Apr 21, 2005 - Sale 2039

Sale 2039 - Lot 138

Price Realized: $ 2,070
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
BEN SHAHN (1898-1969) FROM WORKERS TO FARMERS . . . THANKS! 1944.
40x30 inches. L. I. P. & B.A. New York.
Condition A-: vertical and horizontal folds.
Born in Lithuania in 1898, Shahn immigrated to America with his family when he was 8 years old. From almost the beginning of his artistic career, Shahn's work was political in nature. In 1943, the Council of Industrial Organizations organized the Political Action Committee in order to "protect the political rights of the working man, the returning service man, the farmer, and the small-business man." (Prescott p. 124). In his posters Shahn primarily appealed to farmers and factory workers, playing to their fears of hunger, unemployment, inflation and war. "In words and images this poster transmits the desire of the CIO to stress the common bond between worker and farmer as a means of achieving united political action" (Shahn p. 127). Shahn 149.