See the Work
Where to experience Ben Shahn's photographs in person, and resources to learn more
Permanent Collections
Institutions holding Ben Shahn's original prints and negatives, plus the public-domain archive these images are drawn from.
Library of Congress
Washington, D.C.
The Prints & Photographs Division holds the FSA/OWI collection — thousands of Ben Shahn's Depression-era photographs. All are in the public domain and available online.
Browse OnlineLibrary of Congress
Washington, D.C.
Holds Shahn's Resettlement Administration and FSA negatives and prints in the public-domain FSA/OWI collection, including his Arkansas, West Virginia, Tennessee, and Ohio work.
Learn MoreHarvard Art Museums
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Major repository of Shahn's photographs, prints, and related material, and a center of scholarship on his camera work.
Learn MoreMuseum of Modern Art
New York City
Holds works by Shahn and presented his 1947 retrospective; a significant repository of his paintings and prints.
Learn MoreWhitney Museum of American Art
New York City
Holds paintings and works on paper by Shahn as part of its collection of American art.
Learn MoreSmithsonian Archives of American Art
Washington, D.C.
Holds the Ben Shahn papers, the primary documentary archive for the study of his life and career.
Learn MoreMajor Exhibitions
Notable retrospectives and exhibitions of Ben Shahn's work.
Ben Shahn
Museum of Modern Art, New York
A major retrospective surveying Shahn's painting and graphic work, confirming his standing as a leading American social realist.
Venice Biennale, United States Pavilion
Venice Biennale, Italy
Shahn represented the United States at the Biennale alongside Willem de Kooning, an honor marking his international stature.
Common Man, Mythic Vision: The Paintings of Ben Shahn
The Jewish Museum, New York
An exhibition surveying Shahn's paintings and their engagement with social justice, identity, and the life of the common man.
Ben Shahn's New York: The Photography of Modern Times
Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts
An exhibition devoted to Shahn's photography and its connections to his work as a painter and graphic artist.
Books & Films About Ben Shahn
Essential resources for understanding Ben Shahn's life and work.
Essential Reading
Shahn's Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard, an influential statement of his views on meaning, individuality, and the social responsibility of the artist.
An album of Shahn's Depression-era photographs, among the first books to treat his FSA camera work as a body of art in its own right.
A scholarly study and catalogue, published with the Harvard Art Museums, examining Shahn's photography and its relationship to his work as a painter.
A full-length biography tracing Shahn's life from Lithuania and Brooklyn through his careers as painter, photographer, muralist, and printmaker.
Films & Other Resources
The catalogue of the Jewish Museum's exhibition surveying Shahn's painting and its themes of social justice, identity, and the common man.
Online Resources
Explore the Archive
Browse 2027 Ben Shahn photographs from the Library of Congress.
View All Photographs