Advanced Search

Learn About The Holocaust

Special Collections

My Saved Research

Login

Register

Help

Skip to main content

Advertisement for the US War Bond Effort featuring a soldier pulling a grenade pin with his teeth by Harold Lehman

Object | Accession Number: 2016.547.3

Search this record's additional resources, such as finding aids, documents, or transcripts.

No results match this search term.
Check spelling and try again.

results are loading

0 results found for “keyward

    Advertisement for the US War Bond Effort featuring a soldier pulling a grenade pin with his teeth by Harold Lehman
    Loading

    Please select from the following options:

    Overview

    Brief Narrative
    Offset lithographic advertisement for the US War Bond Effort by Harold Lehman featuring a soldier pulling a grenade pin with his teeth. Through a partnership with Abbott Laboratories and the United States Treasury Department, Associated American Artists created a program to produce war bond advertisements and posters for distribution across the United States. Reeves Lewenthal head of the Associated American Artists, met with Lehman and asked him to design a poster with the theme of an invasion of Europe. Lehman took a piece of note paper and immediately sketched the study for this poster (see 2016.547.2). The image, a right profile close up of a soldier’s face, is an adaptation of Michelangelo’s David. In place of the sling on David’s shoulder is a grenade in the soldier’s mouth. An award winning painter, muralist and sculptor, Harold Lehman was known for making political statements with his artwork. He was born and raised in New York City, but moved to Los Angeles as a teenager, attending the Manual Arts High School. While in L.A. he befriended and worked with Phil Guston, Jackson Pollock, Reuben Kadish, and Manuel Tolegian. While in Los Angeles, he worked with David Alfaro Siqueiros as a member of the Bloc of Painters, exhibited with Lorser Feitelson and his group of Post Surrealists, and got a commission from the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP), a New Deal Federal Art Project to put artists back to work. Returning to New York City in 1935, he helped to establish the Siqueiros Experimental Workshop, and continued working on murals for the Works Project Administration (WPA) and Section of Fine Arts, Federal Work Projects. In 1941 Lehman moved to Woodstock where he pursued his own practice, as well as worked with the Treasury Department and Abbott Laboratories to create War Bond advertisements, posters, and pro-American propaganda and anti-fascist pieces to support the war effort of the Allies in World War II.
    Title
    Get Your Might into the Fight
    Date
    creation:  1944 May 01
    Geography
    distribution: United States
    Credit Line
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Lisa Lehman Trager
    Markings
    front, bottom, printed, white : Get / YOUR MIGHT / into the fight
    front, bottom, printed, yellow ink : BUY WAR BONDS
    Signature
    front, bottom right, printed, red ink : LEHMAN
    Contributor
    Artist: Harold Lehman
    Publisher: Abbott Laboratories
    Biography
    Harold Lehman (1913-2006) was born in New York City, New York to Abraham and Rochel Lehman, Jewish immigrants from Europe who arrived in New York at the turn of the twentieth century. Harold was one of five children and had a twin brother. The family lived in Manhattan, and then in the Bronx. Early on, Harold’s father struggled to find consistent employment, working various jobs, including as a vaudeville dancer. He abandoned the family and moved to California, where he later found steady work as an insurance agent. Harold’s mother was a seamstress and unable to support the family by herself, so she placed Harold and his two brothers in the Hebrew Orphan Asylum. In February 1929, having aged out of the orphanage, Harold and his older brother, Charlie, moved to Los Angeles, California to reunite with their father.

