The Rising Gorge, by S. J. Perelman. Cover art by noted artist Ben Shahn. 1961. Love me some Shahn. I found this book at a flea market shindig in Aurora, OR, of all places. I saw the unmistakable Shahn type on the spine and grabbed it immediately. More about S. J. Perelman. More about Ben Shahn.
A new exhibition at the Jewish Museum in New York chronicles the incredible impact Edith Halpert had on the cultural landscape of the U.S.
Ben Shahn was a Lithuanian-born American artist and member of the Social Realist movement. His expressive figurative paintings, murals, and posters were inexorably tied to his pursuit of social justice and lifelong activism within leftist political beliefs. Shahn unflinchingly critiqued the government and society, as seen in his The Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti (1931–1932), a painting which condemned the controversial conviction of two Italian-American immigrants who were sentenced to death in 1927. “The artist must operate on the assumption that the public consists in the highest order of individual—that he is civilised, cultured, and highly sensitive both to emotional and intellectual contexts,” he once stated. “And while the whole public most certainly does not consist in that sort of individual, still the tendency of art is to create such a public—to lift the level of perceptivity, to increase and enrich the average individual's store of values.” Born in 1898 in Kaunas, Lithuania into an Orthodox Jewish family, he and his family emigrated to New York in 1906. Shahn went on to study at the National Academy of Design in New York and travelled throughout Europe during the 1920s. Upon his return to the United States, he assisted Diego Rivera in 1933 for the painting of his Man at the Crossroads fresco in Rockefeller Center. During the latter part of his career, the artist’s paintings became more symbolic of his own emotional state rather than a description of social injustices. He died in March 1969 in New York City. Today, Shahn’s works are held in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Tate Gallery in London, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., among others. For earlier works by Ben Shahn see parts 1 - 11 also. This is part 12 of a 12-part series on the works of Ben Shahn which features Shahn's photography: In the early 1930s, Shahn shared a Greenwich studio with photographer, Walker Evans, from whom he learned much of the technical craft of photography. It was not long after that Shahn began to discover that taking a photograph brought a certain amount of creative satisfaction and he began to split his time between taking photographs and working on his paintings and drawings. He attended street demonstrations and picket lines regularly and photographed the unemployed and homeless. As in his paintings and drawings from the period, and later in his photographs for the Farm Security Administration (FSA), Shahn was drawn to scenes of human interest. Shahn sought out spontaneous expressions in his subjects in striking, thoughtful compositions. Utilising unusual perspectives, Shahn often used a right-angle viewfinder attached to his camera which allowed him to look down while taking photographs of subjects unaware to his right. The result was candid, humanistic views of Americans in the depression era. 1938 Street Scene, Washington Court House, Ohio gelatin silver print 20.6 x 25.4 cm 1938 Street Scene, Worthington, Ohio gelatin silver print 25.4 x 20.5 cm Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas 1938 Summer 1938, Street Corner, Marysville Ohio gelatin silver print 16.5 x 24.1 cm Collection SFMoMA 1938 Tannery Workers, Springfield, Ohio gelatin silver print 20.6 x 25.5 cm 1938 The Pickaway Livestock Cooperative Association in Central Ohio, "Boys" gelatin silver print 25.4 x 20.5 cm Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas 1938 The Thaxton family, near Mechanicsburg, Ohio gelatin silver print 20.4 x 25.3 cm © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1938 Truck of basket and chair peddler, Route 40, central Ohio gelatin silver print 20.3 x 25.3 cm © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1938 Underpass in central Ohio gelatin silver print 20.3 x 25.4 cm New York Public Library Digital Collections 1938 Untitled ("Hooverville," Circleville, Ohio) gelatin silver print 20.5 x 25.5 cm © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1938 Untitled gelatin silver print 17.8 x 24 cm 1938 Untitled gelatin silver print 20.5 x 25.3 cm 1938 Untitled gelatin silver print 20.5 x 25.4 cm 1938 Untitled gelatin