{"product_id":"ben-shahn-9781566403139","title":"Ben Shahn","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn the first  most intense years of the Cold War (19471954)  New Deal liberals often found themselves in great disfavor. Ben Shahns experience presents something of a paradox  however  since his paintings appealed in different ways to both liberals and conservatives. Blacklisted by CBS during the McCarthy era and yet  ironically  incorporated into presidential \"campaigns of truth\" aimed at improving the U.S. image abroad  Ben Shahn is a pivotal figure  revealing the complexities and contradictions inherent in this highly polarized moment in American history. In this pathbreaking study  Frances Pohl traces the political and artistic struggles Ben Shahn became embroiled in as he tried to remain a socially concerned artist during the early Cold War period. She shows how he rejected the argument  voiced by many Abstract Expressionists  that art and politics should not mix  yet at the same time searched for a way to depict  in universal and allegorical terms  the broad human condition rather than simply specific instances of injustice. Perhaps most important  she makes critical connections between U.S. social and political history and the art it provoked  thus illuminating both the later career of Ben Shahn and the Cold War era in American cultural history.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45276581560373,"sku":"ByrdShop_1566403138","price":239.56,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781566403139.jpg?v=1780556600","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/ben-shahn-9781566403139","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}