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Made with paper : [exhibition] organized by the Museum of Contemporary Crafts, Container Corporation of America ... November 18 to January 7, 1968

Author:
American Craftsmen's Council Museum of Contemporary Crafts  Search this
Container Corporation of America  Search this
Physical description:
[14] p. ; 22 cm
Type:
Exhibitions
Date:
1968
1968]
Topic:
Paper work  Search this
Paper containers  Search this
Call number:
TT870 .M18
TT870.M18
Data Source:
Smithsonian Libraries
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:siris_sil_144212

Ben Shahn papers

Creator:
Shahn, Ben, 1898-1969  Search this
Names:
Baskin, Leonard, 1922-2000  Search this
Delano, Jack  Search this
Evans, Walker, 1903-1975  Search this
Osborn, Robert Chesley, 1904-1994  Search this
Rivera, Diego, 1886-1957  Search this
Robbins, Jerome  Search this
Soyer, Raphael, 1899-1987  Search this
Extent:
25.1 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Motion pictures (visual works)
Sketchbooks
Video recordings
Drawings
Sound recordings
Interviews
Date:
1879-1990
bulk 1933-1970
Summary:
The papers of social realist painter, photographer, printmaker, and teacher Ben Shahn (1898-1969) measure 25.1 linear feet and date from 1879-1990, with the bulk of the material dating from 1933-1970. The bulk of the collection consists of over 14 linear feet of incoming letters from artists, writers, colleagues, publishers, art organizations, galleries, and universities and colleges. Also found are biographical materials, project and source files, printed material, artwork by Shahn and others, photographs taken of and by Shahn, interview transcripts, sound recordings of interviews and a motion picture film.
Scope and Contents note:
The papers of social realist painter, photographer, illustrator, printmaker, and teacher Ben Shahn (1898-1969) measure 25.1 linear feet and date from 1879-1990, with the bulk of the material dating from 1933-1970. The bulk of the collection consists of over 14 linear feet of incoming letters from artists, writers, colleagues, publishers, art organizations, galleries, and universities and colleges. Also found are biographical materials, project and source files, printed material, artwork by Shahn and others, photographs taken of and by Shahn, interview transcripts, sound recordings of interviews and a motion picture film.

Biographical material and family records include a 1924 passport for Shahn and his first wife, Tillie, biographical sketches of Shahn, and award certificates received by him.

Letters are primarily written to Shahn from family members, artists, writers, colleagues, publishers, art organizations, galleries, and universities and colleges. Notable correspondents include Leonard Baskin, Alexander Calder, Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Joseph Hirsch, Leo Lionni, John Bartlow Martin, George and Marian Nakashima, Clifford Odets, Charles Olson, Robert Osborn, Diego Rivera, Jerome Robbins, Selden Rodman, James Thrall Soby, Raphael Soyer, and William Carlos Williams. A small number of scattered letters from Shahn can also be found throughout the series.

Project files document approximately twenty-one of Shahn's commissions, including murals for the community center at Jersey Homesteads, the Bronx Central Annex Post Office, the Social Security Building in Washington D.C. , and the William E. Grady Vocational High School. The files also document his involvement in the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Roosevelt, in addition to projects for schools, temples and private homes.

Financial and legal records include consignment records, loan agreements, royalty statements and receipts for artwork sold.

Notes and writings are by Shahn and others including Alan Dugan, W. H. Ferry, Theodore Gusten, and John Bartlow Martin. They include lists of artwork, many of which are annotated.

Artwork includes a sketchbook and several unbound sketches and lettering by Shahn, in addition to drawings and prints by others including Shahn's children, Mario Casetta and Stefan Martin.

Source files contain printed material and photographs relating to topics depicted by Shahn in his artwork such as children, dams, farming, houses, industry, mines and miners, slums, war and workers. These files also contain scattered photographic prints by FSA and OWI photographers including Shahn, Jack Delano, Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Russell Lee, Carl Mydans, Marion Post Wolcott, Arthur Rothstein, and John Vachon.

Printed material includes news clippings covering Shahn and his career as well as subjects of interest to Shahn. Also found are exhibition catalogs and announcements for exhibitions for Shahn and others, and reproductions of Shahn's artwork including publications illustrated by him.

