?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,500 - $ 3,500
BEN SHAHN Three Men, Study for Riker's Island Mural<>.
Oil and ink wash, circa 1934-35. 171x114 mm; 6½x4½ inches. Ex-collection the artist, with the label on the frame back.
The current work and the following series of oil sketches were for a New York City commission to design murals for Riker's Island Penitentary with Lou Block, the painter. In addition to sketches from prison visits and talking with inmates, Shahn used his Leica camera to record many impressions of life on the island. These studies also reflect Shahn's interest in using photography as "the raw material of painting." Though accepted by the Mayor and the Commissioner of Corrections, as well as the majority of prisoners who were questioned, the mural cartoons were rejected by the Municipal Art Commission. See Prescott p. xviii.
