BIOGRAPHY
Ben Shahn was a painter, photographer and lithographer of Lithuanian birth. He was born into a family of Jewish craftsmen who emigrated in 1906, settling in New York. From 1913 to 1917, Shahn served as an apprentice in a lithography shop in Manhattan, and in the evenings attended high school in Brooklyn. In 1916, he enrolled in a life-drawing class at the Art Students League. After studying biology, first at New York University (1919) and then at City College, New York (1919–22), he entered the National Academy of Design to pursue a career as an artist.
After marrying in 1922, Shahn travelled with his wife to North Africa, Spain, Italy and France, where he studied both the art of the past as well as the works of Matisse, Dufy, Rouault, Picasso and Klee. On his return from Europe in 1925, Shahn and his wife moved to Brooklyn Heights, where he met Walker Evans, with whom he began to share a studio.
Ben Shahn was fond of satirizing the social scene with his art. For instance, his series of pictures of the trial of the anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti--such as The Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti (1931–2), did much to establish his reputation, and led to further series centered around noted trials with political implications. In the 1930s, he produced a number of murals, including one with Diego Rivera for the Rockefeller Center, New York, and worked as a photographer for the Federal Art Project. Much of Shahn's most impactful work emerged from his employment by the Farm Security Administration (FSA.; 1935–8) to document the plight of American agricultural workers (e.g. Cotton Pickers, Pulaski County, Arkansas, 1935). Many of Shahn’s lithographs were linked to his photographs and his experience with the FSA, such as Years of Dust (1936). Later, during World War II, he would produce strident posters for the Office of War Information, with the same verve as his photographs in the 1930s.
After World War II, Shahn's style grew fantastic and allegorical, such as in Italian Landscape (1943), a somber and symbolic depiction of a funeral. This piece and others like it prefigured a new air of melancholy and loneliness which would inflect Shahn's post-war work, which furthermore featured an increased focus on Hebraic subjects, such as in Identity (1968).
Ben Shahn was a painter, photographer and lithographer of Lithuanian birth. He was born into a family of Jewish craftsmen who emigrated in 1906, settling in New York. From 1913 to 1917, Shahn served as an apprentice in a lithography shop in Manhattan, and in the evenings attended high school in Brooklyn. In 1916, he enrolled in a life-drawing class at the Art Students League. After studying biology, first at New York University (1919) and then at City College, New York (1919–22), he entered the National Academy of Design to pursue a career as an artist.
After marrying in 1922, Shahn travelled with his wife to North Africa, Spain, Italy and France, where he studied both the art of the past as well as the works of Matisse, Dufy, Rouault, Picasso and Klee. On his return from Europe in 1925, Shahn and his wife moved to Brooklyn Heights, where he met Walker Evans, with whom he began to share a studio.
Ben Shahn was fond of satirizing the social scene with his art. For instance, his series of pictures of the trial of the anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti--such as The Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti (1931–2), did much to establish his reputation, and led to further series centered around noted trials with political implications. In the 1930s, he produced a number of murals, including one with Diego Rivera for the Rockefeller Center, New York, and worked as a photographer for the Federal Art Project. Much of Shahn's most impactful work emerged from his employment by the Farm Security Administration (FSA.; 1935–8) to document the plight of American agricultural workers (e.g. Cotton Pickers, Pulaski County, Arkansas, 1935). Many of Shahn’s lithographs were linked to his photographs and his experience with the FSA, such as Years of Dust (1936). Later, during World War II, he would produce strident posters for the Office of War Information, with the same verve as his photographs in the 1930s.
After World War II, Shahn's style grew fantastic and allegorical, such as in Italian Landscape (1943), a somber and symbolic depiction of a funeral. This piece and others like it prefigured a new air of melancholy and loneliness which would inflect Shahn's post-war work, which furthermore featured an increased focus on Hebraic subjects, such as in Identity (1968).
RESOURCES
1. Ben Shan, Joseph Goldyne, and Stephen Spender ("I Think Continually of Those who Were Truly Great")
2. Ben Shahn and the poetry of Wilfred Owen
3. Nocturne
4. Works of art by Ben Shahn in the Crystal Bridges Museum collection:
Self-Portrait Among Churchgoers
1. Ben Shan, Joseph Goldyne, and Stephen Spender ("I Think Continually of Those who Were Truly Great")
2. Ben Shahn and the poetry of Wilfred Owen
3. Nocturne
4. Works of art by Ben Shahn in the Crystal Bridges Museum collection:
Self-Portrait Among Churchgoers
REFERENCES
Biography adapted from: M. Sue Kendall. "Shahn, Ben." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. <http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T077970>.
Artwork behind title: Ben Shahn's Peter and the Wolf (detail)
Biography adapted from: M. Sue Kendall. "Shahn, Ben." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. <http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T077970>.
Artwork behind title: Ben Shahn's Peter and the Wolf (detail)
