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Bernarda Bryson Shahn (March 7, 1903 – December 12, 2004) was an American painter and lithographer. She also wrote and illustrated children's books including ''The Zoo of Zeus'' and ''Gilgamesh.'' The artist
Bernarda Bryson was born in Athens, Ohio, where her father owned the ''Athens Morning Journal'' and her mother was a Latin professor.Kirwin, Liza. Oral History Interview with Bernarda Bryson Shahn. "Archives of American Art." 29 April 1983. https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-bernarda-bryson-shahn-11655 Both of her parents were politically active and liberal. Her maternal grandfather was also politically active, with his home a stop on the underground railroad. In Ohio, she studied art, including etching, and art history at several schools including Ohio University, Ohio State University, and the Cleveland School of Art, and learned lithography from a friend. She married young, divorced, and then worked for a newspaper in Columbus, the ''Ohio State Journal'', writing about art news, and teaching printmaking for the museum school at the Columbus Museum of Art. On a trip to New York in 1932 (or 1933) to interview
Ben Shahn
Ben Shahn (September 12, 1898 – March 14, 1969) was an American artist. He is best known for his works of social realism, his left-wing political views, and his series of lectures published as ''The Shape of Content''.
Biography
Shahn was bor ...
was her "life companion" and they married in 1969, shortly before his death.
Personal life
Bernarda Bryson was born in Athens, Ohio, where her father owned the ''Athens Morning Journal'' and her mother was a Latin professor.Kirwin, Liza. Oral History Interview with Bernarda Bryson Shahn. "Archives of American Art." 29 April 1983. https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-bernarda-bryson-shahn-11655 Both of her parents were politically active and liberal. Her maternal grandfather was also politically active, with his home a stop on the underground railroad. In Ohio, she studied art, including etching, and art history at several schools including Ohio University, Ohio State University, and the Cleveland School of Art, and learned lithography from a friend. She married young, divorced, and then worked for a newspaper in Columbus, the ''Ohio State Journal'', writing about art news, and teaching printmaking for the museum school at the Columbus Museum of Art. On a trip to New York in 1932 (or 1933) to interview Diego Rivera
Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez, known as Diego Rivera (; December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957), was a prominent Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the ...
, during the production of his Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller Center is a large complex consisting of 19 commercial buildings covering between 48th Street and 51st Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The 14 original Art Deco buildings, commissioned by the Rockefeller family, span th ...
murals, she met his assistant Ben Shahn. After moving to New York shortly after completing the interview, Bryson reconnected with Shahn and they moved to Washington, DC. Bryson and Shahn had three children together and eventually settled in Roosevelt, New Jersey
Roosevelt is a borough in Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States census, the borough's population was 882,101 on December 12, 2004.
A Finding Aid to the Bernarda Bryson Shahn Papers, 1872-2004, bulk 1904-2004, in the Archives of American Art
Jean Fitzgerald
Oral history interview with Bernarda Bryson Shahn, 1983 Apr. 29
Archives of American Art * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shahn, Bernarda Bryson 1903 births 2004 deaths American centenarians American children's book illustrators American lithographers People from Roosevelt, New Jersey American women painters American women illustrators Section of Painting and Sculpture artists 20th-century American painters 20th-century American women artists American women printmakers 20th-century American printmakers People from Athens, Ohio Artists from Ohio Women centenarians Women lithographers 21st-century American women 20th-century lithographers
Career
Already a trained printmaker, Bryson worked for the Depression-eraResettlement Administration
The Resettlement Administration (RA) was a New Deal U.S. federal agency created May 1, 1935. It relocated struggling urban and rural families to communities planned by the federal government. On September 1, 1937, it was succeeded by the Farm S ...
, later part of the Farm Security Administration on a project with Shahn in the 1930s to document rural life. Her lithographs from this series were first printed in the studio she and Shahn established in Washington for the Resettlement Administration and published in full in 1995 as ''The Vanishing American Frontier''. In 1939, Bryson and Shahn produced a set of 13 murals for the Treasury Department Art Project's Section of Fine Arts
The Treasury Section of Painting and Sculpture was a New Deal art project established on October 16, 1934, and administered by the Procurement Division of the United States Department of the Treasury.
Commonly known as the Section, it was rena ...
entitled ''Resources of America'' inspired by Walt Whitman
Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among ...
's poem "I See America Working" and installed at the United States Post Office-Bronx Central Annex. Bryson worked primarily as an illustrator beginning in the 1940s, producing works for ''Harpers'' as well as ''Life'', ''Seventeen'', and ''Scientific American'', and later for several children's books''.'' These included "Zoo of Zeus" in 1964 and "Gilgamesh in 1967". Her illustrations of the Princeton University Eating Club and of Senator Taft as he is groomed for his 1948 Republican Presidential Candidacy exemplify her minimalistic representation of satire and straightforward style. She continued painting throughout her life in a figurative style often with references to Classical mythology
Classical mythology, Greco-Roman mythology, or Greek and Roman mythology is both the body of and the study of myths from the ancient Greeks and ancient Romans as they are used or transformed by cultural reception. Along with philosophy and poli ...
, and she worked was exhibited in solo shows at galleries in New York and New Jersey. Her paintings are owned by collections including the Whitney Museum of Art.
Further reading
* ''The Vanishing American Frontier: Bernarda Bryson Shahn and her historical lithographs created for the Resettlement Administration of FDR'', a catalog of the artist's lithographs, drawings, and poster published on the occasion of a traveling exhibition curated by Jake Milgram Wien, 1995,References
External links
A Finding Aid to the Bernarda Bryson Shahn Papers, 1872-2004, bulk 1904-2004, in the Archives of American Art
Jean Fitzgerald
Oral history interview with Bernarda Bryson Shahn, 1983 Apr. 29
Archives of American Art * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shahn, Bernarda Bryson 1903 births 2004 deaths American centenarians American children's book illustrators American lithographers People from Roosevelt, New Jersey American women painters American women illustrators Section of Painting and Sculpture artists 20th-century American painters 20th-century American women artists American women printmakers 20th-century American printmakers People from Athens, Ohio Artists from Ohio Women centenarians Women lithographers 21st-century American women 20th-century lithographers