Bernarda Bryson Shahn
Portrait of the artist Bernarda Bryson Shahn in her studio, 2000.
Courtesy, Gallery Henoch, New York, New York.
Bernarda Bryson Shahn has lived in Roosevelt for most of her adult life. She moved there with her husband, the artist Ben Shahn, in the 1930s, and focused her attention both on her husband’s career and on raising their children. An artist in her own right, Bryson Shahn resumed her career and has continued to paint. She mostly worked as a print-maker and illustrator, although she also created 13 murals for the Treasury Department in 1939. In this painting by Mel Leipzig, 99-year old Bernarda Bryson Shahn is seated in her studio, surrounded by many of her paintings.
Questions to Explore
How did Shahn’s artwork describe her experiences in American rural and urban areas?
Additional Resources
Bryson Bernarda et al. Bernarda Bryson Shahn : A Selection of Drawings Paintings and Prints from 1928 through 1998. Ben Shahn Center 2002. https://www.worldcat.org/title/802903611
Bryson Bernarda et al. The Vanishing American Frontier : Bernarda Bryson Shahn and Her Historical Lithographs Created for the Resettlement Administration of Fdr. Wien American 1995. https://www.worldcat.org/title/32854494