What is Left- and what is right-

 The passion and polemics of Ben Shahn's Art-

Reflections on the art of BenShahn and the show at Jewish Museum in NYC. And further commentarty on the influence on the author's father's paintings.- Brian Keeler

Above- the author with a print of Ben Shahn's work titled "A Good Man is Hard to Find." A reproduction of the work was owned by Brian Keeler's father and on display in the elder Keeler's studio in Wyalusing, PA.

Making Art Relevant - The Shahn Legacy

The relevance and importance of the work now being featured at the Jewish Museum in New York CIty is remarkable for many reasons.  Ben Shahn is not exactly a household name, but his art was featured in a retrospective in 1947 at MOMA in NYC.    So I will not blame you if you've not heard of this important American painter.

My first encounter with Shahn came from my father, William Keeler as he had his work, a reproduction on the wall of his studio and later it hung in the bathroom where it is still on the wall. The exhibit of Shan's work also opened me up to how my father's work was influenced by Shahn.  The social realism and genre scenes come to mind first in this regard but also the political and social justice aspects.

Above- Shan's study for the Jersey Homestead mural. It depicts Jewish garment workers in the process of relocating from sweatshops in NYC to New Jersey.

Politics and Pigments- Art for a cause

The leftist politics are the takeaway here and it is simply amazing how the causes that Shahn embraced are even more relevant and crucial today.  With so many of the abuses of power that were on the rise or just recurring- they are rearing their ugly heads even more extremely now- we can view the art of Shahn as prescient, timely and universal.  He addressed and confronted so many aspects of political abuse, racism and fascism in his emotionally charged paintings and we now appreciate these works for their verve and forthrightness.  His art was used as a medium for social change and to confront injustice.

The image that my father had framed was in the exhibit, and this large-scale lithograph, based on what was probably a gouache painting,  depicts two fellows at a piano that I had not really recognized- at that time.  It appealed to me as a stylized genre painting and I had regarded the sheet music on the piano as noteworthy.  The titles of the swing tunes I recognize as songs my father played and that I now play with my combo.   For example, "It Had To Be You" and "Good Man is Hard to Find" seemed to be the crux of the work.  "The Little White Lies" tune, however, is a key to the politics behind the painting.  It shows Dewey and Truman as opportunists seeking the limelight with Dewey lounging across the top of the piano.  

The painting was created to promote the progressive party in the 1948 US presidential election and the candidate Henry Wallace. "The Good Man is Hard to Find" aspect is a nun-too subtle swipe at the men who were portrayed here. Instead of depicting Wallace, Shahn showed Truman and Dewey.

The visitor to this retrospective is greeted by a large wall text with the bold heading touting Shahn's nonconformity.  As a Jewish immigrant from eastern Europe between the two wars, we appreciate his trailblazing courage and his ability to speak to a broad audience. The text draws our attention to his driving credo of the "human prospect" which today we could  align with the human potential movement or even with humanism of the Renaissance.  His paintings being mostly figurative or portraits in a very stylized manner- if not purposeful caricature, underscore this.

Here is a quote from Shahn underscoring the idea of nonconformity-

Nonconformity is the basic pre-condition of art, as it is the pre-condition of good thinking and therefore of growth and greatness in a people.  The degree of nonconfomity present- and tolerated in society might be looked at as a symptom of health.

Wise words indeed and supportive of the creative urge in us all.  We can see evidence of this credo in Shahn's imagery which was certainly not academic or in any specific tradition.  He forged out his identity and expressed his vision in the smithy of his soul and as James Joyce's character, Nathaniel Bloom believed, he manifested this from the unconsciousness of his race. 

The genre scenes are the group that remind me of my father's work as well. For example, a large painting of youths playing handball in a cityscape is very modernist to my way of thinking. It is very design oriented and austere and graphic.  My father did a painting around the same era also of cityscape called "Fox and Geese." It shows a group of children in a winter city at play.  I am sure that my father, having studied at Parsons School of Design in NYC after WWII, would know of the work of Shahn.  

Above- Ben Shahn's genre scene, a 1939 gouache painting of handball players. Shahn said that the painting was about social relationships. Even though all the figures face away from the viewer we appreciate the design and simplicity. The verticals lines and empty space of tan add to the effectiveness of the images.

