Shape of Content

"The clearest, most forceful statement on art by an artist of our time that I have read." -Frank Getlein, New Republic An illustrated guide to artistic creation from one of the twentieth century's most provocative and expressive painters. Can art be taught? For the celebrated activist-painter Ben Shahn, the answer was a qualified yes. Any would-be artist can take a few courses and dip their toes in the water. But a true education goes far beyond the classroom. The Shape of Content, compiled from Shahn's 1956-1957 Norton Lectures, appeals for artists to break the confines of formal instruction. In wide-ranging reflections on art history, the problems of form, and his own career, Shahn conveys the stubborn determination required to move beyond dilettantism and toward an authentic voice. But he delivers no easy formulas. Critics celebrate artists' seemingly effortless moments of inspiration, yet genuine achievement is always the fruit of prodigious labor. To the perennial questions of "What shall I paint?" and "How shall I paint it?" Shahn replies: Live and think and try. Read endlessly, develop and test opinions, and above all, don't stop painting. A figurative realist in an age of high abstraction and an unabashed leftist at the height of the Cold War, Shahn was never quite at home in his own time. The accessibility and popularity of his work, and his sometimes-unfashionable humanism, made him a frequent target of critics during his life. And yet it is precisely these features that have since cemented Shahn as a giant of twentieth-century art. Today, his lectures offer potent lessons for anyone who shares his belief in the power of art to change minds and contest injustice.

About the author

Ben Shahn

Product details

• Authors: Ben Shahn, Shahn Ben
• Assisted by: Gopnik Adam (Foreword)
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 16.09.2025
• EAN: 9780674302426
• ISBN: 978-0-674-30242-6
• No. of pages: 160
• Series: The Charles Eliot Norton Lectures
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Art history; Biography: general, The arts: general issues, Individual architects & architectural firms, PHILOSOPHY / Aesthetics, EDUCATION / Arts in Education, ART / Study & Teaching, Philosophy: aesthetics, Individual photographers, Individual artists, art monographs, Teaching of a specific subject, Curriculum planning & development, Educational: Art & design, Individual architects and architectural firms, Educational: Arts, general, Curriculum planning and development, The arts: general topics