Contemporary American Sculpture

Arts of the Americas

1940

Ben Shahn (American, 1898–1969)

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: Ben Shahn
Title: Contemporary American Sculpture
Place: United States (Artist's nationality)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1940
Medium: Tempera on paper mounted to hardboard
Inscriptions: Signed and inscribed recto, bottom-right corner, in black pigment: Ben Shahn ‘40
Dimensions: 53.2 × 76.5 cm (21 × 30 1/8 in.)
Credit Line: Arts of the Americas Discretionary Fund; Wesley M. Dixon Jr., Roger and J. Peter McCormick, Goodman, and Mr. and Mrs. Frederick G. Wacker endowment funds; through prior gift of Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson; Ada Turnbull Hertle, Stan and Polly Stone, Mr. and Mrs. John W. Puth, and Jay W. McGreevy endowment funds; Luella Thomas Fund; Delphine G. Schoen Trust and Dr. Julian Archie endowment funds
Reference Number: 2023.1

Whitney Museum of American Art, Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Sculpture, Watercolors, Drawings, and Prints, exh. cat. (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1941), no. 157.
Dorothy C. Miller and Alfred H. Barr, Jr., American Realists and Magic Realists, exh. cat. (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1943), 52–53, 67, no. 225.
The Downtown Gallery, Shahn Paintings, exh. cat. (New York: The Downtown Gallery, 1944), no. 13.
Whitney Museum of American Art, Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Sculpture, Watercolors, Drawings, and Prints, exh. cat. (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1944), no. 135.
University of Minnesota, 40 American Painters, 1940–1950, exh. cat. (Minneapolis: The Gallery, 1951), n.p., no. 65 (ill.).
James Thrall Soby, Ben Shahn: Paintings (New York: George Braziller, 1963), no. 18.
Jeffrey Richmond-Moll (ed.), Extra Ordinary: Magic, Mystery and Imagination in American Realism, exh. cat. (Athens, GA: Georgia Museum of Art, 2021), 213, cat. 57 (ill.).
Dr. Jeffrey Richmond-Moll and Dr. Beth Harris, “Ben Shahn, Contemporary American Sculpture,” in Smarthistory, July 8, 2021, accessed January 18, 2023, https://smarthistory.org/ben-shahn-contemporary-american-sculpture/.

New York, Julien Levy Gallery, Paintings by Ben Shahn, May 7–29, 1940.
New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Sculpture, Watercolors, Drawings, and Prints, Jan. 15–Feb. 9, 1941, no. 157.
New York, Museum of Modern Art, Americans 1943: Realists and Magic-Realists, Feb. 10–Mar. 21, 1943, no. 225 (not exhibited).
New York, The Downtown Gallery, Ben Shahn: Paintings in Tempera, Nov. 14–Dec. 2, 1944, no. 13.
New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, Nov. 14–Dec. 12, 1944, no. 135.
Art Institute of Chicago, 5th Annual Exhibition of the Society for Contemporary Art, Jan. 25–Feb. 18, 1945, no cat.
Minneapolis, University Gallery, University of Minnesota, 40 American Painters, 1940–1950, June 4–Aug. 30, 1951, no. 65 (ill.).
Athens, GA, Georgia Museum of Art, Extra Ordinary: Magic, Mystery and Imagination in American Realism, Feb. 27–June 13, 2021, cat. 57 (ill.).

The artist, until at least 1945 [Chicago 1945]; with The Downtown Gallery, New York [this and the following, according to Horseman Foundation cataloging record, accessed Jan. 23, 2023, copy in curatorial object file]; sold to Joseph Kaufman (1911-2001), New York, 1946; by descent to his sons, Arthur Kaufman and Marshall Kaufman, 2001 [email from Arthur Kaufman, Dec. 16, 2022, copy in curatorial object file]; sold to private collection, New York, c. 2001 [this and the following, email from Jonathan Boos, Dec. 16, 2022, copy in curatorial object file]; sold to Jonathan and Sheri Boos, Bloomfield, MI, 2014; sold to John and Susan Horseman, St. Louis, MO, 2017; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2023.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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