Photographs are of Shahn, his family and friends and colleagues including Alexander Calder, Jerome Robbins, Charles Sheeler, David Smith and William Zorach. Also included are photographs taken by Shahn of New York City and for the FSA in the 1930s, as well as photographs of artwork by Shahn. Photographs by others include one photo each by Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Russell Lee and Arthur Rothstein.

The collection also contains transcripts of eight radio, television and motion picture interviews of Shahn and a reel of 16mm motion picture film from the BBC-TV program "Monitor," in addition to sound recordings of interviews of Shahn by Tony Schwartz and Arlene Francis. Artifacts include a Christmas greeting in the form of a sock.
Arrangement note:
The collection is arranged as 12 series:

Missing Title

Series 1: Biographical and Family Records, 1879-1984 (Box 1, OV 36; 0.2 linear ft.)

Series 2: Letters, 1929-1990 (Boxes 1-25, 35, 43, OVs 36-38; 14.5 linear ft.)

Series 3: Project Files, 1933-1975 (Boxes 25-26; OVs 36-37; 1.03 linear ft.)

Series 4: Financial and Legal Records, 1934-1988 (Boxes 26-27, 35; 0.81 linear ft.)

Series 5: Notes and Writings, circa 1933-1988 (Boxes 27-28, 43; 1.72 linear ft.)

Series 6: Artwork, circa 1930s-1965 (Boxes 28, 35; 11 folders)

Series 7: Source Files, circa 1900s-1960s (Boxes 28-30, 35; 1.81 linear ft.)

Series 8: Printed Material, 1912-1988 (Boxes 30-33, 35, OV 39; 3.22 linear ft.)

Series 9: Photographs, circa 1900-1969 (Boxes 33-35; 0.86 linear ft.)

Series 10: Interview Transcripts, 1943-1968 (Box 34; 0.25 linear ft.)

Series 11: Audio and Video Recordings, 1959-1968 (Box 34; 0.25 linear ft.)

Series 12: Artifacts, circa 1930s-circa 1960s (Box 34; 2 items)
Biographical/Historical note:
Ben Shahn (1898-1969) was a social realist painter, muralist, printmaker, photographer, illustrator, and educator who worked primarily in Brooklyn, New York and New Jersey. He was most active in the 1930s through the 1950s and worked on several federally funded arts projects, including the Farm Security Administration's photographic documentation project of rural America during the Depression.

Ben Shahn was born in Kovno, Lithuania and immigrated with his family to the United States in 1906 where he settled in Brooklyn, and later Roosevelt, New Jersey, after becoming a naturalized citizen in 1918.

Following an apprenticeship as a lithographer from 1913-1917, Shahn studied at New York University, the City College of New York, and the National Academy of Design from 1919-1922. He married Tillie Goldstein in 1922 and they had two children, Judith and Ezra.

Two years after Shahn's first solo exhibition at the Downtown Gallery in 1930, his Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti, a series of 23 gouaches about the Sacco and Vanzetti trial of the 1920s, was exhibited at the Downtown Gallery to critical and public acclaim. The exhibition marked the beginning of Shahn's reputation as one of the most important social realist painters in America. Shahn's commitment to social and political justice found a natural outlet in mural painting when, in 1933, he was hired to assist Diego Rivera on the labor and industry mural Man at the Crossroads, for New York City's Rockefeller Center. The mural was destroyed amid controversy in 1933 before it was completed, but Shahn had learned much about the art of fresco painting during the project and was inspired by the potential of the mural as a unique art form for presenting life's struggles and stories to a large public audience. Between 1933 and 1937 Shahn worked on various murals for other buildings, including New York's Central Park Casino (circa 1934) and Riker's Island Prison (1934), none of which saw completion. In 1937, however, the Farm Security Administration (FSA) commissioned Shahn to execute a mural for the Community Center in the town of Jersey Homesteads, later Roosevelt, New Jersey, which Shahn completed in 1938. Shahn settled in Jersey Homesteads the following year and remained there for the rest of his life. Other important mural commissions followed for the Bronx Central Post office (1939) and the Social Security Building in Washington DC (1942).

