To abstract is to draw out the essence of a matter. To abstract in art is to separate certain fundamentals from irrelevant… — Ben Shahn Copy Share Image
The artist must operate on the assumption that the public consists in the highest order of individual; that he is civilized, cultured,… — Ben Shahn Copy Share Image
I became interested in photography when I was sharing a studio with Walker Evans, and found my own sketching was inadequate. — Ben Shahn Copy Share Image
It is an intimately communicative affair between the painter and his painting, a conversation back and forth, the painting telling the painter even as… — Ben Shahn Copy Share Image
An amateur is someone who supports himself with outside jobs which enable him to paint. A professional is someone whose wife works to enable… — Ben Shahn Copy Share Image
Art almost always has its ingredient of impudence, its flouting of established authority, so that it may substitute its own authority and its own… — Ben Shahn Copy Share Image
The artist is likely to be looked upon with some uneasiness by the more conservative members of society. — Ben Shahn Copy Share Image
Only an individual can imagine, invent, or create. The whole audience of art is an audience of individuals. — Ben Shahn Copy Share Image
The natural reaction of the artist will be strongly towards bringing man back into focus as the center of importance. — Ben Shahn Copy Share Image
Each artist comes to the painting or sculpture because there he can be told that he, the individual, transcends all classes and flouts all… — Ben Shahn Copy Share Image
I was primarily interested in people, and people in action, so that I did nothing photographically in the sense of doing buildings for their… — Ben Shahn Copy Share Image
I remember traveling around in Arkansas with Senator Robinson, and I told him what this little trick was. He felt very much part of… — Ben Shahn Copy Share Image
