Ben Shahn

(American, 1898–1969)

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 civilized, 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 on September 12, 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 traveled 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 on March 14, 1969 in New York, NY. 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.

Ben Shahn Artworks

Ben Shahn (1,821 results)
To days of childhood that are still..., 1968

Ben Shahn

To days of childhood that are still..., 1968

Sale Date: March 12, 2010

Auction Closed

One must know the animals (from for the sake , 1968

Ben Shahn

One must know the animals (from for the sake , 1968

Sale Date: March 12, 2010

Auction Closed

Philadelphia Museum of Art

Ben Shahn

Philadelphia Museum of Art

Sale Date: March 7, 2010

Auction Closed

Composition, 1963

Ben Shahn

Composition, 1963

Sale Date: March 9, 2010

Auction Closed

Television antenna, 1952

Ben Shahn

Television antenna, 1952

Sale Date: March 4, 2010

Auction Closed

A good man is hard to find, 1948

Ben Shahn

A good man is hard to find, 1948

Sale Date: February 4, 2010

Auction Closed

Tv antennae (Prescott 20), 1953

Ben Shahn

Tv antennae (Prescott 20), 1953

Sale Date: June 21, 2009

Auction Closed

African head, 1956

Ben Shahn

African head, 1956

Sale Date: November 20, 2009

Auction Closed

Birds over the city, 1968

Ben Shahn

Birds over the city, 1968

Sale Date: November 5, 2009

Auction Closed

Psalm 133, 1965

Ben Shahn

Psalm 133, 1965

Sale Date: November 5, 2009

Auction Closed

Tv antennae, 1953

Ben Shahn

Tv antennae, 1953

Sale Date: November 5, 2009

Auction Closed

Silent music, 1950

Ben Shahn

Silent music, 1950

Sale Date: November 5, 2009

Auction Closed

For the sake of a single verse, 1968

Ben Shahn

For the sake of a single verse, 1968

Sale Date: November 15, 2009

Auction Closed

McCarthy peace, 1968

Ben Shahn

McCarthy peace, 1968

Sale Date: November 4, 2009

Auction Closed

All that is beautiful, 1965

Ben Shahn

All that is beautiful, 1965

Sale Date: November 3, 2009

Auction Closed

Untitled (study for Andante), 1965

Ben Shahn

Untitled (study for Andante), 1965

Sale Date: September 16, 2009

Auction Closed

Roads to unknown regions (from the Rilke..., 1968

Ben Shahn

Roads to unknown regions (from the Rilke..., 1968

Sale Date: September 24, 2009

Auction Closed

Martin Luther King (collab. w/Stefan Martin), 1966

Ben Shahn

Martin Luther King (collab. w/Stefan Martin), 1966

Sale Date: September 24, 2009

Auction Closed

Wife and child of a sharecropper, Mrs...., 1935

Ben Shahn

Wife and child of a sharecropper, Mrs...., 1935

Sale Date: October 8, 2009

Auction Closed

Terrace

Ben Shahn

Terrace

Sale Date: September 11, 2009

Auction Closed

Flowers, 1968

Ben Shahn

Flowers, 1968

Sale Date: July 24, 2009

Auction Closed

Phoenix, 1952

Ben Shahn

Phoenix, 1952

Sale Date: July 24, 2009

Auction Closed

Hallelujah, 1970

Ben Shahn

Hallelujah, 1970

Sale Date: June 23, 2009

Auction Closed

Martin Luther King, 1970

Ben Shahn

Martin Luther King, 1970

Sale Date: June 18, 2009

Auction Closed