Discovering Ben Shahn

I love to post about personally discovering artists that were big in there time and whose art have a timeless, very current style. Ben Shahn is no exception. On Monday I was in a local antique shop with my husband, who was perusing the bookshelves, when he picked up this beautifully bound hardcover complete with case, containing wonderfully graphic illustrations and typography by Ben Shahn.

The book is a poem, written by Wendell Barry in response to the assassination of the young President Kennedy, originally published in The Nation magazine. It is entitled November 26, 1963. So I did a bit more research on Ben Shahn and discovered a lot of material, as well as the huge influence he has on current illustrators. In fact, the site I frequent, Illustration Friday, actually posted a quick little bio about him.

Funny how we may come to discover things that are right under our noses. But it's great when the discovery is organically grown and only cost $5.