Ben Shahn
Ben Shahn
Ben Shahnwas 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...
NationalityLithuanian
ProfessionArtist
Date of Birth12 September 1898
CountryLithuania
artist style peculiar
Personal style, be it that of Michelangelo, or that of Tintoretto... has always been that peculiar personal rapport which has developed between an artist and his medium.
art class sculpture
Each artist comes to the painting or sculpture because there he can be told that he, the individual, transcends all classes and flouts all predictions. In the work of art, he finds his uniqueness confirmed.
eye vision representation
The popular eye is not untrained; it is only wrongly trained - trained by inferior and insincere visual representations.
art men today
It is the mission of art to remind man from time to time that he is human, and the time is ripe, just now, today, for such a reminder.
taken ordinary done
We tried to present the ordinary in an extraordinary manner. But that's the paradox because the only thing extraordinary about it was that it was so ordinary. Nobody had ever done it before, deliberately. Now it's called documentary, which I suppose is all right ... We just took pictures that cried out to be taken.
art years giving
If you're going to be an artist, all life is your subject. And all your experience is part of your art. A youngster told me recently that he was going to give himself a year to see if he has talent. A year! It takes a lifetime to see if you have it. Painting is total engagement.
art conformity art-is
All art is based on non-conformity.
sky yellow black
How do you paint yellow wheat against a yellow sky? You paint it jet black.
photography choices mediums
I feel, having the choices I had, I felt I had more control over my own medium than I did over photography.
war blood reputation
Every great historic change has been based on nonconformity, has been bought either with the blood or with the reputation of nonconformists.
photography
Now, my knowledge of photography was terribly limited.
photography jobs wish
Now, when I came on to Washington to begin my job, I was so interested in photography at that time that I really would have preferred to work with Stryker than with my department, which was more artistic if you wish.
skills special propaganda
I was brought in, not in the photographic department at all, I was brought in on a thing called Special Skills. I was to do posters, pamphlets, murals, propaganda in general, you know.
art individuality imagine
Only an individual can imagine, invent, or create. The whole audience of art is an audience of individuals.