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Untitled

1938

Ben Shahn

(American, 1898–1969)
Culture
America
Medium
gelatin silver print
Measurements
Image: 16.5 x 24.1 cm (6 1/2 x 9 1/2 in.); Paper: 20.5 x 25.2 cm (8 1/16 x 9 15/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Samuel J. Lehr 2017.283
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 a person with light skin tone from the midsection, facing right. Standing in a field of dark grass and white flowers, the figure wears denim overalls and a long-sleeved shirt. They pull their clothing away from their left hip with weathered hands, revealing several raised circular marks on the skin. Their sun-worn forearms stand out against the textured fabric.

Untitled

1938

Ben Shahn

(American, 1898–1969)
America

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