One of Shahn's assistants on the Jersey Homesteads mural was Bernarda Bryson, whom he had met in 1933 when she came to New York to interview Rivera about the Rockefeller Center mural controversy for an Ohio newspaper. Shahn and Bryson became lifetime companions and had three children, Susanna, Jonathan and Abigail, although they did not marry until shortly before Shahn's death in 1969. Shahn and Tillie Goldstein were divorced in 1944.

Shahn had enrolled with the federal Public Works of Art Project in 1934, and between 1935 and 1938 he and Bryson travelled across country as Shahn photographed poverty-stricken areas and documented rural life for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) and the Resettlement Agency. Shahn's interest in photography developed in the early 1930s when, encouraged by his friendship with Walker Evans, he began photographing street scenes and people in New York City. He later used the images as the basis for many of his prints and paintings.

In 1942 Shahn began working for the Office of War Information (OWI) and was instructed to produce posters and pamphlets explaining to citizens the necessities of wartime, such as the need for secrecy and food rationing. Ultimately, only two of Shahn's posters were ever used; the rest were rejected as being too harsh for their intended audience. Shahn later worked for the Congress of Industrial Organization Political Action Committee (CIO-PAC), producing posters for the 1944 campaign to re-elect Roosevelt, who he believed in deeply. He was promoted to director of the CIO's Graphic Arts Division for the 1946 congressional campaign following Roosevelt's death, but that job ended when the election went poorly for the Democratic party.

Shahn returned increasingly to painting and a retrospective of his work was held at the Museum of Modern Art in 1947. He also became more active in academia as an accomplished writer, teacher and lecturer. He received honorary doctorates from Princeton University and Harvard University, and become the Charles Eliot Norton professor at Harvard in 1956. Shahn's Norton lectures were collected and published as the influential The Shape of Content in 1957. He also began to work as a commercial artist for a variety of companies and publications including CBS, Time, Harper's, and the Container Corporation of America. Shahn believed, however, that the artist's ideas and integrity must always be reflected in his commercial art. He refused to compromise on this point and was very selective in his choice of commercial commissions. Shahn illustrated many books and articles, designed sets for stage productions such as New York Export: Opus Jazz, choreographed by Jerome Robbins, and designed mural mosaics for synagogues, universities and private homes.

Since the 1930s Shahn had been represented by Edith Halpert at the Downtown Gallery, but his relationship with her was always contentious on the subject of payments Shahn received for commercial work, and became increasingly so as his income from such sources increased. Finally, in 1968, Shahn wrote to Halpert telling her that after ten years of "an accumulation of ill-feeling, discomfort and recrimination between us" he felt compelled to end their dealer-artist relationship.

By the time of Shahn's break with Halpert his health had begun to fail. He died of a heart attack following surgery in a New York City hospital on March 14, 1969.
Related Archival Materials note:
The Archives of American Art holds four oral history interviews with Ben Shahn: 1964 Apr. 14 interview conducted by Richard K. Doud for the Archives of American Art New Deal and the Arts Project in which Shahn speaks of his travels and work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) and the American image as portrayed by FSA; 1965 Jan. 17 interview; 1965 Oct. 3. interview conducted by Harlan Phillips for the Archives of American Art New Deal and the Arts Project; and 1968 Sept. 27 interview conducted by Forrest Selvig. Most of these interviews have transcripts available online.

The Archives also holds the Bernarda Bryson Shahn papers, circa 1947-2005, and two oral history interviews with Bernarda Bryson Shahn: 1983 Apr. 29 and 1995 July 3.
Separated Materials note:
The Archives of American Art also holds material lent for microfilming (reel N70-6) including addresses and essays by Shahn, seven royalty statements, and three letters from publishers. Many of the writings found on this reel were included in subsequent donations. All other lent material was returned to the lender and is not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
The Ben Shahn papers were donated to the Archives of American Art in several installments between 1967-1991 by Shahn's widow, Bernarda Bryson Shahn who also lent materials for microfilming in 1969. Jean Shahn, Ben Shahn's daughter-in-law and estate representative, donated additional material in 2018 and 2021.
Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.

