Sándor Ék or Alex Keil
(pseudonyms for Sándor Leicht; Hungarian, 1902–1975) 

Utilizing All Means, Strike
Pencil on paper mounted on board, 16 7/8 x 12 1/4” (42.8 x 31.1 cm)

Born Sándor Leicht to a working-class family that lived on the outskirts of Budapest, the artist and lifelong committed Communist was actively involved in the short-lived Hungarian Soviet Republic of 1919. With the failure of the regime, Leicht fled to Vienna and then to Moscow, where he studied for some months at VKhUTEMAS (Higher State Artistic and Technical Workshops). Thereafter, he moved between Berlin, Paris, and Amsterdam before settling in Berlin in 1925, where he adopted the pseudonym Alex Keil (though he sometimes signed his works as Alex or simply with an X). In Berlin, he designed propaganda for the Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (KPD; German Communist Party) and was a founding member of the Assoziation revolutionärer bildender Künstler Deutschlands (A.R.B.K.D.; Association of Revolutionary German Artists). In 1933, he emigrated to the USSR, where he remained until returning to Hungary as a Soviet Red Army soldier in 1944. Upon his homecoming, the artist changed his name to Sándor Ék, under which he worked until his death in 1975.

Sándor Leicht 

The following drawings promote strikes, war opposition, and the triumph of Communism. The texts are in Hungarian, but the works are undated and unsigned. It is unclear if they were ever reproduced.

Left: Our Weapon: Strike
Pencil on paper mounted on board, 16 3/4 x 12 1/2” (42.5 x 31.7 cm)

Right: Utilizing All Means, Strike
Pencil on paper mounted on board, 17 1/8 x 12 1/2” (43.4 x 31.7 cm)

Strike
Pencil on paper mounted on board, 12 5/8 x 16 3/4” (32 x 42.5 cm)

Left: Strike
Pencil on paper mounted on board, 17 x 11” (43.1 x 27.9 cm)
Right: Strike
Pencil on paper, 14 x 11 1/4” (35.5 x 28.5 cm)

Left: Strike
Pencil on paper mounted on board, 16 7/8 x 12 1/2” (42.8 x 31.7 cm)
Right: Strike
Pencil on paper mounted on board, 17 1/4 x 12 3/4” (43.8 x 32.3 cm)

No More War!
Pencil on paper mounted on board, 17 x 12 3/4” (45 x 32.3 cm)

Untitled (War Cripple)
Pencil on paper, 9 3/8 x 12 1/2” (23.8 x 31.7 cm)

No More War
Pencil on paper mounted on board, 17 x 12 1/2” (44.1 x 31.7 cm)

Socialism Builds a New World But First Destroys Capitalism
Pencil on paper mounted on board, 12 1/2 x 17 1/8” (31.7 x 43.4 cm)

Proletarians of the World Unite
Pencil on paper mounted on board, 16 3/4 x 11 1/2” (42.5 x 29.2 cm)

Alex Keil

The following works include German text or are signed “Keil” or “Alex.”

Jobs Program: There Will Be Work in the Fall, So Unemployment Will Decrease As a Result of the Job Creation Program
India ink, gouache, pencil, charcoal, and cut-and-pasted printed text,
11 x 15 7/8” (30.1 x 40.3 cm)
Signed in image, lower right: Keil

A. Keil-Gü (Alex Keil and Günther Wagner)
Mothers, Have You Born Your Children for This?
Register Against Armored Cruisers and War!, c. 1928
Lithograph, 27 3/4 x 36 1/2” (70.4 x 92.7 cm)
Printed in image, lower left: A. Keil–Gü

[Possibly Alex Keil]
Free Germany from Fascism! Fight with the Communists! Vote List 3!, 1932
Lithograph, 12 3/4 x 7 7/8” (32.4 x 19.9 cm)
Inscribed verso (unknown hand): Keil 1932

Alex (Alex Keil)
Bread, Work, Freedom: Assembly, c. 1928–1933
Lithograph, 27 1/2 x 19 1/2” (70 x 49.6 cm)
Printed in image, lower right: ALEX

September 20, 2022