2002.294: Confrontation

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2002.294

People

Ben Shahn, American (Kovno (now Kaunas), Lithuania 1898 - 1969 New York, NY)

Title

Confrontation

Classification

Drawings

Work Type

drawing

Date

1964

Culture

American

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/101468

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Transparent and opaque watercolor on Japanese paper, mounted overall

Dimensions

60.4 × 80.4 cm (23 3/4 × 31 5/8 in.)
mat: 76.2 × 96.5 cm (30 × 38 in.)
frame: 79.1 × 99.4 × 4.6 cm (31 1/8 × 39 1/8 × 1 13/16 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• Signed: black ink, l.r.: Ben Shahn
• exhibition label: back of frame, printed and typed: Exhibition label for 1983 exhibition at MFA, SFMOMA, and Amon Carter Museum.
• gallery label: back of frame, paper and black ink, printed and typed: THE DOWNTOWN GALLERY / 32 E. 51st St., New York / Artist: BEN SHAHN No.: 532 / Title: CONFRONTATION Date: 1964 / Medium: DRAWING Size: 32 x 24 S.P.:HELI. / [stamped:] JUL 1964 / [inscribed in graphite, upper right of label:] 130 (or 13V)
• label: paper and black ink, printed and typed: WILLIAM H. LANE FOUNDATION / Leominster, Massachusetts / No. L6637.5 - 0355 / Artist: BEN SHAHN / TItle: CONFRONTATION / Date: 1964 Medium: BL. W.C. Size: 24 x 32 / [typed upper right of label] 416.40

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Ben Shahn; to [Downtown Gallery, New York, New York, sold; to William H. and Saundra Lane, Leominster, Massachusetts,1966, gift; to Harvard University Art Museums, 2002.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Saundra B. Lane in honor of James Cuno

Copyright

© Estate of Ben Shahn / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Accession Year

2002

Object Number

2002.294

Division

Modern and Contemporary Art

Contact

am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Publication History

• Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr. and Carol Troyen, The Lane Collection: 20th-Century Paintings in the American Tradition, exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston, MA, 1983), cat. no. 88, repr. (color)
• Harvard University Art Museums, Harvard University Art Museums Annual Report 2002-2003 (Cambridge, MA, 2004), repr. p. 18
• Joachim Homann, Margaret Morgan Grasselli, and Miriam Stewart, ed., American Watercolors, 1880–1990: Into the Light, exh. cat., Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, 2023), pp. 36-37, repr. as fig. 5 on p. 37

Exhibition History

• William H. Lane Foundation: Contemporary American Art, Fitchburg Art Museum, 11/24/1968 - 01/11/1969
• Twentieth Century American Art from the William H. Lane Foundation, Amherst College Art Museum, Amherst, 10/10/1973 - 11/11/1973
• William H. Lane Foundation Exhibition, Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, 11/20/1973 - 01/24/1974
• Selections from the William H. Lane Foundation, William Benton Museum of Art, Storrs, 03/17/1975 - 05/24/1975
• American Art: Selections from the William H. Lane Foundation, Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, 03/21/1978 - 06/04/1978
• Selections from the William H. Lane Foundation: Part II, William Benton Museum of Art, Storrs, 01/22/1979 - 03/11/1979
• The Lane Collection: 20th-Century Paintings in the American Tradition, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, 04/13/1983 - 08/07/1983; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, 10/01/1983 - 12/01/1983; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, 01/07/1984 - 03/05/1984
• American Watercolors, 1880–1990: Into the Light, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 05/20/2023 - 08/13/2023

Verification Level