Ben Shahn

Ben Shahn

Born: September 12, 1898, Kaunas, Lithuania 

Died: March 14, 1969, New York City, NY 

Artwork: Untitled (Four Men, One Playing a Guitar), More 

Periods: Social realism, Modern art 

Education: National Academy of Design, City College of New York, New York University

 Ben Shahn was a Lithuanian-born 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.Although Shahn attended New York University as a biology student in 1919, he went on to pursue art at City College in 1921 and then at the National Academy of Design. After his marriage to Tillie Goldstein in 1924, the two traveled through North Africa and then to Europe, where he made "the traditional artist pilgrimage."There he studied great European artists such as Henri Matisse, Raoul Dufy, Georges Rouault, Pablo Picasso and Paul Klee. Contemporaries who would make a profound impact on Shahn’s work and career include artists Walker Evans, Diego Rivera and Jean Charlot.