The Parade
Excerpts of a story in 55 drawings
1957
H. BITTNER AND COMPANY / PUBLISHERS NEW YORK
Si Lewen: The Parade (1 of 36)
Si Lewen: The Parade (2 of 36)
Si Lewen: The Parade (3 of 36)
Si Lewen: The Parade (4 of 36)
Si Lewen: The Parade (5 of 36)
Si Lewen: The Parade (6 of 36)
Si Lewen: The Parade (7 of 36)
Si Lewen: The Parade (8 of 36)
Si Lewen: The Parade (9 of 36)
Si Lewen: The Parade (10 of 36)
Si Lewen: The Parade (11 of 36)
Si Lewen: The Parade (12 of 36)
Si Lewen: The Parade (13 of 36)
Si Lewen: The Parade (14 of 36)
Si Lewen: The Parade (15 of 36)
Si Lewen: The Parade (16 of 36)
Si Lewen: The Parade (17 of 36)
Si Lewen: The Parade (18 of 36)
Si Lewen: The Parade (19 of 36)
Si Lewen: The Parade (20 of 36)
Si Lewen: The Parade (21 of 36)
Si Lewen: The Parade (22 of 36)
Si Lewen: The Parade (23 of 36)
Si Lewen: The Parade (24 of 36)
Si Lewen: The Parade (25 of 36)
Si Lewen: The Parade (26 of 36)
Si Lewen: The Parade (27 of 36)
Si Lewen: The Parade (28 of 36)
Si Lewen: The Parade (29 of 36)
Si Lewen: The Parade (30 of 36)
Si Lewen: The Parade (31 of 36)
Si Lewen: The Parade (32 of 36)
Si Lewen: The Parade (33 of 36)
Si Lewen: The Parade (34 of 36)
Si Lewen: The Parade (35 of 36)
Si Lewen: The Parade (36 of 36)
Si Lewen’s Parade is a timeless story told in a language that knows no country—a wordless epic that, despite its muteness, is more powerful than the written or the spoken word. First published in 1957, The Parade is a lost classic, newly discovered, remastered, and presented by Art Spiegelman, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Maus. Reproduced in a unique two-sided accordion-fold format with an extensive overview of the artist’s career on the verso, The Parade is a celebration of art and the story of recurring war as Si Lewen experienced it over the past 90 years, watching the joyful parades that marked the end of World War I lead into the death marches of World War II and the Korean War. As The Parade unfolds, the reader is taken on an unforgettable journey of sequential images.
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Editorial Reviews
“An eloquent and vigorous protest against war’s horror and futility”
— The New York Times, from an exhibition review of The Parade, 1953
“The Parade is a powerfully moving free-jazz dirge of a book that depicts mankind’s recurring war fever. It remains sadly urgent and relevant today.”
— Art Spiegelman, from his introduction
“Nothing can equal the psychological effect of real art … Our time needs you and your work!”
— Albert Einstein, from a letter to Si Lewen, 1951
“A compelling testament to Lewen’s gifts for stirring our souls with the silent grace of painted panel after panel after panel. As a narrative, it is music by which to mourn Man’s fate.”
— The Washington Post
From the mahJ to The Met
An announcement from the mahJ in Paris:
“In 2021–2022, the mahJ presented for the first time the drawings of the graphic series The Parade, created in 1950 by Si Lewen (1918–2016). This exhibition rediscovered an artist little known in Europe, who had nevertheless left his mark on the American art scene in the post-war period, with a work combining drawings, paintings and collages. Fifty-five of the sixty-three drawings in The Parade have just entered the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) collections in New York, where a complete presentation is planned. This striking black-and-white sequel is both a realistic and allegorical account of the rise of Nazism, war, the Holocaust and the reconciliation of peoples. Published in 1957 as a book with very few copies printed, Parade became a rare work until its republication in 2016 under the direction of Art Spiegelman, author of Maus, an admirer of Si Lewen's graphic and narrative talents. In France, it is available at Flammarion.”