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 (1,780 results)
Untitled, 1947

Ben Shahn

Untitled, 1947

Sale Date: April 24, 2024

Auction Closed

Group of 5 Farm Security Administration , 1935–1938

Ben Shahn

Group of 5 Farm Security Administration , 1935–1938

Sale Date: April 10, 2024

Auction Closed

Medicine Show, Huntingdon, Tennessee, 1935

Ben Shahn

Medicine Show, Huntingdon, Tennessee, 1935

Sale Date: April 10, 2024

Auction Closed

Man with Amputated Leg at Shoe Shine Stand,..., 1935

Ben Shahn

Man with Amputated Leg at Shoe Shine Stand,..., 1935

Sale Date: April 10, 2024

Auction Closed

Ben Shahn

"American Gothic" (Rehabilitation Clients,..., 1935

Sale Date: April 10, 2024

Auction Closed

Skowhegan, 1965

Ben Shahn

Skowhegan, 1965

Sale Date: April 4, 2024

Auction Closed

Cotton Pickers, Pulaski County, Arkansas, 1935

Ben Shahn

Cotton Pickers, Pulaski County, Arkansas, 1935

Sale Date: April 4, 2024

Auction Closed

Boone County, Arkansas, The Family of a..., 1935

Ben Shahn

Boone County, Arkansas, The Family of a..., 1935

Sale Date: April 4, 2024

Auction Closed

Resting Figure

Ben Shahn

Resting Figure

Sale Date: March 13, 2024

Auction Closed

Case History

Ben Shahn

Case History

Sale Date: March 13, 2024

Auction Closed

A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND, 1948

Ben Shahn

A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND, 1948

Sale Date: February 29, 2024

Auction Closed

A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND, 1948

Ben Shahn

A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND, 1948

Sale Date: February 29, 2024

Auction Closed

Harlequinade., 1950

Ben Shahn

Harlequinade., 1950

Sale Date: March 14, 2024

Auction Closed

Owl No. 1, 1968

Ben Shahn

Owl No. 1, 1968

Sale Date: March 7, 2024

Auction Closed

Three works from the Rilke portfolio, 1968

Ben Shahn

Three works from the Rilke portfolio, 1968

Sale Date: March 7, 2024

Auction Closed

Man with Gun in Holster, 1950

Ben Shahn

Man with Gun in Holster, 1950

Sale Date: February 29, 2024

Auction Closed

Beside the Dead, 1960

Ben Shahn

Beside the Dead, 1960

Sale Date: February 16, 2024

Auction Closed

How Birds Fly, 1968

Ben Shahn

How Birds Fly, 1968

Sale Date: February 16, 2024

Auction Closed

Many Things

Ben Shahn

Many Things

Sale Date: February 16, 2024

Auction Closed

Beside the Dead

Ben Shahn

Beside the Dead

Sale Date: February 16, 2024

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To Childhood Illness, 1968

Ben Shahn

To Childhood Illness, 1968

Sale Date: February 16, 2024

Auction Closed

One Must Know the Animals, 1968

Ben Shahn

One Must Know the Animals, 1968

Sale Date: February 16, 2024

Auction Closed

Walking Figures, 1960

Ben Shahn

Walking Figures, 1960

Sale Date: February 16, 2024

Auction Closed

Frontispiece

Ben Shahn

Frontispiece

Sale Date: February 16, 2024

Auction Closed