?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 5,000
BEN SHAHN Invest in Your Country's Future Pass the American Youth Act<>.
Gouache on smooth cream wove paper, circa 1935. 304x456 mm; 12x18 inches. Annotated in pencil, lower left. Ex-collection the artist, with the estate ink stamp verso.
Franklin D. Rossevelt established the National Youth Adminsitration, a division of the WPA, in 1935. This program helped those between the ages of 16 and 25 who, because they wanted to continue with their education, were given part-time jobs. More than 700,000 students enrolled in this program. The high levels of unemployment meant that part-time jobs were extremely difficult to find and most of the schemes were based in the cities and large towns.
The earliest poster referenced by Prescott is We Demand the National Textile Act<>, color wood engraving with letter press text, 1935 (Prescott 137). Either the current design was never adopted for use as a poster, or there are no known extant copies. A pencil drawing from this period, showing a crowd of marchers with banners promoting the National Youth Act, was exhibited at "Ben Shahn, Drawings: 1920s-1960s," DC Moore Gallery, New York, November 15-December 29, 2000. During this time, Shahn was developing a mural scheme for Riker's Island under the WPA (see lots ).
