The International Institute is pleased to welcome Laura Katzman, the curator of “Ben Shahn, On Nonconformity” currently at the Reina Sofia Museum, to speak about Shahn’s lifelong commitment to addressing social justice through art.

The son of Jewish-Lithuanian immigrants in the United States, Ben Shahn (1898-1969) produced a large body of visual art (paintings, drawings, photographs, murals, prints, posters, illustrated books, and commercial designs) about workers’ rights and civil rights between the 1930s and 1960s, from the Great Depression through the Vietnam War era.

Reviews of the exhibition in El País and in ars magazine.

Important Information:

• This talk will be in English.
• The event is free and open to the public; however, seating is limited and advanced registration is recommended.
• The talk will be followed by a wine and cheese reception.

Laura Katzman is guest curator of Ben Shahn, On Nonconformity, a retrospective exhibition on view at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia (October 3, 2023 through February 26, 2024). She is a professor of art history at James Madison University (Harrisonburg, Virginia/USA) and specializes in American art and documentary photography from the New Deal and World War II era in the continental United States and Puerto Rico. Katzman is co-author of the award-winning Ben Shahn’s New York: The Photography of Modern Times (2000) and principal author of Re-viewing Documentary: The Photographic Life of Louise Rosskam (2014). She is editor and contributor to The Museum of the Old Colony: An Art Installation by Pablo Delano (2023), which documents a conceptual art project about the Caribbean archipelago of Puerto Rico, the U.S. territory that has been called the oldest colony in the world.

El Instituto Internacional se complace en dar la bienvenida a Laura Katzman, comisaria de la exposición «Ben Shahn, De la no conformidad», actualmente en el Museo Reina Sofía, para hablar sobre el compromiso vital de Shahn en la lucha por la justicia social a través de su arte.

Hijo de inmigrantes judío-lituanos en Estados Unidos, Ben Shahn produjo una amplia obra de arte visual (pinturas, dibujos, fotografías, murales, grabados, carteles, libros ilustrados y diseños comerciales) sobre los derechos de los trabajadores y los derechos civiles entre los años 1930 y 1960, desde la Gran Depresión hasta la guerra de Vietnam.

La exposición «Ben Shahn, De la no conformidad» se presenta en el Museo Reina Sofía de Madrid hasta el 26 de febrero.

Para más información: reseñas de la exposición en El País y en la revista ars magazine.

Información importante:

• La presentación será en inglés sin traducción.
• El evento es gratuito y abierto al público con aforo limitado.
• La charla irá seguida de un vinito español.

Programa: