Soyer, Raphael. JOHN REED CLUB - THE COMMITTEE. Lithograph, 1932 (Cole 22). Edition of 25, signed in pencil. 7 1/4 x 10 inches (185 x 255 mm). A fine impression, but with a well-repaired tear, top, center. Scarce. John Reed Club Committee members pictured are Nemo Piccoli, Adolf Wolff, Walter Quirt, Ivar Rose and Anton Refregier. We weren't poor. As I said before, you know, I had nothing to lose in the Depression, so I didn't feel it very much. And as far as what happened politically, I became a member of the John Reed Club. That was a club of writers and artists, leftists, all, and I think Rebecca influenced me very much. She was more aware of the politics. She was more aware than I. And I still look back to this John Reed Club as a great kind of, for me it was a great education. Nikolai Cikorsky indoctrinated me into the John Reed Club, and. . . . Well, there I knew what was taking place, all the unrest all over the place, the beginning of Nazism that you mentioned, and the advance of Communism, all those things, you know. And I became aware of those things. And that was my political education, the John Reed Club, the John Reed Club for Artists and Writers. There were a number of writers, there were a number of artists and. . . . And what's his name again? William Gropper. Joe Jones. Philip Bard. A number of these people. And they were all left and all young in those days. And I came there completely as a novice. I didn't know much about it. Rebecca knew much more what was taking place. (Raphael Soyer, Smithsonian Oral History Archives interview with Milton Brown, 1981). This is on loan to the Museum of the City of NY until ````````
