Leon Golub & Ben Shahn: A Report
This exhibition focuses on two acclaimed American artists who acted as "reporters," examining social and political conditions in their times. Shahn (1898 – 1969) and Golub (1922 – 2004) produced variously realistic paintings, drawings, prints, and books that investigate conditions of violence, injustice, empathy, and human struggle.
We will present work by each artist from the Museum's permanent collection as well as key loans from galleries and private and public collections. Leon Golub & Ben Shahn: A Report will center on their image-making, especially their use of photography and the translation of personal and public data. Golub and Shahn both wrote extensively on art and creativity, activism, and their pictorial and material strategies. They similarly shifted their focus over the years from direct engagement with social concerns to more personal investigations of religion, poetry, aging, and the erotic.
Lectures, film screenings, and panel discussions about Shahn and Golub will be presented throughout the run of the exhibition.
Leon Golub, Columnar Head, 1958, oil and lacquer on canvas. Collection of the UK Art Museum, gift of Debra and Robert Mayer from the Robert B. Mayer Memorial Loan Collection.
Ben Shahn, Farmers, before 1943, gouache on paper mounted on board. Collection of the UK Art Museum, courtesy of the Fine Arts Collection, U.S. General Services Administration Public Works of Art Project, 1933-1934.