Ben Shahn, On Nonconformity

Ben Shahn, On Nonconformity examines the prolific and progressive artist’s commitment to chronicling and confronting crucial issues of his era, spanning from the Great Depression to the Vietnam War, as well as his exploration of spirituality and Jewish texts. Featuring 175 artworks and objects from the 1930s to the 1960s, including paintings, mural studies, prints, photographs, commercial designs, and ephemera, the exhibition highlights the enduring relevance of Shahn’s art across media, while revealing new insights into the complexity of his aesthetic and his decisive shift from documentary to allegorical and poetic styles in pursuit of a visual language that would resonate widely.

The exhibition draws its title from Ben Shahn’s credo of “nonconformity,” which the artist asserted as an indispensable precondition for both significant artistic production and all great societal change. This philosophy is centered in the exhibition as the foundational thread that runs through the artist’s oeuvre, which investigates issues such as unemployment, discrimination, authoritarianism, and threats to freedom of expression, while championing labor, civil, and human rights. Shahn’s later spiritual work, which embraces the Hebrew language and biblical stories, also reflects his exploration of a tradition of social justice activism within Jewish culture.

In the Press

“‘Contemporary American Sculpture’ captures what’s at stake in the most potent works in Ben Shahn, On Nonconformity, as this revelatory survey is called. Those works use the time-honored art of painting to make the modern world, and its signature troubles, as present as Shahn can manage. The effect is gripping, and feels utterly relevant for the troubled moment we are living in now.”
—The New York Times

“This retrospective celebrates the breadth of Shahn’s vision by adding his rarely seen posters, prints, and photographs. Part of what makes Shahn fascinating—and ripe for this moment—is the way he turned his relentless quest for justice into a brushy, almost delicate style that was wholly his own.”
—The New Yorker

“At last, Ben Shahn, On Nonconformity, a lively and essential exhibition at New York’s Jewish Museum, rediscovers what several generations of lefties, workers and egalitarian connoisseurs  already knew: Shahn was a master at combining political passion, emotional resonance and rhetorical precision into a sharp, activist art. He now seems more relevant than ever.”
—Financial Times

“A major retrospective opening this month at the Jewish Museum in New York, Ben Shahn, On Nonconformity, honours the artist’s lifelong activism.”
—The Art Newspaper

“A new retrospective at the Jewish Museum finds an artist whose Jewish identity was linked to a questioning crusade for justice.”
—Forward

“At the Jewish Museum in New York, Ben Shahn’s first retrospective in nearly half a century brings his vision of justice, protest, and a Jewish identity based on empathy and dissent back into focus.”
—Haaretz

“All our struggles are connected” is a rallying cry of the contemporary left….But Shahn (1898–1969) embodied it consistently throughout his artistic career….almost every cause that mattered to the American left from the 1920s through the 1960s is reflected in this exhaustive, generous exhibition.”
—Jewish Currents

“Ben Shahn, On Nonconformity is the artist’s first retrospective in the United States in almost fifty years. Impeccably curated and designed, the exhibition aims to bring renewed critical attention to one of America’s most consequential modernists.”
—Arte Al Dia