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Shahn’s painting Convention from 1949 is an example of the surrealist, allegorical work that the artist created during and immediately after the war. In paintings such as Trouble, 1947, University of Nebraska, Lincoln F.M. Hall Collection, Allegory, 1948, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, and Miner’s Wives, 1948, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Shahn explored figures facing some sort of threat: physical violence or mysterious shadowy presences. They are often set before grim-looking walls or building facades, heightening the sense of isolation and entrapment.
Convention depicts two figures, a man and a woman. The man, at right, faces the viewer but turns his head to look at the woman on his right. She, in turn, stands with her back to the viewer, gazing off into the distance. Her head is turned in the man’s direction but she does not look at him; rather she seems to stare at an arcaded wall in the background, the arched openings shadowy and black. The middle ground is indiscriminate, painted in patchy orange, with blocks of green and grayish-blue at left to suggest grass and sky.
The man is dressed in a shirt and pants with suspenders decorated with images of bathing women. He wears a tan fedora with a black band. The woman is dressed in a flowered skirt and bikini top; her exposed skin emphasizes her vulnerability. A scarf hides her hair. The expression on the man’s face signals the danger the woman is in; he leers at her, eyes narrowed and wolfish teeth bared. The subject is enigmatic and troubling; a clue to the painting’s meaning lies in a drawing Shahn did a year earlier with an almost identical composition. Entitled Susanna and the Elders, private collection, the drawing depicts an incident from the Apocrypha, ancient books associated with but not usually included in the Bible. In this story, a virtuous young wife bathes in her garden, unaware she is being watched by lecherous old men. They attack her, threatening to accuse her of being unfaithful to her husband unless she submits to them. She refuses to give in and her virtue is eventually rewarded when a witness comes forward to protect her honor.
In Shahn’s version, there is only one leering man instead of two, but the danger is just as clear. The artist leaves the meaning of the allegory unresolved; perhaps Susannah represents the whole of humanity, imperiled by new threats. In 1949, the same year this work was painted, the Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb. In reaction, Shahn said, “We are living in a time when civilization has become highly expert in the art of destroying human beings and increasingly weak in its power to give meaning to their lives.” [2] Created by an artist who was firmly committed to anti-nuclear causes, Convention is perhaps his response to a new age of anxiety.
Notes:
[1] Shahn quoted in Frances K. Pohl, Ben Shahn (San Francisco, CA: Pomegranate Artbooks, 1993), 20.
[2] Shahn quoted in Pohl, Ben Shahn, 24.
Provenance1950
Downtown Gallery (for sale)
1963
George W. W. & Joan Brewster, Brookline, MA
1972
Kennedy Galleries (for sale)
1972
Sold to Howard N. Garfinkle, New York, NY
1975
Kennedy Galleries (for sale)
After 1978
Barbara B. Millhouse, New York, NY.
Exhibition History1950-1951
4th Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting
California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA (11/25/1950-1/1/1951)
1968
American Painting of the Last 25 Years
National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., (1968)
1971
Ben Shahn (1898-1969)
Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, NY (11/6/1971-11/27/1971)
2018
Outlaws in American Art
Reynolda House Museum of American Art (February 28, 2018 - December 2, 2018)
2023
Coexistence: Nature vs. Nurture
Reynolda House Museum of Amerian Art (4/7/2023 - 9/24/2023)
Published ReferencesRodman, Seldon. "Ben Shahn: Painter of America" Perspectives USA 1 (Fall 1951): 100.
Soby, James Thrall. Ben Shahn Paintings (New York: Braziller Inc., 1963): illus. colorplate 49.
Shahn, Bernarda Bryson. Ben Shahn (NY: Abrams, 1972): 88 and colorplate 100.
Ben Shahn. Vol. 1 of The Contemporary Great Masters Series (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1992).
Pohl, Frances K. Ben Shahn (With Ben Shahn's Writings) (San Francisco: Pomegranate Artbooks, 1993): illus. 103.
Rodman, Selden. Portrait of the Artist as an American: Ben Shahn, A Biography with Pictures (New York: Harper and Bros., 1951): 6, illus. and det. 5, 61.
