Harry Sternberg was a printmaker known for his focus on social injustices, labor issues, and the effects of war and fascism on the common man.

Sternberg was New York-born and raised in the Jewish tradition. As a child, he was very, very dedicated to his artistic studies. By the age of twelve, he was taking classes at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. By 1927, he was in the Art Students League, an atelier reserved for artists seeking the highest education of technical skill and craft, while still in high school. He later became a teacher there for two days a week in 1933 and kept that post for thirty-four years after that. Hell, a great deal of us were just playing video games or playing kickball in junior high, content with stick figures and coloring outside the lines.

He met Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in 1934, who left lasting influence on Sternberg as he adopted left-leaning socialist and communist ideals, joining the American Artists Congress as one of its most fervent members.

Sternberg also owned an allegedly illegal sword cane which he could use to kick the ass of anyone who’d dare cross him. As a teenager, he was very interested in fencing, sparring with his studio-mate with secondhand rapiers. Seeking a teacher, he found his way into the New York Athletic Club. It was there that the young boy got his backside handed to him by none other than Giorgio Santelli, U.S. Olympic fencing coach and winner of the gold medal for Italy in the sabre competitions at the 1920 Summer Olympics. Santelli, reputed as the best fencing coach in the 20th century, offered lessons for the young Sternberg for free.