May 21, 2009 - Sale 2181

Sale 2181 - Lot 117

Price Realized: $ 1,599
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,000
BEN SHAHN (1898-1969) BREAK REACTION'S GRIP / REGISTER-VOTE. Circa 1946.
41x29 inches 105x73 cm. L.I.P & B.A., New York.
Condition B+: repaired tears, creases and abrasions in margins and image; restored losses at edges and in corners; restoration along vertical and horizontal folds.
Here, in the years after World War II, Shahn takes on a new threat: reactionaries. "The one arm, dressed in coat sleeve and shirt cuff, with hand clasping a colorful map of the United States, represents the country's supposedly small, but powerful, reactionary forces. The poster suggests that however strong, their power could be broken by the greater strength of the progressive forces, as represented by the larger, sleeveless arm" (Prescott p. 131). Prescott 154, Word and Image, p. 91, Modern Poster 198.