Researchers interested in accessing audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact References Services for more information.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Occupation:
Painters -- New Jersey -- Roosevelt  Search this
Painters -- New York (State) -- Brooklyn  Search this
Photographers -- New York (State) -- Brooklyn  Search this
Photographers -- New Jersey -- Roosevelt  Search this
Printmakers -- New Jersey -- Roosevelt  Search this
Printmakers -- New York (State) -- Brooklyn  Search this
Educators -- New York (State) -- Brooklyn  Search this
Educators -- New Jersey -- Roosevelt  Search this
Muralists -- New York (State) -- Brooklyn  Search this
Muralists -- New Jersey -- Roosevelt  Search this
Topic:
Social realism  Search this
Genre/Form:
Motion pictures (visual works)
Sketchbooks
Video recordings
Drawings
Sound recordings
Interviews
Citation:
Ben Shahn papers, 1879-1990, bulk 1933-1970. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Identifier:
AAA.shahben
See more items in:
Ben Shahn papers
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw983b06d9b-dd51-45bc-9b11-09b06a88f6c6
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-aaa-shahben
Online Media:

"Industry, self-denial, and temperance are the laws of prosperity for men and states; without them advance in the arts and in wealth means only corruption and decay through luxury and vice. With them progress in the arts and increasing wealth are the prime conditions of an advancing civilization which is sound enough to endure.--William Graham Sumner on the conditions of prosperity and progress. From the series Great Ideas of Western Man.

Artist:
Joseph Gering, born Wheeling, WV 1914-died Philadelphia, PA 1990  Search this
Medium:
mixed media: oil, nails, and string on wood
Dimensions:
14 9/16 x 11 1/16 in. (37.0 x 28.2 cm.)
Type:
Painting-Mixed Media
Date:
1955
Topic:
Abstract  Search this
Credit Line:
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Container Corporation of America
Object number:
1984.124.102
Restrictions & Rights:
Usage conditions apply
See more items in:
Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
Department:
Painting and Sculpture
Data Source:
Smithsonian American Art Museum
GUID:
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk7b243215d-12de-436b-9b5b-849b8e8f83b5
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:saam_1984.124.102

"There are five revolutions that must take place either simultaneously or not at all: a political revolution; a social revolution; a technological and scientific revolution; a revolution in culture, values and standards; and a revolution in international and interracial relations. The United States is the only country, so far as I can see, where these five revolutions are simultaneously in progress and are organically linked in such a way as to constitute a single revolution. In all other cou...

Artist:
Karl Gerstner, born Basel, Switzerland 1930  Search this
Medium:
pigmented nitrocellulose lacquer on laminated plastic
Dimensions:
45 x 44 3/4 x 2 7/8 in. (114.3 x 113.7 x 7.4 cm.)
Type:
Sculpture
Date:
1973
Topic:
Abstract\geometric  Search this
Credit Line:
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Container Corporation of America
Object number:
1984.124.103
Restrictions & Rights:
Usage conditions apply
See more items in:
Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
Department:
Painting and Sculpture
Data Source:
Smithsonian American Art Museum
GUID:
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk70f4bc037-42e1-4ce4-9bdc-1dd8c85ceb34
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:saam_1984.124.103

"The ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas. The best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market. We should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that we loathe and believe to be fraught with death, unless they so imminently threaten immediate interference with the lawful and pressing purposes of the law that an immediate check is required to save the country.--Oliver Wendell Ho...

Artist:
Jack Gregory, born Philadelphia, PA 1930  Search this
Medium:
opaque watercolor on canvas
Dimensions:
30 1/4 x 25 1/8 in. (76.8 x 63.7 cm)
Type:
Painting
Date:
1954
Topic:
Figure male\head  Search this
Credit Line:
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Container Corporation of America
Object number:
1984.124.111
Restrictions & Rights:
Usage conditions apply
See more items in:
Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
Department:
Painting and Sculpture
Data Source:
Smithsonian American Art Museum
GUID:
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk75631776d-2c21-4807-85b1-4759b114816b
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:saam_1984.124.111

There can be no patriotism without liberty, no liberty without virtue, no virtue without citizens, create citizens and you have everything you need. Without them, you will have nothing but debased slaves, from the rulers of the State downwards. To form citizens is not the work of a day; and in order to have men it is necessary to educate them when they are children --Jean Jacques Russeau on Education for Citizenship. From the series Great Ideas of Western Man.