silver print 20.5 x 25.4 cm 1938 Untitled gelatin silver print 20.5 x 25.4 cm 1938 Untitled gelatin silver print 20.5 x 25.5 cm 1938 Untitled gelatin silver print 20.6 x 25.4 cm 1938 Untitled gelatin silver print 20.6 x 25.4 cm 1938 Untitled gelatin silver print 25.4 x 20.7 cm 1938 Used car lot in Columbus, Ohio gelatin silver print 17.8 x 23.8 cm New York Public Library Digital Collections 1938 Post Office, Somerset, Ohio gelatin silver print 20.6 x 25.5 cm 1938 Wagon for hauling threshed wheat from field, central Ohio gelatin silver print 20.5 x 25.5 cm 1938 Waiting for relief commodities, Urbana, Ohio gelatin silver print 20.4 x 25.3 cm © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1938 Waiting for relief commodities, Urbana, Ohio gelatin silver print 20.4 x 25.3 cm © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1938 Waiting for relief commodities, Urbana, Ohio gelatin silver print 20.6 x 25.4 cm 1938 Waiting Outside the Relief Station, Urbana, Ohio gelatin silver print 12.2 x 17.7 cm Collection SFMoMA 1938 Wife of Mr. Thaxton, farmer, near Mechanicsburg, Ohio gelatin silver print 20.3 x 25.4 cm New York Public Library Digital Collections 1938 William A. Swift, once a farmer, now a resident of Circleville's "Hooverville" gelatin silver print 23.8 x 15.3 cm Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas 1938 Woman on Relief, Urbana, Ohio gelatin silver print 20.6 x 25.4 cm 1938 Women at Fourth of July Carnival and Fish Fry, Ashville, Ohio gelatin silver print 16.5 x 24.1 cm MoMA, New York 1938 Wrestling Matches, July 4th Celebration, Ashville, Ohio gelatin silver print 20.6 x 25.4 cm 1941 Scenes of the northern Shenandoah Valley, including the Resettlement Administration's Shenandoah Homesteads photograph Library of Congress, Washington, DC:
Ben Shahn , 1898 -1969, artist Shahn was a painter, photographer, graphic designer and social commentator. He was known for his works...
Ben Shahn's vision and desire to use his art to tell a story and to counter social and political justice have come to exemplify Social Realism.
This exhibition looks into the influence of cross-media artist Ben Shahn (1898-1969) on the development of Japanese art and design during the 20th century.
Identity is a direct, schematic image imbued with ideology, and bears a close relationship to Shahn’s work as an illustrator and poster designer...
During the twentieth century’s Great Migration, the Hickmans were one among many African Americans families looking for affordable housing in Chicago. They were fleeing the sharecropping system of the rural South looking for the jobs, education and freedom promised by the industrialized North...
This piece is a vintage lithograph, signed in the plate by artist Ben Shahn. Best known for his works of social realism, Shahn studied with many great 20th-century artists, including Henri Matisse, Georges Rouault, Pablo Picasso, and Diego Rivera. Printed on fine rag paper and set in a black frame with mat and glass.
Artist: Ben Shahn, Lithuanian/American (1898 - 1969) Title: Memories of Many Nights of Love from the Rilke Portfolio Year: 1968 Medium: Lithograph on Richard de Bas, printed signature (as issued) Edition Size: 750 Size: 22.5 x 17.75 in. (57.15 x 45.09 cm) Printer: Atelier Mourlot, New York Reference: Figure 131 from "The Complete Graphic Works of Ben Shahn" by Kenneth W. Prescott
Ben Shahn (September 12, 1898 March 14, 1969) was a Lithuanianborn American artist. He is best known for his works of social realism, his leftwing political views, and his series of lectures published as The Shape of Content. Shahn was born in Kaunas, Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire,
Book cover design by Ben Shahn for Hawthorne's Short Stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne. New York: Vintage Books, c1946. PS1853 .H3 c.2
Before people were dropping GIFs into Gmail, letter writers were adding illustrations for that emotional or contextual punch.
Ben Shahn biography, exhibitions and artworks. Follow artist. Enquire about Ben Shahn artworks for sale.
During the twentieth century’s Great Migration, the Hickmans were one among many African Americans families looking for affordable housing in Chicago. They were fleeing the sharecropping system of the rural South looking for the jobs, education and freedom promised by the industrialized North...
Explore Thomas B. Huusmann's 181 photos on Flickr!
Hi Everyone, before I start with this week’s post, I would just like to say that I have a Ceramics Sale this Saturday on Instagram at Fishinkblog . It starts at 10 AM UK time and I would real…
