Joseph Eduard Adolf Spier (26 June 1900 – 21 May 1978) was a popular Dutch

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

and

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicate ...

Life

Jo Spier was born in Zutphen,

the Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. From 1924 to 1939 Jo Spier worked for the newspaper ''

De Telegraaf ''De Telegraaf'' (; ) is the largest Netherlands, Dutch daily morning newspaper. Haro Kraak,Gaat Paul Jansen de crisis bij De Telegraaf oplossen?, ''de Volkskrant'', 2015. Retrieved 1 August 2015. Paul Jansen has been the editor-in-chief since ...

'' where he created humorous illustrations and cartoons about everyday life. He also worked as a courtroom sketch artist and theater review artist for them. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

his subject matter became more

political Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

and he was arrested for his satirical depiction of

Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

. He was first sent to the camp at Westerbork, then to Villa Bouchina with his wife and three children. For a period of a few months in 1943 they were protected from transport to German concentration camps, supposedly due to the influence of the leader of the pro-German Nationaal Socialistische Beweging, Anton Mussert. On 21 April 1943 Spier was transferred to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, where he was held with his family until the end of the war. During his internment in Theresienstadt, Spier also cooperated with the Germans by assisting with the film '' Theresienstadt, ein Dokumentarfilm aus dem jüdischen Siedlungsgebiet''.

Emigration and death

Jo Spier moved to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

in 1951 with his family and continued to work until the end of his life. Spier died in Santa Fe, New Mexico on 21 May 1978.

Family

Jo Spier was married to Albertine Sophie "Tineke" van Raalte and they had three children, Peter Spier, Thomas Spier (DDS), and Celine Spier. Peter Spier was also a noted illustrator of children's books.

Books illustrated by Jo Spier

*''The Creation'', text from Genesis, hand-lettered by Joseph P Ascherl, New York: Doubleday & Company, 1970. *''The Squirrel and the Harp'', by David DeJong, New York: Macmillan, 1966. *''The Spice Cookbook'', by Avanelle Day and Lillie Stuckey, David White Company, 1964 *''Waters of the New World: Houston to Nantucket'', by Jan de Hartog, New York: Atheneum, 1961. *''Peter Stuyvesant of Old New York'', by Anna Crouse and Russel Crouse, New York: Random House, 1954. *''The Story of Louis Pasteur'', by Alida Sims Malkus, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1952. *''One Sky to Share: The French and American Journals of Raymond Leopold Bruckberger'', New York: P. J. Kenedy & Sons, 1952. *''Holland's House: a Nation Building a Home'', by Peter Bricklayer, Haarlem, Netherlands: Joh. Enschede En Zonen, 1939. *''Mijn Jordanertjes : kinderen, die ik gekend heb'', by A van Vlaardingen, Utrecht: Bijleveld, 1931. * Godfried Bomans: ''Kopstukken''. Ill. Jo Spier. Amsterdam, Brussel, Elsevier 1947 etc. (27th pr., 1987)

Bibliography

*''Dat alles heeft mijn oog gezien. Herinneringen aan het concentratiekamp Theresienstadt 1942–1945''. Amsterdam, Elsevier, 1978. * ''The Marshall Plan and You''. The Hague, Netherlands, Ministry of Economic Affairs, 1949

About Jo Spier

*''Peter van Straaten & Jo Spier. Virtuoze tekenaars van het Nederlandse leven''. Persmuseum Amsterdam, 2012. No ISBN *''Jo Spier. Tekenaar van een tijdperk'' Samenst. door G.E. van Baarsel. Stedelijk Museum Zutphen, 2000. *Jo Spier: ''Album''. Amsterdam, Elsevier, 1957. No ISBN *Michel van der Plas: ''Vader en moeder''. Baarn, Bosch& Keuning, 1987. (Interviews with children of famous parents, a.o. Peter Spier)

Sources

External links

Jo Spier
presented at

Lambiek Galerie Lambiek is a Dutch comic book store and art gallery in Amsterdam, founded on November 8, 1968 by Kees Kousemaker (, – Bussum Bussum () is a commuter town and former municipality in the Gooi region in the south east of the prov ...

's Comiclopedia {{DEFAULTSORT:Spier, Jo 1900 births 1978 deaths Dutch Jews Dutch illustrators Dutch editorial cartoonists Dutch caricaturists Jewish caricaturists Jewish Dutch artists Bookbinders Courtroom sketch artists People from Zutphen Theresienstadt Ghetto survivors Dutch emigrants to the United States