BEN SHAHN (1898-1969) BREAK REACTION'S GRIP / REGISTER-VOTE. Circa 1946.

41 1/2x29 inches. L.I.P & B.A., New York.
Condition B+: restored losses and repaired tears in margins; cracking along vertical and horizontal folds.
Born in Lithuania in 1898, Shahn immigrated to America with his family when he was 8 years old. From almost the begining of his artistic career Shahn's work was political in nature, when, in 1930, he created a series of 23 gouache paintings relating to the Sacco and Vanzetti case which was taking the world by storm at the time. In 1943, the Council of Industrial Organizations organized the Political Action Committee in order to "protect the political rights of the working man, the returning service man, the farmer, and the small-business man." (Prescott p. 124). In 1944, the PAC worked towards registering union voters with an eye towards the national elections of that year. In his posters Shahn primarily appealed to farmers and factory workers, playing to their fears of hunger, unemployment, inflation and war. Here, in the years after World War II Shahn takes on a new threat; reactionaries. "The one arm, dressed in coat sleeve and shirt cuff, with hand clasping a colorful map of the United States, represents the country's supposedly small, but powerful, reactionary forces. The poster suggests that however strong, their power could be broken by the greater strength of the progressive forces, as represented by the larger, sleeveless arm" (Prescott p. 131).
ref: The Complete Graphic Works of Ben Shahn, by Kenneth W. Prescott, Quadrangle, New York, 1973, figure 154, Word and Image, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1968, p. 91.