    Harold continued his studies in art by enrolling in Manual Arts High School. There he formed lifelong friendships with future notable artists such as Philip Guston (formerly Phillip Goldstein), Jackson Pollock, and Manuel Tolegian. Early in his art career, Harold worked primarily as a sculptor. He used plaster and clay as well as carving directly in stone. In 1930, after graduating from Manual Arts, Lehman won a citywide competition for a yearlong scholarship to the Otis Art Institute. In 1932, after leaving Otis, Harold focused on painting and began working with the Mexican muralist, David Alfaro Siqueiros. He was invited by Siqueiros to join the “Bloc of Painters,” a group of artists with socialist leanings, who were committed to using art to decry matters of social injustice of the time. The fresco murals created by this group were destroyed by the Los Angeles Red Squad. In 1933, Harold began working with Lorser Feitelson and exhibited with his group of Post Surrealist painters. He won professional recognition for his work and several awards between 1934-35 in the Los Angeles Museum’s annual competition of painters and sculptors. In 1934, together with Philip Guston and Reuben Kadish, they received a commission to do a mural under the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP), the first New Deal Federal Art Project to employ artists.

    In 1935, Harold returned to New York City. He helped Siqueiros create the Siqueiros Experimental Workshop, which was dedicated to using revolutionary methods and techniques. He began experimenting with different types of paints, lacquers and application methods. The Workshop created floats and large-scale work opposing the rise and spread of fascism in Europe. In 1936 and 1937, Harold created paintings opposing the Fascists and the German and Italian intervention in the Spanish Civil War. In 1939, Harold painted a mural for the World’s Fair in New York. While working with Siqueiros, Harold also designed floats for several New York City parades promoting the Allied war effort and denouncing fascism.

    In the fall of 1941, Harold fell while painting a mural and broke both his arms, which granted him a deferral from serving in World War II. He moved to Woodstock, NY to recuperate. While there, he created several war paintings for the Section of Fine Arts and the Treasury Department. Around this time, Harold was approached by Arnold Blanch and Reeves Lewenthal from the Associated American Artist Gallery. Through a partnership with Associated American Artists, the United States Treasury Department, and Abbott Laboratories a program was developed to create advertisements and illustrations for its medical journal What’s New and for the United States Government’s War Department through their School-At-War program. Using themes he was given, Harold created several posters through the auspices of the Treasury Department, which were successfully published nationwide. In 1943, two of Harold’s war posters were featured in the Museum of Modern Art’s Artists for Victory exhibit. In 1944, in response to the revelation of the atrocities of the Holocaust, before there were eyewitness accounts, Harold envisioned and drew pictures depicting the torturous conditions of prisoners in the concentration camps.

    In 1946, Harold left Woodstock and returned to New York City. He continued easel painting, sculpting, and photography. He also began teaching art from his studio on West 21st Street. In 1950, Lehman met Leona Koutras, who had come to his studio for art lessons. Two years later they married and had two children. In the 1960s, Harold worked as a lead scenic artist for the 1965 New York World’s Fair and later for Expo ’67 in Montreal. In the 1970s he worked as a scenic designer and scenic artist in commercials, film, and television.

    Physical Details

    Language
    English
    Object Type
    Advertisements (aat)
    Genre/Form
    Lithographs.
    Physical Description
    Advertisement printed on medium weight, coated white paper with a portrait image of a soldier pulling the pin from a grenade. The soldier is in right profile and wears an unstrapped combat helmet. He grips the grenade in his right hand and bites down on the circular pin ring while staring straight ahead. In the background is a dark sky, water and a rocky shoreline strung with Concertina wire. To the figure’s right are three lines of white text and along the bottom is a line of yellow text and the artist’s signature. The coating gives the paper a glossy sheen. The paper has small wrinkles and cracks throughout and there is a small piece of tape on the back.
    Dimensions
    overall: Height: 12.750 inches (32.385 cm) | Width: 10.000 inches (25.4 cm)
    Materials
    overall : paper, ink, masking tape

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    No restrictions on access
    Conditions on Use
    Restrictions on use

    Keywords & Subjects

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    The advertisement was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2016 by Lisa Lehman Trager, the daughter of Harold Lehman.
    Record last modified:
    2024-10-03 10:48:28
    This page:
    http:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn597323

    Download & Licensing

    In-Person Research

    Contact Us