(Berlin, Germany, 1891 - 1968, East Berlin, Germany)
1933
Photogravure
14 3/4 x 10 3/8 in. (37.6 x 26.4 cm)
Collection of the Akron Art Museum
Gift of Roger R. Smith
1991.12
© Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
In 1933 banker J. P. Morgan, Jr. (1867-1943) was forced to testify before a U.S. Senate committee investigating whether financiers’ manipulations had brought on the Great Depression. The committee established that Morgan had paid no income tax, which was embarrassing but not illegal. Morgan’s quotes here are Heartfield’s inventions. He suggests that the capitalist tycoons believe themselves more powerful than government by having Morgan utter a phrase used by France’s Louis XIV to assert his power over the French parliament. Pipes labeled “income tax” flow from the pockets of a global work force into the Morgan Trust headquarters in New York.