- Artist/Maker:
- Ben Shahn
- Bio:
- American, b. Lithuania, 1898-1969
- Title:
- New York
- Date:
- 1947
- Medium:
- Tempera on paper mounted on canvas and panel
- Dimensions:
- 35 15/16 × 47 15/16 in. (91.3 × 121.8 cm)
- Credit Line:
- Purchase: Oscar and Regina Gruss Charitable and Educational Foundation Fund
- Accession Number:
- 1996-23
- Copyright:
- Art © Estate of Ben Shahn/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
On View
In this enigmatic post-war work, Ben Shahn juxtaposes disparate images that represent an immigrant’s view of New York. The composition of New York is based on a photograph Ben Shahn took in 1936 of a Lower East Side fish market, with the image of a fish peddler and scale. In the painting, Shahn replaced the carp that appeared on the shop's window with a pike, which now seems to float incongruously in the center of the composition. Below lies a young boy wearing swim trunks, an image also borrowed from an earlier photograph and perhaps a reference to Shahn's younger brother who drowned at the age of seventeen. This nostalgic and dreamlike composition presents a collage of images from Shahn's past.
Information may change as a result of ongoing research.