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In the first, most intense years of the Cold War (1947-1954), New Deal liberals often found themselves in great disfavor. Ben Shahn's experience presents something of a paradox, however, since his paintings appealed in different ways to both liberals and conservatives. Blacklisted by CBS during the McCarthy era and yet, ironically, incorporated into presidential "campaigns of truth" aimed at improving the U.S. image abroad, Ben Shahn is a pivotal figure, revealing the complexities and contradictions inherent in this highly polarized moment in American history.
In this pathbreaking study, Frances Pohl traces the political and artistic struggles Ben Shahn became embroiled in as he tried to remain a socially concerned artist during the early Cold War period. She shows how he rejected the argument, voiced by many Abstract Expressionists, that art and politics should not mix, yet at the same time searched for a way to depict, in universal and allegorical terms, the broad human condition rather than simply specific instances of injustice. Perhaps most important, she makes critical connections between U.S. social and political history and the art it provoked, thus illuminating both the later career of Ben Shahn and the Cold War era in American cultural history.
List of contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1. The Battle Lines Are Drawn
- The CIO-PAC
- Trouble in the Labor Movement
- Censorship in the Art World
- A Tribute to Shahn
- 2. Wallace, Dondero, and Roosevelt, N.J.
- The Progressive Party Campaign
- From the Topical to the Universal: The Hickman Story
- Dondero, Communism, and Modern Art
- A Call for Peace
- In the Key of Roosevelt, N.J.
- 3. Defending Civil Liberties at Home and the American Image Abroad
- Signs of an Epoch
- Humanism and Art
- Portrait of the Artist as an American Liberal
- Attack and Counterattack
- Civil Liberties and the Liberal Community
- "With works of Art their armies meet, And War shall sink beneath thy feet."
- 4. An American in Venice
- The Slaying of the Dragon
- Italy, the United States, and Cultural Propaganda
- The Venice Biennial
- Promotional Literature and Press Reaction
- A Broad Appeal: Liberation and The Red Stairway
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
About the author
By Frances Pohl
Summary
In this pathbreaking study, Frances Pohl traces the political and artistic struggles Ben Shahn became embroiled in as he tried to remain a socially concerned artist during the early Cold War period.
