Skip to main content

Ben Shahn at Auction

Christie's 2012



Ben Shahn (1898-1969), 
Hamilton Fish Park


A watercolor and gouache on paper by Ben Shahn (1898-1969) entitled Hamilton Fish Park is also from the Collection of Dr. Mark and Irene Kauffman (estimate: $25,000-35,000).  An artist of varying media, Shahn was extremely productive in Depression-era New York and he often embraced socio-political themes. Hamilton Fish Park, is a quintessential work by Shahn, where the composition is derived from two separate photographs taken by the artist, one from which he painted the three men sitting in the foreground and the other, the background. Compelling examples of social realist art in their own right, both original photographs will be included in the lot.


Also by Ben Shahn is a maquette for Apotheosis (estimate: $30,000-50,000). The mixed media study was executed in 1956, when the New York State Board of Education commissioned Shahn to create a mural for the William E. Grady Vocational School in Brooklyn.  Adhering to his common motifs of religion and socio-political issues, Apotheosis is composed of several vignettes, which depict the fall of man after the destruction caused by war, followed by a phoenix to suggest the rebirth of man though allegories for art, philosophy, astrology and music.  With the finished mural aptly placed in a school, these are all elements imperative to the foundation of education.

Sotheby's 2014


BEN SHAHN
'DESTITUTE FARMER'S WIFE, OZARK MTS., ARK.'


Estimate 6,000 — 9,000
 LOT SOLD. 7,500 



Sotheby's 2012


BEN SHAHN
1898 - 1969
VANDENBERG, DEWEY AND TAFT


Estimate 30,000 — 40,000
 LOT SOLD. 25,000



BEN SHAHN
1898 - 1969
FREEDOM OF THE PRESS [FREEDOM OF PRESS]



Estimate 20,000 — 30,000

LOT SOLD. 68,500 
Christie's 2014






Christies', December 1, 2010


PRISONERS OF WAR
Estimate $20,000 - $30,000 Price Realized $52,500

Christie’s 2009






Christie's 2007





Christie’s 2006


                  

                        BEN SHAHN (1898-1969)
                        LOUIS ARMSTRONG #1
                        PR.$3,360
                         


                        BEN SHAHN (1898-1969)
                        THE SMOKE-FILLED ROOM
                        PR.$1,920


                         
                        BEN SHAHN (1898-1969)
                        LUTE AND MOLECULES
                        PR.$31,200

Christie’s 2004



BEN SHAHN (1898-1969)
MINE BOY
PR.$8,963



Christie’s 2003






BEN SHAHN (1898-1969)
PHOENIX (PRESCOTT 14)
PR.$4,183




BEN SHAHN (1898-1969)
PSALM 133 (PRESCOTT 53)
PR.$840

Christie’s 2002





BEN SHAHN (1868-1969)
VANITY
PR.$26,290

Skinner 2012-2013





Ben Shahn (American, 1898-1969), Stefan Martin, engraver (American, b. 1936) 
Martin Luther King
Sold for: $570




Ben Shahn (American, 1898-1969) 
Walking Figures
Sold for:
$1,778




Ben Shahn (American, 1898-1969) 
Love Song
Sold for:


$1,225


Bonhams




Ben Shahn (American, 1898-1969) 
Trio with Huge Audience, 1956 
15 1/2 x 20 1/4in
Sold for US$ 2,750



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

FREDERIC EDWIN CHURCH at AUCTION

Biography Frederic Edwin Church was born in Hartford, Connecticut, on May 4, 1826, the only son of a wealthy businessman. Although his father hoped he would become a physician or enter the world of business, Church persisted in his early desire to be a painter. In 1842-1843 he studied in Hartford with Alexander H. Emmons (1816-1879), a local landscape and portrait painter, and Benjamin H. Coe (1799-after 1883), a well-known drawing instructor. In 1844 Church's father, at last resigned to his son's choice of a career, arranged through his friend, the art patron Daniel Wadsworth, two years of study with Thomas Cole. Church was thus the first pupil accepted by America's leading landscape painter, a distinction that immediately gave him an advantage over other aspiring painters of his generation. From the first, Church showed a remarkable talent for drawing and a strong inclination to paint in a crisp, tightly focused style. In 1845 he made his...
Post a Comment
Read more

THOMAS HART BENTON at Auction III - Christie's, Doyle, Bonhams

Biography - Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, New York By Amy Spencer Benton’s paintings were widely loved for their reassuring images of the American heartland during two World Wars and the Great Depression. I. Biography  Thomas Hart Benton is best known for his patriotic murals that heroically depict American life during the first half of the 20th century. Born into a prominent Mid-western family of politicians, Benton grew up moving between rural Missouri and the political arena of Washington D.C.. Rejecting his grooming as a future politician, Benton developed an interest in art at an early age. Despite this rebellion, over the course of Benton’s painting career, his outspoken comments, nationalistic views, and socially charged images, marked him as a politician’s son. At the peak of his career in the 1930s, Benton was a key member of the Regionalist movement along with fellow Midwestern artists, Grant Wood and John Steuart Curry. Thomas Hart Benton was born in ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Genius and Ambition: The Royal Academy of Arts, London

The Royal Academy of Arts announces the most significant touring exhibition of its Collection in its 246-year history. Genius and Ambition: The Royal Academy of Arts, London opened 2 March 2014 at Bendigo Art Gallery, Australia.  Spanning 150 years of the Academy, the exhibition focuses on a key period of the RA Collection: the so-called ‘long nineteenth century’ from 1768-1918. Comprising 56 paintings, twenty drawings, nine prints, eight historic books, two photographs and two sculptures, the display will also tour to four venues in Japan, between August 2014 – April 2015. Several works in the exhibition have never travelled outside of the UK before, including  Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA’s Theory (1789-90), and Sir Ernest Waterlow RA’s The Banks of the River Loing (1903)   Further highlights of the exhibition include  JMW Turner RA’s Dolbadern Castle (1800),  John Constable RA’s Boat Passing a Lock (1826),  Henry Fuseli RA’s Thor battering the Midgard Serpent...
Post a Comment
Read more