Ben Shahn

by Howard Greenfeld

Ben Shahn's presence as an artist through several decades of American life was as pervasive as that of any other painter of his time. Beginning in the 30s, he created bold and powerful paintings of often controversial subjects, and in particular his portraits of Sacco and Vanzetti caused a storm whenever they were exhibited. After working as an assistant to Diego Rivera on the ill-fated Rockefeller Center mural, he began creating his own arresting murals - in Washington, New York, and New Jersey - which are among the finest such works ever painted in this country. He also excelled as a photographer as one of the distinguished group known as the FSA photographers, which included Dorothea Lange and his close friend Walker Evans. During World War II, he produced some of the most striking end effective propaganda posters, before returning again to painting, always choosing subjects that touched a nerve and were just as often politically powerful. Shahn also entered the world of advertising