I remember traveling around in Arkansas with Senator Robinson, and I told him what this little trick was. He felt very much part of it and had me take pictures of people unbeknownst to them. Ben Shahn More Quotes by Ben Shahn More Quotes From Ben Shahn Now, when I came on to Washington to begin my job, I was so interested in photography at that time that I really would have preferred to work with Stryker than with my department, which was more artistic if you wish. Ben Shahn photography wish jobs What is it about conformity itself that causes us all to require it of our neighbors and of our artists and then, with consummate fickleness, to forget those who fall into line and eternally celebrate those who do not? Ben Shahn lines artist fall We tried to present the ordinary in an extraordinary manner. But that's the paradox because the only thing extraordinary about it was that it was so ordinary. Nobody had ever done it before, deliberately. Now it's called documentary, which I suppose is all right ... We just took pictures that cried out to be taken. Ben Shahn done taken ordinary The moving toward one's inner self is a long pilgrimage for a painter. It offers many temporary successes and high points, but impels him on toward the more adequate image. Ben Shahn journey self moving Personal style, be it that of Michelangelo, or that of Tintoretto... has always been that peculiar personal rapport which has developed between an artist and his medium. Ben Shahn style peculiar artist All art is based on nonconformity ... Without nonconformity we would have had no Bill of Rights or Magna Carta, no public education system, no nation upon this continent, no continent, no science at all, no philosophy, and considerably fewer religions. Ben Shahn rights philosophy art I've been asked often what is the difference between an amateur and a professional artist, and I will tell you. An amateur artist is one who works all week at something else so he can paint on Saturday and Sunday. A professional artist is one whose wife works so he can paint all the time. Ben Shahn sunday differences artist Now, my knowledge of photography was terribly limited. Ben Shahn photography I confess that Roy [Stryker] was a little bit dictatorial in his editing and he ruined quite a number of my pictures, which he stopped doing later. He used to punch a hole through a negative. Some of them were incredibly valuable. He didn't understand at the time. Ben Shahn editing numbers negative The values that reside in art are anarchic, they are every man's loves and hates and his momentary divine revelation. Ben Shahn hate men art If you're going to be an artist, all life is your subject. And all your experience is part of your art. A youngster told me recently that he was going to give himself a year to see if he has talent. A year! It takes a lifetime to see if you have it. Painting is total engagement. Ben Shahn giving years art The time when I had desire to go to the United States I didn't have a penny. It was in the middle of the depression, you know. I couldn't get as far as Hoboken at that time. Ben Shahn united-states desire pregnancy When you talk about war on poverty it doesn't mean very much; but if you can show to some degree this sort of thing then you can show a great deal more of how people are living and a very great percentage of our people today. Ben Shahn war mean people It is an intimately communicative affair between the painter and his painting, a conversation back and forth, the painting telling the painter even as it receives its shape and form. Ben Shahn affair painting shapes All art is based on non-conformity. Ben Shahn art-is conformity art Form is the shape of content. Ben Shahn form shapes Forms in art arise from the impact of idea upon material... so that thinking and belief and attitudes may endure as actual things. Ben Shahn attitude art thinking How do you paint yellow wheat against a yellow sky? You paint it jet black. Ben Shahn black sky yellow Content may by trivial. But I do not think that any person may pronounce either upon the weight or upon the triviality of an idea before its execution. Ben Shahn weight ideas thinking It is not the how of painting but the why. To imitate a style would be a little like teaching a tone of voice or a personality. Ben Shahn voice teaching personality
