?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
BEN SHAHN Alphabet of Love and Creation.
Conté crayon frottage (rubbing) in black on cream Japan paper, circa 1950s. 715x580 mm; 29 1/4x23 inches, full margins. Signed in pencil, lower right, and with the artist's red ink stamp, lower right.
Shahn (1898-1969) created a screenprint of the same image, issued in an edition of approximately 80, in 1957 (Prescott 24). The artist employed a frottage of this subject again as the background for a unique screenprint, Alphabet and Maximus, 1966 (Prescott 63). The current work is unique, achieved with the aid of a cardboard cutout overlayed with a sheet of Japan paper, which the artist gently rubbed with a black conté crayon to produce the design. This was also the design for Shahn's ink stamp (or chop mark), turned 90 degrees on its side.
