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Identification and Creation

Object Number
P1970.2798
People
Ben Shahn, American (Kovno (now Kaunas), Lithuania 1898 - 1969 New York, NY)
Title
Untitled (Blackwell's Island Penitentiary, Welfare Island, New York City)
Classification
Photographs
Work Type
photograph
Date
May 1934-June 1934
Places
Creation Place: North America, United States, New York State, New York City
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/287080

Physical Descriptions

Technique
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
sheet; actual: 20.5 x 25.4 cm (8 1/16 x 10 in.)
image: 16.6 x 24 cm (6 9/16 x 9 7/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: verso, upper left, graphite: (by an assistant of Davis Pratt:): New Hampdon Reformatory. [crossed out]
  • inscription: verso, upper left, graphite: Welfare Island, N.Y 1934

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Bernarda Bryson Shahn
Copyright
© President and Fellows of Harvard College
Object Number
P1970.2798
Division
Modern and Contemporary Art
Contact
am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Davis Pratt, ed., The Photographic Eye of Ben Shahn, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA and London, England, 1975), 32
  • Davida Fernandez-Barkan, "Of Murals and Men: Carceral Aesthetics and Ben Shahn's Rikers Island Project", Smithsonian Journal of American Art, University of Chicago Press (Chicago and Washington D.C., 2023), Vol. 37, No. 1, pp. 32-57, p39, ill. (b/w)

Exhibition History

  • Ben Shahn: Cross Media Artist, Photograph, Painting and Graphic Art, The Museum of Modern Art, Hayama, Kanagawa, 12/03/2011 - 01/29/2012; Nagoya City Art Museum, Nagoya, 02/11/2012 - 03/25/2012; The Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art, Okayama-shi, 04/08/2012 - 05/20/2012

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu