Place des Arts, Paris, France

Ben Shahn Biography

Lithuania, 1898 ? USA, 1969

An established Lithuanian-American artist, Ben Shahn is best known for his social realist work. His early career as a typographer is apparent in his frequent combination of text and image.

He joined the photographic group of the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s, and documented the American south alongside Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange. He also worked as an assistant to Diego Rivera on his Rockefeller Center mural.

Shahn?s work has been exhibited and collected around the world. Harvard University Press published The Photographic Eye of Ben Shahn, a collection of his works, in 1975.