Shahn, Ben. American, born Russia, 1898-1969. GANDHI. Collotype, 1965 Prescott, 214. 38 x 25 in (sheet), 32 x 21 in (image). Edition 200. Signed in pencil, and with the artist's red chop. Framed. Ben Shahn was an American painter, printmaker, photographer, book illustrator and poster designer, who was born in Lithuania in1898 and died in NYC in 1969. He belongs to that school of American artists known as Social Realists, the content of whose work expressed concerns for social justice and progressive politics. They were products of the Great Depression, and many of them, Shahn included, worked with the New Deal programs such as the WPA (from 1935-1938 he worked as a photographer for the Farm Security Administration along with Walker Evans. In the early 1930s Shahn did 23 paintings related to the Sacco and Vanzetti case, and later did several prints on the same theme. During World War II Shahn worked for the Government and designed several powerful anti-fascist and pro-labor posters. Shahn did a drawing of Gandhi for Look Magazine in 1964, to illustrate an article on Gandhi by Leo Rosten (known for his books on Yiddish language) which he later used as the basis for three different prints. In 1965 he produced a serigraph (silkscreen) version of the drawing which was published in a small edition (only 29 were known to Kenneth Prescott at the time he wrote "The Complete Graphic Works of Ben Shahn" in 1973). The serigraph is No. 57 in Prescott's book; it contains the portrait only, not the quotation. Also in 1965 Shahn did the Collotype version (Prescott 214), which is almost the same size as the serigraph (the sheet is 38 x 25 inches), and a photo-offset version which is much smaller (the sheet is only 17 x 11 inches). Both of these versions contain the lettering, which is a quotation from Mark Twain's "The Mysterious Stranger." The nature of the collotype process is such that it produces a soft, blurred line, and in this respect it differs significantly from the serigraph version in which the line is thin, sharp and tight. Prescott says of the Shahn portrait of Gahndi: "It is not surprising that Shahn wanted to pay his respects to the great man, the prophet of non-violence. Through the magic of his inimitable brush line Shahn has imbued the seated Gandhi with a quiet grandeur. The figure commands attention. The curved line of the head, the wrinkles of the brow, l
