The Shape of Content

by Ben Shahn

Overview

In his 1956–57 Charles Eliot Norton Lectures, the Russian-born American painter Ben Shahn sets down his personal views of the relationship of the artist—painter, writer, composer—to his material, his craft, and his society. He talks of the creation of the work of art, the importance of the community, the problem of communication, and the critical theories governing the artist and his audience.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674256651
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	01/01/1992
Series:	The Charles Eliot Norton Lectures
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	144
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Ben Shahn (1898–1969) was an American painter, lithographer, and photographer. His work, commenting on major social issues such as racial discrimination, labor conditions, and the threat of atomic warfare, has been featured in retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid.

Adam Gopnik is a staff writer at the New Yorker and the New York Times bestselling author of ten books, including, most recently, The Real Work: On the Mystery of Mastery. A Chevalier of the Legion d’honneur, Gopnik has won three National Magazine Awards and the George Polk Award for Magazine Reporting.

Table of Contents

Artists in Colleges

The Biography of a Painting

The Shape of Content

On Nonconformity

Modern Evaluations

The Education of an Artist

Editorial Reviews

A remarkably interesting book, which puts the reader in rewarding contact with a questing mind and a humane spirit.

The Atlantic

[Shahn] sets forth his views on both the practice and the purposes of art with a clarity, cogency, and incisiveness that any professional writer might envy, and he manages to interweave with this a good deal of interesting material about his own development as an artist, as well as a running summary of his opinions on contemporary painting in general...the book is highly controversial...also highly stimulating.

New Yorker

To find a lucid painter speaking lucidly of art is a thrilling discovery...[He traces] the formation of painting from idea to completion, both generally and specifically with a clarity of thought and a precise use of language which should be a very archetypal model for all critics and painters alike.

Virginia Quarterly Review

The clearest, most forceful statement on art by an artist of our time that I have read.

New Republic - Frank Getlein

[Shahn] sets forth his views on both the practice and the purposes of art with a clarity, cogency, and incisiveness that any professional writer might envy, and he manages to interweave with this a good deal of interesting material about his own development as an artist, as well as a running summary of his opinions on contemporary painting in general…the book is highly controversial…also highly stimulating.

New Yorker

In this brilliant book, which brings the many talents of Ben Shahn…into one crisp, clear, unified, astounding career, the primary focus is the exploration and explanation of the relationship between Shahn’s paintings and photographs… The first half of the book consists of four exquisitely written essays by Kao, Katzman, and Webster, beautifuly illustrated with superb reproductions of Shahn’s photographs and related materials, including detailed notes. The second half is an exhibition catalog with a wealth of quality reproductions of his paintings and photographs.

Choice - J. Natal

The book is the clearest, most forceful statement on art by an artist of our time that I have read.

New Republic - Frank Getletin

In this brilliant book, which brings the many talents of Ben Shahn…into one crisp, clear, unified, astounding career, the primary focus is the exploration and explanation of the relationship between Shahn's paintings and photographs…The first half of the book consists of four exquisitely written essays by Kao, Katzman, and Webster, beautifuly illustrated with superb reproductions of Shahn's photographs and related materials, including detailed notes. The second half is an exhibition catalog with a wealth of quality reproductions of his paintings and photographs.
— J. Natal

Choice

The book is the clearest, most forceful statement on art by an artist of our time that I have read.
— Frank Getletin

New Republic