Sacco and vanzetti painting ben shahn biography images

Ben Shahn rose to prominence as a leading proponent of Social Realism, a style that responded to the social, economic, and political conditions of the Great Depression.

In Shahn's early and iconic tempera-on-canvas painting, Sacco and Vanzetti lie in coffins in the foreground in front of a colonnaded neoclassical courthouse .

The Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti belongs to a series of twenty-three works that Shahn based on the controversial trial of Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, who in , despite weak evidence, were found guilty of killing two men during the robbery of a Massachusetts shoe factory. In , after years of legal appeals, the presiding judge, Webster Thayer, sentenced the two men to death, and the decision—which many believed reflected bias against their ethnic background and anarchist beliefs—was met with worldwide protests.

Each image represents an episode from the story in a pared-down, graphic style that conveys a sense of directness and immediacy. Behind them, Judge Thayer is visible through a window, his right hand raised as if taking an oath. The allusion in the title to the Passion of Christ suggests that the work is a broader meditation on martyrdom and injustice.

Here was something to paint! Ben Shahn September 12, — March 14, was an American artist.

In this large-scale canvas, Shahn vividly portrays all the characters: Sacco and Vanzetti lying dead in their coffins; the unsympathetic commissioners who.

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. View the full Wikipedia entry. Accessed January 31, Artist, graphic artist, lithographer, muralist, painter, photographer. View the full Getty record. Ben Shahn Haggadah Ben Shahn Psalm Ben Shahn McCarthy Peace c.

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