United States. Farm Security Administration. Historical Section Search this
Type:
Interviews
Sound recordings
Place of publication, production, or execution:
United States
Physical Description:
39 Pages, Transcript
General Note:
Originally recorded on 2 sound cassette tapes. Reformatted in 2010 as 3 digital wav files. Duration is 1 hr., 39 min.
Summary:
An interview of Bernarda Bryson Shahn conducted 1995 July 3, by Pamela J. Meecham, for the Archives of American Art.
Bryson Shahn talks about Ben Shahn's involvement in the Farm Security Administration's photographic project during the 1930s; her and her husband's involvement with socialism, unions, and the Communist Party during the 1930's; the removal of Diego Rivera's mural from Rockefeller Center; changes in Ben Shahn's critical status as a painter -- particularly during the Red Scare, and relative to the rise of Abstract Expressionism; her own career as an illustrator; the Jersey Homesteads and Ben Shahn's mural in Roosevelt, New Jersey; as well as her impressions of Italy and Japan.
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Bernarda Bryson Shahn, 1995 July 3. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Funding:
Funding for the digital preservation of this interview was provided by a grant from the Save America's Treasures Program of the National Park Service.
Biography Note:
Bernarda Bryson (1903-2004) was a painter from New Jersey. She was the wife of artist Ben Shahn.
Language Note:
English .
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators. Funding provided by Midtown-Payson Grant.
Location Note:
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 750 9th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001
