The Paintings Of Ben Shahn C0111111011 SUZANNE CHESSLER Special to the Jewish News en Shahn's painting East Side Soap Box (on the cover of - this week's Jewish News) was not intended in any way to be a self-portrait, but it captures the essence of the artist who completed it. In the rendering, a study for part of a large mural done for Jersey Homesteads, a homesteading commu- nity established to house Jewish gar- ment workers relocated from nearby expressed publicly and dramatically in his Jersey Homestead mural, as it was through many of his paintings. His work spans many decades and tackles the controversial events of the day, as well as larger implications. And although Shahn was not an observant Jew — and has been criti- cized for removing Jewish content from his work while being celebrated as a Jewish artist — the teachings of his religion are always in the back- ground. Rather than concealing his Jewishness, he redefined it in terms Man, subjective experience, including his own childhood memories, along with allegorical narrative content and form," says Susan Chevlowe. She is associate curator at The Jewish Museum, where the 43 works to be shown in Detroit were selected. The entire New York exhibit will not travel to Detroit because of the fragility of certain pieces. "Shahn had begun to make his works less specific critiques of social issues, using instead allegorical, mythological and biblical imagery to express personal and humanistic con- during the Cold War era. He captured the public imagination because it was easy to relate to the paintings." Shahn, born in Kovno, Lithuania, on Sept. 12, 1898, immigrated to the United States in 1906. In New York, he and his family were reunited with his father, a socialist who had been exiled to Siberia for anti-czarist political activities. In his personal life and ultimately his art, Shahn gradually moved away from religious traditions of Judaism and estab- lished a secular identity aligned with the causes of labor and social reform. Painter Ben Shahn's art is a mixture of commentary on social justice, humanitarian causes and spiritual redemption. A special exhibit of his work, organized by The Jewish Museum, New York, opens Sunday at the DIA. New York City during the Great Depression, the central figure stands above the crowd he is addressing. The speaker, wearing business attire, looks very much in control. Off to the side of the crowd is a placard with a message, written in Yiddish and carried by a listener. It affirms the inalienable right of every man and every woman: to have a job to earn their living if they are willing to work. Large city buildings stand tall in the background. In the final version of the mural, a fresco that tells the story of Eastern European immigration to the United . States, the words in the placard are written in English. Shahn chose secu- lar, contemporary American working- class identity over elements of religious tradition and ritual for the final ren- dering. But he is speaking to a major event in the American Jewish experi- ence: the oppressive labor and living conditions that many Jews found in exploitative sweatshops and tenements. Shahn's voice on social issues was 7/23 1999 76 Detroit Jewish News of class, labor and secular life. Ultimately, his influence reached inside the centers of power. East Side Soap Box is one of 55 Shahn works making up a traveling exhibition that will be on view at the Detroit Institute of Arts July 25-Oct. 31. Planned by The Jewish Museum in New York, "Common Man, Mythic Vision: The Paintings of Ben Shahn" focuses on projects completed between 1936 and 1965 and was initiated to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the artist's birth. Two works — Composition for Clarinets and Tin Horn and Bookshop: Hebrew Books, Holy Day Books — are on loan from the DIA, which had a 1956 exhibition that featured the artist's earlier styles. Local Shahn col- lectors have been generous in loaning their holdings to form a companion exhibit, "Ben Shahn and Detroit." 'Common Man, Mythic Vision' traces the development of Shahn's career, focusing on his mature style that developed in response to the horrors of World War II as he began to explore cerns," says Chevlowe. "Personally, also, Shahn moved from the experi- ence of being an immigrant to that of an American artist." Signposts for the new and complex directions in his later artistry come across through the various paintings included in the exhibition. The horrors of war stand out in Italian Landscape, The Red Stairway and Age of Anxiety. Allusions to classical mythology are part of Harpy and Prometheus. Demonic imagery used to create allegories with universal and multiple meanings begins with Allegory. His return to Jewish sub- jects appears in Third Allegory, Ram's Horn and Menorah and When the Morning Stars ... . "Shahn worked during a time when abstract expressionism was becoming dominant but the public and museums were accepting figura- tive arts, and that helped to make his art popular," Chevlowe says. "He spoke for the average person and was a barometer of certain feelings and responses, such as fear and anxiety Clockwise from top left: "Study for Jersey Homestead Mural," c. 1936 Like "East Side Soap Box," on the front cover, this study is an early version of the mural that tells the story of Eastern European immigration to the United States. "Bookshop: Hebrew Books, Holy Day Books," 1953. Part of the DIA's collection, this painting was done when Shahn returned to an exploration of his Jewish identity. His Yiddishkeit — the basic culture, values and belief of Eastern European Jews — rather than Judaism, the religious Pith, was at the core of his identity. "Composition for Clarinets and Tin Horn," 1951, also on loan to the exhibition from the DIA, features instruments arranged like bars in a jail cell to express the belief that artists often are prisoners o f their own art. "Liberation," 1945, depicts a battered building _symbolizing postwar Europe.