Artist:
Tana Hoban, born Philadelphia, PA 1917-died Paris, France 2006  Search this
Medium:
gelatin silver print and gouache
Dimensions:
sheet: 13 7/8 x 10 3/8 in. (35.2 x 26.4 cm.)
Type:
Photography-Photoprint
Date:
1950
Topic:
Children  Search this
Recreation\sport and play\climbing  Search this
Credit Line:
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Container Corporation of America
Object number:
1984.124.118
Restrictions & Rights:
Usage conditions apply
See more items in:
Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
Department:
Graphic Arts
Data Source:
Smithsonian American Art Museum
GUID:
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk723ca4831-361b-4abd-bdb2-8d206d7716a7
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:saam_1984.124.118

Political liberty does not consist in an unlimited freedom...we must have continually present to our minds the difference between independence and liberty. Liberty is a right of doing whatever the laws permit, and if a citizen could do what they forbid he would be no longer possessed of liberty, because all his fellow-citizens would have the same power.--Montesquieu on the Nature of Liberty. From the series Great Ideas of Western Man.

Artist:
Edith Jaffy Kaplan, active ca. 1940s-1950s  Search this
Medium:
brush and ink and gouache on paper
Dimensions:
sheet: 21 5/8 x 15 1/4 in. (55.0 x 38.7 cm) irregular
Type:
Drawing
Date:
1951
Topic:
Figure\head  Search this
Credit Line:
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Container Corporation of America
Object number:
1984.124.137
Restrictions & Rights:
Usage conditions apply
See more items in:
Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
Department:
Graphic Arts
Data Source:
Smithsonian American Art Museum
GUID:
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk72e098fb8-79b0-450f-a4fb-e056931046de
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:saam_1984.124.137

"Hereby it is manifest that during the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war; and such a war as is of every man against every man. For war consisteth not in battle only, or the act of fighting, but in a tract of time, wherein the will to contend by battle is sufficiently known: and therefore the notion of time is to be considered in the nature of war, as it is in the nature of weather. For as the nature of foul weather lie...

Artist:
Leon Karp, born New York City 1903-died New York City 1951  Search this
Medium:
oil on canvas mounted on fiberboard
Dimensions:
30 3/8 x 24 1/4 in. (77.2 x 61.6 cm.)
Type:
Painting
Date:
1951
Topic:
Dress\uniform\military uniform  Search this
Landscape\town  Search this
Allegory\civic\peace  Search this
Animal\bird\dove  Search this
Dress\costume\mask  Search this
Literature\Hobbs  Search this
Credit Line:
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Container Corporation of America
Object number:
1984.124.138
Restrictions & Rights:
Usage conditions apply
See more items in:
Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
Department:
Painting and Sculpture
Data Source:
Smithsonian American Art Museum
GUID:
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk7385fdd64-4bb5-48ae-b8bf-3645a174543f
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:saam_1984.124.138

The chief thing is to have a soul that loves the truth and harbors it where it finds it. And another thing: the truth requires constant repetition, because error is being preached about us all the time, and not only by isolated individuals but by the masses. In newspapers and encyclopedias, in schools and universities, everywhere error rides high and basks in the consciousness of having the majority on its side.--Goethe on truth and error, Conversations with Eckermann, 1828. From the series G...

Artist:
Leon Kelly, born Perpignan, France 1901-died Loveladies Harbor, NJ 1982  Search this
Sitter:
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe  Search this
Medium:
photomechanical reproduction, plastic, and paper on paper mounted on paperboard
Dimensions:
sheet: 25 1/8 x 20 in. (63.8 x 51.0 cm.)
Type:
Collage
Date:
1951
Topic:
Figure group\male  Search this
Animal\reptile\snake  Search this
Still life\other\torch  Search this
Portrait male\bust  Search this
Allegory\quality\truth  Search this
Credit Line:
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Container Corporation of America
Object number:
1984.124.143
Restrictions & Rights:
Usage conditions apply
See more items in:
Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
Department:
Graphic Arts
Data Source:
Smithsonian American Art Museum
GUID:
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk7b69f3117-ad2e-43cd-b1f9-ed5d9a72022b
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:saam_1984.124.143