The confrontation of racism is part of the show at the Jewish Museum.  This confrontation is illustrated in a watercolor of 1939 titled, "Father Coughlin."  Coughlin was a pro-fascist antisemite radio host with millions of listeners.  His firebrand and incendiary rhetoric presaged the modern pundits brandishing their own contemporary brand of hate-mongering. We think of the Nazi's in prewar Germany doing the same as the current administration in the US, trying to control the media or threatening the press with frivolous lawsuits. The embracing of the KKK and other extremists of our era harkens back to the 20th century of Shahn with Hitler and Mussolini. 

Did my father share Shahn's social agenda?  It is hard to say exactly but I suspect from his interest in Shahn and other artists of the era that he would have felt an affinity for their causes. My father was a supporter of FDR and the New Deal Art, of which figure into this exhibit.  I still have my father's FDR campaign button. 

Above- A tempera painting by the author's father, William W. Keeler titled "Waiting." The graveyard scene with gravediggers waiting in the wing shows a debt to the work of Ben Shahn for its social realism, muted palette and observation of life in an unpicturesque manner.

There is another painting of Shahn's that is emblematic of the era and the vitriolic sentiments in government and courts.  It is his portrayal of two Italian immigrants,  Niccolo Sacco and Bartomeo Vanzetti,  who were convicted  and sentenced to death by a biased judge for murder. The two were purportedly anarchists but the evidence was flimsy at best. The judge was overheard bragging about putting the two socialists to death. There was a frenzy of anti-immigrant hatred prevalent at the time.  Are there overtones and similarities today? Certainly, and we only look at immigrants being exported to horrific prisons in mass without due process.   Shahn felt these Italian men to be convicted in a way similar to Pontius Pilate's condemnation of Jesus and further saw the execution with parallels to the crucifixion.

In regards to the correlations between Christ's suffering and the Renaissance here is a quote from the review by Blake Gopnik in the New York Times.

That achievement comes especially clear in the colorful posters he made during World War II for the American Office of War Information, which show figures, at life size or larger, suffering under the Nazis and their partners. Those figures might as well be Christian martyrs on the walls of a Renaissance church. (Shahn reworked one poster about Nazi slave labor into a painting called “1943 AD,” in which a stretch of barbed wire becomes a crown of thorns on one of the enslaved.)

We think of other artists of the 20th century with similar interest in the common man, worker's rights, unions, and social causes. Rockwell Kent comes to mind and Grant Wood also created canvases with an overt political and social commentary.   My father was a fan of Grant Wood as well and he was well read about these artists and their influences.  And the Mexican muralist, Diego Rivera is part of the 20th century artists with a decidedly liberal sensibility. His famous work in New York for Rockefeller was infamously hacked off the Wall because of its overt anti-capitalist message. Coincidentally, Shahn was assisting Rivera on this project in 1933.

Further, Gopnik notes-

Back in 1933, in an essay for the Downtown Gallery show, Rivera called Shahn “magnificent,” and said his paintings captured “a complete portrait” of the reality Shahn had grown up in. At the Jewish Museum a century later, they seem to offer a portrait of our reality, too.

It is interesting to note that there was a frenzy of the Red Scare and the Congressional hearings led by Joseph McCarthy.  There was a paranoia and fear prevalent as everyday Americans were dragged in front of Congressional inquisitors and abused publicly.  Overtones again to the policies of intimidation and retribution by the current unhinged president are too overwhelming to ignore. In fact, we could say that in today's world the fascist and authoritarians are prevalent throughout the world more so than the lead up to WWII.

The catalog for the show at the Jewish Museum opens with Shahn referring to the British artist WIlliam Blake.  Here is a quote from Shahn.

Righteous indignation over injustice was the truest form of worship of God.   And I guess I am filled with righteous indignation most of the time....

An interesting observation that equates political acitivism with seeking divinity. There is controversy over whether the two should be mixed. Then, again, we saw that the late Pope Francis made stands for environmental causes and the Dali Lama continues to oppose the Chinese invasion of his homeland.

Here's a quote regarding the above passage. This one from a review of the show by the Financial Times.

This constructive ire came out as a mixture of empathy and dissent- a style that was direct, eloquent, sincere, and muscular. We could use a few more Ben Shahns right now.

Well said,  And indeed,  there is news continually of assaults on human dignity from the White House.  Even to the extent that in today's NY Times there was an article about the President attempting to fire the director of the National Portrait Gallery in DC.  Even art is under attack.