INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNIZED 98-YEAR-OLD NEW JERSEY ARTIST PRESENTS RETROSPECTIVE SHOW AT WILLIAM PATERSON UNIVERSITY

New Jersey artist Bernarda Bryson Shahn, whose career as an artist spans nearly eight decades, presents a retrospective of her artworks from the 1930s until the present in the Ben Shahn Galleries at William Paterson University in Wayne from January 31 through March 8, 2002. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.

Eclipsed in the minds of some by the popularity of her artist husband Ben Shahn, after whom the University’s galleries are named, Bernarda Bryson Shahn has her own prolific and critically successful portfolio. In addition to her work as a portraitist, painter, illustrator, and lithographer, Shahn has worked as a journalist, teacher, and writer.

The one-person show, on view in Ben Shahn's South Gallery, includes works which illustrate the various phases of Shahn’s long career as an artist. Featured are prints from early in her career, including those from the "Depression Series." Shahn later supported herself for many years as an illustrator, and the exhibit includes illustrations for "Wuthering Heights" and "Zoo of Zeus," a book she authored. Following her husband’s death in 1969, Shahn turned to painting; the show features a number of her paintings from the last 30 years.

"Bernarda Bryson Shahn has dedicated her entire life to art," says Nancy Einreinhofer, director of the Ben Shahn Galleries and curator of the exhibit. "The early part of her career, the 1920s and 1930s, was dominated by the various print mediums, mainly etching and lithography. What we might view as Bernarda's mid-career was dedicated primarily to illustration. She routinely created illustrations for many of the prominent journals of the period and also did several books. For the last thirty years or so, Bernarda has been painting. There will be about ten paintings in the exhibit, about 50 works in all. All through this long life, Bernarda has been concerned with political and social issues, and always, always she has been the superb draftsman. Those are the constants in this work: the social conscience and the artistic ability to render the concept."
Shahn, who will turn 99 during the exhibit’s run, has witnessed a century of changes in American life, including two World Wars, the Wright brothers’ first flight, the stock market crash in 1929, the Depression, McCarthyism, the turbulent 1960s, the affluence of the 1980s, and the birth of Generation X, as well as dramatic developments in arts and culture.

An Ohio native, she was educated at Ohio University in the 1920s. She was a founding member of the Unemployed Artists Association during the Depression and drove around the country with her husband to document the condition of the people during that era. Under witch-hunt suspicion in the 1950s, Shahn continued to illustrate books and magazines. After the death of her husband in 1969, she continued her work as an illustrator and writer. Tenacious and resolute in her creativity, she continues to work at her home in Roosevelt, the artist’s colony in South Jersey.
Shahn’s exhibit is one of three shows on view concurrently in the Ben Shahn Galleries. On view in the East Gallery is "James Ransome: A Life’s Journey," which features a selection of drawings and illustrations by the New Jersey artist. In the Court Gallery, a group show titled "Issues of Identity in Recent American Art" addresses issues of culture, race, gender, and national and personal identity through the works of nine artists. All exhibits are free and open to the public and are wheelchair accessible.

This exhibit is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.

For additional information, please call the Ben Shahn Galleries at William Paterson University at 973-720-2654.

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1/07/02
For Further Information, contact:

Mary Beth Zeman, Director, Public Relations 973-720-2966