A man who is good for anything ought not to calculate the chance of living or dying; he ought only to consider whether in doing anything he is doing right or wrong...For neither in war nor yet at law ought I or any man to use every means of escaping death ...The difficulty, my friends, is not to avoid death, but to avoid unrighteousness...Wherefore, O judges, be of good cheer about death, and know of a certainty that no evil can happen to a good man in life or after death. --Socrates on doing...

Artist:
Gyorgy Kepes, born Selyp, Hungary 1906-died Cambridge, MA 2001  Search this
Medium:
gouache and pencil on paperboard
Dimensions:
sheet: 16 x 11 7/8 in. (40.7 x 30.1 cm)
Type:
Painting
Date:
1952
Topic:
Abstract  Search this
Literature\Socrates  Search this
Credit Line:
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Container Corporation of America
Object number:
1984.124.156
Restrictions & Rights:
Usage conditions apply
See more items in:
Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
Department:
Graphic Arts
Data Source:
Smithsonian American Art Museum
GUID:
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk7408add6d-ebdc-4d9a-8e7c-1638ffa24cf9
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:saam_1984.124.156

If there be a country which cannot stand any one of these tests--a country where knowledge cannot be diffused without perils of mob law and statute law; where speech is not free; where the post office is violated, mail bags opened, and letters tampered with; where public debts and private debts outside of the state are repudiated; where liberty is attacked in the primary institution of social life; where the laborer is not secured in the earnings of his own hand; where suffrage is not free or...

Artist:
Herbert Bayer, born Haag, Austria 1900-died Montecito, CA 1985  Search this
Sitter:
Ralph Waldo Emerson  Search this
Medium:
paper and photomechanical reproduction on paperboard
Dimensions:
sheet: 23 3/4 x 19 1/8 in. (60.3 x 48.5 cm.)
Type:
Collage
Date:
1951
Topic:
Abstract  Search this
Portrait male  Search this
Occupation\writer\novelist  Search this
Credit Line:
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Container Corporation of America
Object number:
1984.124.20
Restrictions & Rights:
Usage conditions apply
See more items in:
Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
Department:
Graphic Arts
Data Source:
Smithsonian American Art Museum
GUID:
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk7af734eb5-af07-44fe-8491-583b09788b69
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:saam_1984.124.20

"In democracies, of the more extreme type there has arisen a false idea of freedom which is contradictory to the true interests of the state. For two principles are characteristic of democracy, the government of the majority and freedom. Men think that what is just is equal; and that equality is the supremacy of the popular will; and that freedom means the doing what a man likes. In such democracies everyone lives as he pleases...But this is all wrong; men should not think it slavery to live ...

Artist:
Edgar Miller, born Idaho Falls, ID 1899-died 1993  Search this
Sitter:
Aristotle  Search this
Medium:
tempera on plaster
Dimensions:
34 3/8 x 29 5/8 in. (87.3 x 75.3 cm.)
Type:
Painting
Date:
1950
Topic:
Figure group\male  Search this
Dress\historic\classical dress  Search this
Occupation\education\philosopher  Search this
Allegory\civic\democracy  Search this
Portrait male  Search this
Credit Line:
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Container Corporation of America
Object number:
1984.124.214
Restrictions & Rights:
Usage conditions apply
See more items in:
Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
Department:
Painting and Sculpture
Data Source:
Smithsonian American Art Museum
GUID:
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk7f7f7a43f-6d51-4d10-9340-4936f256bcde
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:saam_1984.124.214

"False facts are highly injurious to the progress of science, for they often endure long; but false views, if supported by some evidence, do little harm, for everyone takes a salutary pleasure in proving their falseness; and when this is done, one path towards error is closed and the road to truth is often at the same time opened."--Charles Darwin on false facts vs. false views, The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, 1871. From the series Great Ideas of Western Man.

