Ben Shahn 1898 - 1969

Ben Shahn was a Lithuanian born American artist whose work surrounded social realism and left wing political views. Shahn critiqued the American government, especially within his series of paintings 'The passion of Sacco and Vanzetti' pictured above, from 1931 - 1932. Within these paintings Shahn was exploring his view of the conviction of the two Italian - American immigrants who were sentenced to death in 1927. 

'The artist must operate on the assumption that the public consists in the highest order of individual - that he is civilised, cultured, and highly sensitive both to emotional and intellectual contexts.' 
Ben Shahn. 

After John gave me the recommendation to look at his work, for his beliefs and his style, along with Alice Neel I found the portraits very honest and interesting. I always like to know of artists who value similar politics as I do I think it's interesting how smaller political events can become significant if an artist is interested in it which is I think the case here.