Artwork Page for Public Auction, Central Ohio

Details / Information for Public Auction, Central Ohio

Public Auction, Central Ohio

1938

Ben Shahn

(American, 1898–1969)
Culture
America
Medium
gelatin silver print
Measurements
Image: 16.2 x 24.2 cm (6 3/8 x 9 1/2 in.); Paper: 20.4 x 25.4 cm (8 1/16 x 10 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Samuel J. Lehr 2016.571
Copyright
© Estate of Ben Shahn / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location
Not on view
Print

Description

American painter and printmaker Ben Shahn also had a significant career as a photographer in the 1930s surveying the impact of the Great Depression on the American people. In July and August 1938, the Farm Security Administration, a federal agency, commissioned Shahn to cover the harvest in Central Ohio. His photographs constitute an invaluable in-depth portrait of rural and small town life in 1930s Ohio.
A horizontally oriented black-and-white photograph depicts several men and a boy with light skin tones among metal farm equipment. Centrally, a man in denim overalls and a fedora smokes a cigarette, facing a small boy in a sun hat and overalls. Horse-drawn plows dominate the foreground. In the background, a large barn sits to our left, while other men gather near a parked car under trees in the distance.

Public Auction, Central Ohio

1938

Ben Shahn

(American, 1898–1969)
America

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