DepartmentCollection of Barbara B. Millhouse
Convention
Artist
Ben Shahn
(1898 - 1969)
Date1949
MediumTempera on panel
DimensionsFrame: 39 × 55 in. (99.1 × 139.7 cm)
Image: 29 1/4 × 45 3/4 in. (74.3 × 116.2 cm)
SignedBen Shahn
Credit LineCourtesy of Barbara B. Millhouse
Copyright© Estate of Ben Shahn / Licensed by VAGA at Artist Rights Society (ARS), NY
Object numberIL2003.1.30
DescriptionIn an interview in 1957, the artist Ben Shahn said, “The war was very emotionally disturbing for me. I saw parts of Italy I had known being destroyed. I saw them through pictures, through motion pictures, and it was a very shocking thing. Perhaps it was at that period that those almost allegorical treatments of real situations began to creep into my work.” [1]Shahn’s painting Convention from 1949 is an example of the surrealist, allegorical work that the artist created during and immediately after the war. In paintings such as Trouble, 1947, University of Nebraska, Lincoln F.M. Hall Collection, Allegory, 1948, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, and Miner’s Wives, 1948, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Shahn explored figures facing some sort of threat: physical violence or mysterious shadowy presences. They are often set before grim-looking walls or building facades, heightening the sense of isolation and entrapment.
Convention depicts two figures, a man and a woman. The man, at right, faces the viewer but turns his head to look at the woman on his right. She, in turn, stands with her back to the viewer, gazing off into the distance. Her head is turned in the man’s direction but she does not look at him; rather she seems to stare at an arcaded wall in the background, the arched openings shadowy and black. The middle ground is indiscriminate, painted in patchy orange, with blocks of green and grayish-blue at left to suggest grass and sky.
The man is dressed in a shirt and pants with suspenders decorated with images of bathing women. He wears a tan fedora with a black band. The woman is dressed in a flowered skirt and bikini top; her exposed skin emphasizes her vulnerability. A scarf hides her hair. The expression on the man’s face signals the danger the woman is in; he leers at her, eyes narrowed and wolfish teeth bared. The subject is enigmatic and troubling; a clue to the painting’s meaning lies in a drawing Shahn did a year earlier with an almost identical composition. Entitled Susanna and the Elders, private collection, the drawing depicts an incident from the Apocrypha, ancient books associated with but not usually included in the Bible. In this story, a virtuous young wife bathes in her garden, unaware she is being watched by lecherous old men. They attack her, threatening to accuse her of being unfaithful to her husband unless she submits to them. She refuses to give in and her virtue is eventually rewarded when a witness comes forward to protect her honor.
In Shahn’s version, there is only one leering man instead of two, but the danger is just as clear. The artist leaves the meaning of the allegory unresolved; perhaps Susannah represents the whole of humanity, imperiled by new threats. In 1949, the same year this work was painted, the Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb. In reaction, Shahn said, “We are living in a time when civilization has become highly expert in the art of destroying human beings and increasingly weak in its power to give meaning to their lives.” [2] Created by an artist who was firmly committed to anti-nuclear causes, Convention is perhaps his response to a new age of anxiety.
Notes:
[1] Shahn quoted in Frances K. Pohl, Ben Shahn (San Francisco, CA: Pomegranate Artbooks, 1993), 20.
[2] Shahn quoted in Pohl, Ben Shahn, 24.
Provenance1950
Downtown Gallery (for sale)
1963
George W. W. & Joan Brewster, Brookline, MA
1972
Kennedy Galleries (for sale)
1972
Sold to Howard N. Garfinkle, New York, NY
1975
Kennedy Galleries (for sale)
After 1978
Barbara B. Millhouse, New York, NY.
Exhibition History1950-1951
4th Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting
California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA (11/25/1950-1/1/1951)
1968
American Painting of the Last 25 Years
National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., (1968)
1971
Ben Shahn (1898-1969)
Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, NY (11/6/1971-11/27/1971)
2018
Outlaws in American Art
Reynolda House Museum of American Art (February 28, 2018 - December 2, 2018)
2023
Coexistence: Nature vs. Nurture
Reynolda House Museum of Amerian Art (4/7/2023 - 9/24/2023)
Published ReferencesRodman, Seldon. "Ben Shahn: Painter of America" Perspectives USA 1 (Fall 1951): 100.
Soby, James Thrall. Ben Shahn Paintings (New York: Braziller Inc., 1963): illus. colorplate 49.
Shahn, Bernarda Bryson. Ben Shahn (NY: Abrams, 1972): 88 and colorplate 100.
Ben Shahn. Vol. 1 of The Contemporary Great Masters Series (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1992).
Pohl, Frances K. Ben Shahn (With Ben Shahn's Writings) (San Francisco: Pomegranate Artbooks, 1993): illus. 103.
Rodman, Selden. Portrait of the Artist as an American: Ben Shahn, A Biography with Pictures (New York: Harper and Bros., 1951): 6, illus. and det. 5, 61.
Status
Not on view