia. "The New Vision, IVAM, Centre Julio Gonzalez, Valencia," January 20, 1995–March 26, 1995.
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. "The Shock of the News," September 23, 2012–January 28, 2013.
New York. Neue Galerie. "Berlin Metropolis: 1918-1933," October 1, 2015–January 4, 2016.
Brodie, Judith. Shock of the News. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., 2012. no. 8, pp. 14–16, 90.
Peters, Olaf, ed. Berlin Metropolis: 1918–1933. New York: Neue Galerie, 2015. no. 244, pp. 360, 386.
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