Phil Bard
{{Short description|American artist and activist (1912–1966)}}
{{Use American English|date=February 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2025}}
Phil Bard (February 14, 1912 – March 12, 1966) was an American artist and Communist Party organizer.
Biography
Bard was employed as a cartoonist at Krazy Kat Studio before joining the staff of New Masses magazine in 1930.{{Cite book |last=Hemingway |first=Andrew |title=Artists on the Left: American Artists and the Communist Movement, 1926–1956 |date=2002 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=0300092202 |pages=50}} Bard worked for the Communist Party as an organizer in the Ohio National Guard's summer camp, attempting to spread anti-military leaflets.{{Cite book |last=Eby |first=Cecil D. |title=Comrades and commissars: The Lincoln Battalion in the Spanish Civil War |date=2007 |publisher=The Pennsylvania State University Press |isbn=9780271029108 |pages=11}} Bard was one of five members on the National Secretariat of the John Reed Club in 1934.{{Cite journal |date=May 1934 |title=John Reed Clubs |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_partisan-review_april-may-1934_1_2/page/60 |journal=Partisan Review |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=61}} Under the influence of the John Reed Club and members like Hugo Gellert, Bard began to work with murals in addition to his drawings.{{Cite book |last=Platt |first=Susan Noyes |title=Art and politics in the 1930s : Modernism, Marxism, Americanism : a history of cultural activism during the Depression years |date=1999 |publisher=Midmarch Arts Press |isbn=1877675296 |pages=90}} While representing the Club, he participated in the protests against the removal of Diego Rivera's Man at the Crossroads from Rockefeller Center, though he was critical of Rivera's politics.{{Cite news |date=May 20, 1933 |title=Broad United Front to Preserve Rivera Murals |url=https://archive.org/details/mil-0627_202408 |work=The Militant |pages=1}} Bard was also a founding member of the Artists' Union in 1934.{{Cite book |title=The New Deal art projects; an anthology of memoirs |publisher=Smithsonian Institution Press |year=1972 |isbn=0874741130 |editor-last=O'Connor |editor-first=Francis V. |pages=116}} In 1936 he was active in the American League Against War and Fascism, contributing a page to an illustrated calendar that featured 12 drawings by left-wing artists.{{Cite book |title=Hot Off the Press: Prints & Politics |date=1994 |publisher=University of New Mexico Press |isbn=0826314961 |editor-last=Tyler |editor-first=Linda |location=Albuquerque |pages=22 |editor-last2=Walker |editor-first2=Barry}}
During the Spanish Civil War, Bard joined the Abraham Lincoln Battalion, serving as the Brigade's political commander, but left the military because of ill health.{{Cite news |date=April 26, 1937 |title=Form Friends of Lincoln Boys to Aid U.S. Fighters |url=https://archive.org/details/per_daily-worker_daily-worker_1937-04-26_14_99/page/4/ |work=The Daily Worker |pages=4}} He continued to aid the loyalists in Spain by serving as the executive secretary of the Friends of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.{{Cite news |last=Pitkin |first=Rex |date=August 24, 1937 |title='They Kill Our Boys With Dum-Dum Bullets,' Says Bard, Home From Spain |url=https://archive.org/details/per_daily-worker_daily-worker_1937-08-24_14_202/page/5 |work=The Daily Worker |pages=2}} Morris Cohen wrote that a speech by Bard at a Bronx County Communist Party meeting inspired him to join the International Brigades in 1937.{{Cite book |last=Carr |first=Barnes |title=Operation Whisper : The capture of Soviet spies Morris and Lona Cohen |publisher=University Press of New England |isbn=9781611688092 |pages=64}}
Using his background in art, he worked as the advertising manager for the Daily Worker, where he attracted controversy in 1950 for refusing to publish advertisements for a film criticizing the trial of Cardinal Midszenty. {{Cite journal |date=April 15, 1945 |title=Daily Worker Declines Midszenty Film Ads |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_motion-picture-herald-motion-picture-news_1950-04-15_179_3/page/36/mode/2up?q=%22Phil+Bard%22 |journal=The Motion Picture Herald}}Bard became paralyzed on his right side after an illness but he trained himself to draw with his left hand.{{Cite book |last=Soyer |first=Raphael |title=Diary of an Artist |date=1977 |publisher=New Republic Books |isbn=0915220296 |pages=225}} Bard had his first solo exhibition of drawings in 1955 at ACA Galleries{{Cite journal |date=October 1955 |title=Reviews and previews |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/ARTnews/rlRUAAAAMAAJ? |journal=ARTnews |volume=54 |issue=6 |pages=49}} At this time, his work still reflected his left-wing sympathies, depicting human figures "shrunken in body and spirit" in "a world on the point of crumbling".{{Cite journal |last=Finkelstein |first=Sidney |date=November 1955 |title=New Drawings of Phil Bard |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_jewish-currents_1955-11_10_1/page/30 |journal=Jewish Currents |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=30}}
Beyond his political activities and art, Bard continued to support himself as a comic artist, drawing art for the comic book Minute-Man.{{Cite book |title=The Steranko History of Comics |pages=48}}He was the author of one play, an allegorical story of a blind veteran, called Ninth Month Midnight. {{Cite news |date=February 21, 1949 |title=Phil Bard's Interesting First Play 'Ninth Month Midnight' |url=https://archive.org/details/per_daily-worker_daily-worker_1949-02-21_26_36/page/n9/ |work=The Daily Worker |pages=11}} It was performed in 1949 by the Abbe Practical Workshop.{{Cite book |title=The Burns Mantle Best Plays of 1948–1949 |date=1949 |publisher=Dodd, Mead and Company |editor-last=Chapman |editor-first=John |location=New York |pages=427}} Bard died on March 12, 1966, at the Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital in Brooklyn.{{Cite news |date=March 17, 1966 |title=PHIL BARD, ARTIST, VOLUNTEER IN SPAIN |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1966/03/17/archives/phil-bard-artist-volunteer-in-spain.html |access-date=January 24, 2025 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}