Movement, Style, School or Type of Art:
Social Realism
Ben Shahn is most closely associated with this movement, due to coming to prominence on the strength of his socially-concious paintings and FSA photography of the Depression Era.
Date and Place of Birth:
September 12, 1898, Kovno, Lithuania
Life:
It's hard to know what to spotlight in this instance. Ben Shahn was passionate about social injustice, and used painting, photography, commercial art, graphic design - and words! (he was that rare artist able to articulate the process of art) - to make his points. He was a Professor of Poetry at Harvard, and was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee (1959) to defend his "Communist" views. Perhaps he'd not have been too unhappy with, "Best known for telling visual stories."
Important Works:
- The Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti (series), 1931-32
- Jersey Homesteads Mural, 1937-38
- Portrait of Myself When Young, 1943
- The Red Stairway, 1944
- Liberation, 1945
- Mask, 1956-57
Date and Place of Death:
March 14, 1969, New York City
Sources and Further Reading
- Greenfeld, Howard. Ben Shahn: An Artist's Life.
New York : Random House, Inc., 1998.
- Kao, Deborah Martin; Katzman, Laura and Webster, Jenna.
Ben Shahn's New York: The Photography of Modern Times.
Cambridge and New Haven : Harvard University Art Museums and Yale University Press, 2000.
- Shahn, Ben. The Shape of Content.
Cambridge : Harvard University Press, 1957.
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