The Temporary National Economic Committee (TNEC) was established by a joint resolution of the United States Congress on June 16, 1938 and operated until its defunding on April 3, 1941. The TNEC's function was to study the concentration of economic power and to report to Congress with its findings.
The Temporary National Economic Committee's work was popularly known as the monopoly investigation, as the New York Times and the New Masses called it. A cartoon for the latter publication by a young Mischa Richter (1910-2001) dates from the TNEC era. It depicts a wealthy monopolist addressing his manservant as he prepares to appear before the hearings. Richter's family fled the Russian Empire in 1922, so it's unclear how much of a fellow traveler he really was, and in the 1930s this would scarcely have raised on eyebrow anyway. According to Ink Spill, Richter's work first appeared in The New Yorker in 1942. Here for the New Masses of 1938 though, his grotesque capitalist appears to be influenced by the work of George Grosz.
 |
| "If anyone calls, Hawkins, I'm appearing before the monopoly investigation." Mischa Richter The New Masses, December 20, 1938, page 14 |
 |
| Detail |
 |
| Detail with Mischa Richter's signature |
 |
| The cartoon as it appeared in the New Masses |
 |
| Mischa Richter eBay listing ended April 1, 2021 |
 |
| Mischa Richter eBay item description |
 |
| Mischa Richter eBay bid history Four bidders submit five bids, but it is the two last-minute bidders who are serious. The last bid, submitted with only four seconds remaining in the auction, fails. |
 |
| https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/new-masses/1938/index.htm |
Note: Mischa Richter may have crossed paths with George Grosz at the Art Students League in New York. His copy of a Grosz monograph is in the blog archives here. He acquired it some six months after the publication of this cartoon, but he may already have been familiar with Grosz's work.
03943
No comments:
Post a Comment