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Heartfield, John
German (1891-1968)

TITLE ON OBJECT: Die drei Weisen aus dem Sorgenland
TRANSLATED TITLE: The three magi from the Land of Sorrow
JOURNAL TITLE: "AIZ, Das Illustrierte Volksblatt", January 3, 1935, p. 16

1935
PUBLISHER: Arbeiter Illustrierte Zeitung
rotogravure print, rephotographed montage with typography
37.9 x 26.9 cm.
Museum Purchase; ex-collection Barbara Morgan
GEH NEG: 24387
76:0076:0015

BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCE: Evans, David. --John Heartfield: Arbeiter-Illustrierte Zeitung Volks Illustrierte, 1930-1938.-- New York: Kent Fine Art, Inc., 1992. p. 283.//

--Photomontages of the Nazi Period John Heartfield.-- New York: Universe, 1977. p. 89.//

EXHIBITION HISTORY: "Montage and Modern Life: 1919-1942", US, MA, Boston, Institute of Contemporary Art, April 8 - June 22, 1992. (Traveled).//

INSCRIPTION: recto-(printed on image) "Die drei Weisen aus dem Sorgenland" "Drittes Reich" "Deutsche Wuhlmause" "Und die bilden sich ein:" "das geht funfundzwanzigtausend Jahre so weiter!" "Fotomontage John Heartfield" ["And they imagine: this will continue for twenty-five thousand years!"]

NOTES: Catalogued 1/85, HA/PB, updated 9/89, DZ. "The three magi - Goebbels, Goring and Hitler - come not from Morgen- land (the East) but from Sorgenland (the Land of Sorrow), which, as the signpost says, is the Third Reich, or Nazi Germany. "Deutsche Wuhlmause" are chewing the knot securing the high wire. A "Wuhlmaus" (literally, burrowing mouse) is a vole, a "Wuhler" is an agitator." [Evans, p. 282.]

SUBJECT: genre, political

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