Artist:
Hans Moller, born Wuppertal, Germany 1905-died Allentown, PA 2000  Search this
Medium:
gouache on paperboard
Dimensions:
sheet: 14 7/8 x 10 1/8 in. (37.8 x 25.7 cm)
Type:
Painting
Date:
1954
Topic:
Abstract  Search this
Credit Line:
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Container Corporation of America
Object number:
1984.124.217
Restrictions & Rights:
Usage conditions apply
See more items in:
Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
Department:
Graphic Arts
Data Source:
Smithsonian American Art Museum
GUID:
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk7352973d9-0892-4a67-98f8-77d6540feeb7
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:saam_1984.124.217

"It is right that what is just should be obeyed; it is necessary that what is strongest should be obeyed. Justice without might is helpless; might without justice is tyrannical. Justice without might is gainsaid, because there are always offenders; might without justice is condemned. We must then combine justice and might, and for this end make what is just strong, and what is strong just."--Blaise Pascal on might and right. From the series Great Ideas of Western Man.

Artist:
Dimitri Petrov, born Philadelphia, PA 1919-died Woodstock, NY 1986  Search this
Medium:
gouache, crayon, pastel, and paper on paper
Dimensions:
sheet: 15 1/8 x 12 1/2 in. (38.5 x 31.9 cm)
Type:
Painting
Date:
ca. 1951
Topic:
Still life\weapon\sword  Search this
Figure\fragment\arm  Search this
Figure male\full length  Search this
Allegory\quality\justice  Search this
Allegory\quality\fortitude  Search this
Object\weapon\bow and arrow  Search this
Credit Line:
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Container Corporation of America
Object number:
1984.124.237
Restrictions & Rights:
Usage conditions apply
See more items in:
Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
Department:
Graphic Arts
Data Source:
Smithsonian American Art Museum
GUID:
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk79c526fec-6074-4286-97f1-cb22bbc66fb9
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:saam_1984.124.237

"It is impossible, if no more than one opinion is uttered, to make choice of the best: a man is forced then to follow whatever advice may have been given him; but if opposite speeches are delivered, then choice can be exercised. In like manner pure gold is not recognized by itself; but when we test it along with baser ore, we perceive which is the better."--Herodotus on freedom of discussion. From the series Great Ideas of Western Man.

Artist:
Paul Rand, born New York City 1914-died Norwalk, CT 1996  Search this
Sitter:
Herodotus  Search this
Medium:
gelatin silver print and gouache on paper and gouache on paperboard
Dimensions:
sheet: 18 5/8 x 14 in. (47.2 x 35.6 cm)
Type:
Collage
Date:
1950
Topic:
Occupation\education\historian  Search this
Figure male\fragment\face  Search this
Portrait male  Search this
Literature\Herodotus  Search this
Credit Line:
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Container Corporation of America
Object number:
1984.124.241
Restrictions & Rights:
Usage conditions apply
See more items in:
Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
Department:
Graphic Arts
Data Source:
Smithsonian American Art Museum
GUID:
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk76f1aa406-da43-422c-9a25-fca437e2e936
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:saam_1984.124.241

"Virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule indeed extends with more or less force to every species of free government...Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened."--George Washington, Farewell Address, 1796. From the series Great Ideas of Western Man.

Artist:
Robert Schneeberg, born Philadelphia, PA 1922-died Overland Park, KS 2008  Search this
Sitter:
George Washington  Search this
Medium:
gouache, pencil, paper, and metallic paint on paperboard
Dimensions:
sheet: 20 1/8 x 17 1/4 in. (51.0 x 43.7 cm)
Type:
Painting
Date:
1951
Topic:
Occupation\political\president  Search this
Animal\bird\eagle  Search this
Occupation\military\general  Search this
Literature\Washington\Farewell Address  Search this
Portrait male\full length  Search this
Credit Line:
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Container Corporation of America
Object number:
1984.124.260
Restrictions & Rights:
Usage conditions apply
See more items in:
Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
Department:
Graphic Arts
Data Source:
Smithsonian American Art Museum
GUID:
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk7489cabc3-7392-4c89-b9f5-4a647eab1e27
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:saam_1984.124.260

Voting Booths ("The end of the government is the good of mankind...and which is best for mankind, that the people should be always exposed to the boundless will of tyranny, or that the rulers should be sometimes liable to be opposed when they grow exorbitant in their power, and employ it for the destruction and not the preservation of the properties of the people?"--John Locke, 1632-1704. From the series Great Ideas of Western Man.

