Shahn, Ben(jamin)

Lithuanian-born US painter. The most distinguished of the US Social Realists, his art drew attention to social and political issues that were often particularly controversial. The Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti (1931–32; Whitney Museum of American Art), for example, is based on the notorious Sacco-Vanzetti case, in which two Italian anarchists living in the USA were convicted and ultimately executed for murder. Shahn also worked for the Federal Art Project, painting murals with Mexican artist Diego Rivera (never completed) for the Rockefeller Center, New York, and murals for the Federal Security Building, Washington, 1940–42.