Bernarda Bryson Shahn; painter (yes, Ben Shahn's widow)
Hyfler/Rosner
DATELINE: ROOSEVELT, N.J.
AP
Bernarda Bryson Shahn, a painter and illustrator who also
supported the career of her renowned artist husband, Ben
Shahn, has died. She was 101.
Shahn died Monday at her home in Roosevelt, an artists'
colony in Monmouth County, N.J., where she had lived since
1939.
She worked in several mediums, but gained early recognition
for her lithographs.
Born in Athens, Ohio, she studied painting, printmaking and
philosophy at Ohio State University.
In 1932, she met her future husband during a trip to New
York. A cross-country trip followed, during which she worked
on illustrations and lithographs, many of which portrayed
the disappearing American frontier.
Shahn wrote and illustrated children's books, including "The
Zoo of Zeus" and "Gilgamesh." Her portraits of celebrities
appeared regularly in several national magazines.
Shahn continued painting throughout her life and hosted
gallery exhibits well into her 90s. She is survived by a son
and daughter, three grandchildren and two
great-grandchildren.
Her husband, a foremost artist of the 1930s, made his
reputation painting realistic New York scenes from the Great
Depression. He died in 1969.
Hyfler/Rosner
Bernarda Bryson Shahn, Painter, Dies at 101
By MARGALIT FOX
Bernarda Bryson Shahn, the widow of the painter Ben Shahn,
who won her own recognition as an artist late in life, died
on Sunday at her home in Roosevelt, N.J., her son, Jonathan
Shahn, said. She was 101.
Ms. Shahn, who began her career as a writer, printmaker and
illustrator, was best known in recent decades for her
paintings, which critics described as simultaneously
realistic and mysterious in style.
Her one-woman exhibitions included shows at Midtown
Galleries in New York in 1983; at the Ben Shahn Galleries of
William Paterson University in Wayne, N.J., in 2002; and at
the Susan Teller Gallery in Lower Manhattan last year in
honor of her 100th birthday. Ms. Shahn's work is in the
permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art
and other institutions.
Bernarda Bryson was born on March 7, 1903, in Athens, Ohio.
From her family, she inherited both an interest in writing
(her father owned The Athens Morning Journal) and the
progressive social conscience that informed much of her work
(her maternal grandfather's home had been a stop on the
underground railroad). She studied printmaking at several
schools, including Ohio University, Ohio State and the
Cleveland School of Art.
After an early marriage that ended in divorce, Ms. Shahn
went to work as a newspaper journalist. In 1933, she
traveled to New York to interview the muralist Diego Rivera
for an Ohio newspaper. There, she met Rivera's assistant,
Ben Shahn, who became her life companion. They married
shortly before Mr. Shahn's death, in 1969.
In the mid-1930's, the couple drove across the country,
documenting rural life for the Resettlement Administration.
Ms. Shahn's series of lithographs from that trip was
published in 1995 as "The Vanishing American Frontier." She
collaborated with her husband on two of his New Deal-era
murals, one in what is now the Roosevelt Public School in
Roosevelt, N.J., and the other in the Bronx General Post
Office. Both still exist.
In midcareer, Ms. Shahn turned primarily to illustration.
She wrote and illustrated several children's books,
including "The Zoo of Zeus" (1964) and "Gilgamesh" (1967).
She also wrote a 1972 monograph on Ben Shahn's work.
In addition to her son, a sculptor, who lives in Roosevelt,
Ms. Shahn is survived by a daughter, Abby Shahn, a painter,
of Solon, Me.; another daughter, Susanna Watts, died in
1967. She is also survived by two stepchildren from Mr.
Shahn's previous marriage, Ezra of Riverdale, the Bronx, and
Judith Shahn Dugan, a painter, of Truro, Mass.; three
grandchildren; one step-grandchild; and two
great-grandchildren.
peri...@eudoramail.com
AKA: Bernarda B. Shahn