Artist:
Ben Shahn, born Kovno, Lithuania 1898-died New York City 1969  Search this
Medium:
gouache on canvas
Dimensions:
15 7/8 x 12 in. (40.2 x 30.4 cm.)
Type:
Painting
Date:
1950
Topic:
Ceremony\civic\election  Search this
Architecture Interior\civic\voting booth  Search this
Credit Line:
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Container Corporation of America
Object number:
1984.124.263
Restrictions & Rights:
Usage conditions apply
See more items in:
Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
Department:
Painting and Sculpture
Data Source:
Smithsonian American Art Museum
GUID:
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk7b2f245cc-9a20-4c26-9800-bd77d09e1288
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:saam_1984.124.263

"Providence has not created mankind entirely independent or entirely free. It is true that around every man a fatal circle is traced beyond which he cannot pass, but within the wide verge of that circle he is powerful and free; as it is with man, so with communities. The nations of our time cannot prevent the conditions of men from becoming equal; but it depends upon themselves whether the principle of equality is to lead them to servitude or freedom, to knowledge or barbarism, to prosperity ...

Artist:
Feliks Topolski, Polish, born Poland, 1907-died London, England 1989  Search this
Sitter:
Alexis de Tocqueville  Search this
Medium:
conte crayon on paper mounted on paperboard
Dimensions:
sheet: 13 3/4 x 11 in. (35.0 x 27.8 cm) irregular
Type:
Drawing
Date:
1952
Topic:
Occupation\writer  Search this
Figure\fragment\face  Search this
Portrait male\head  Search this
Credit Line:
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Container Corporation of America
Object number:
1984.124.289
Restrictions & Rights:
Usage conditions apply
See more items in:
Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
Department:
Graphic Arts
Data Source:
Smithsonian American Art Museum
GUID:
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk753dd511f-863f-41e5-ae9a-b603b129c694
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:saam_1984.124.289

"I never mutiny so much against France, that I am not perfectly friends with Paris...I love her tenderly, even to her wars and blemishes...But because it is, in truth my own humour, and peradventure not without some excess, I look upon all men as my compatriots, and embrace a Polander as a Frenchmen, preferring the universal and common tie to all national ties whatever."--Michel de Montaigne. From the series Great Ideas of Western Man.

Artist:
Elaine Urbain, born Wauwatosa, WI 1925-died Milford, CT 2004  Search this
Medium:
glass mounted in plaster mounted in light box
Dimensions:
13 1/8 x 10 1/8 in. (33.3 x 25.7 cm.)
Type:
Decorative Arts-Glass
Date:
1950
Topic:
Figure\fragment\hand  Search this
Allegory\element\fire  Search this
Credit Line:
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Container Corporation of America
Object number:
1984.124.294
Restrictions & Rights:
Usage conditions apply
See more items in:
Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
Department:
Decorative Arts
Data Source:
Smithsonian American Art Museum
GUID:
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk71034144e-a8b4-4fad-af34-ab551cada366
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:saam_1984.124.294

Political Liberty consists in the power of doing whatever does not injure another. The exercise of the natural right of every man has no other limits than those which are necessary to secure to every other man the free exercise of the same rights; and these limits are determinable only by the law.--Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, 1789. From the series Great Ideas of Western Man.

Artist:
Walter Allner, born Dessau, Germany 1909-died New York City 2006  Search this
Medium:
colored paper on paperboard
Dimensions:
sheet: 16 3/4 x 14 in. (42.6 x 35.7 cm)
Type:
Collage
Date:
1952
Topic:
Figure\head  Search this
Credit Line:
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Container Corporation of America
Object number:
1984.124.3
Restrictions & Rights:
Usage conditions apply
See more items in:
Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
Department:
Graphic Arts
Data Source:
Smithsonian American Art Museum
GUID:
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk7717cca60-7c46-479f-b3c1-f88bb5cbb634
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:saam_1984.124.3

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