Spring 2017

Drawing on the Left: Ben Shahn and the Art of Human Rights is the catalogue for the Duke Hall exhibition of the same name curated by JMU Art History Professor Dr. Laura Katzman. The exhibition included a number of works from the Madison Art Collection, donated by Michael Berg. 

Born into a Lithuanian-Jewish family, Ben Shahn (1898-1969) stands among the most prominent of the socially engaged artists of his generation. As a progressive activist, he devoted his life to fighting injustice and promoting the rights of marginalized and persecuted people.

This exhibition features paintings, prints, drawings, and photographs from the New Deal through the civil rights era that focus on issues of poverty, unemployment, war, labor unions, the nuclear arms race, civil liberties, and racial, ethnic, and class discrimination. In short, Shahn stimulated the social conscience of a wide-ranging audience with art that is still powerfully relevant today.

Please contact Dr Maria Harvey (harveymx@jmu.edu) if you would like a copy.