Ben shahn biography paintings
Ben shahn!
Ben shahn biography paintings
Ben Shahn
American artist (1898–1969)
Ben Shahn (September 12, 1898 – March 14, 1969) was an American artist. He is best known for his works of social realism, his left-wing political views, and his series of lectures published as The Shape of Content.
Biography
Shahn was born in Kaunas, Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire, to Jewish parents Joshua Hessel and Gittel (Lieberman) Shan.[1] His father was exiled to Siberia for possible revolutionary activities in 1902, at which point Shahn, his mother, and two younger siblings moved to Vilkomir (Ukmergė).
In 1906, the family immigrated to the United States where they rejoined Hessel, a carpenter, who had fled Siberia and emigrated to the US by way of South Africa.[1] They settled in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York, where two more siblings were born.
His younger brother drowned at age 17.[2] Shahn began his art career in New York, where he was first trained as a lithographe