Art and Authenticity in the Age of Fake News
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Ben Shahn (1898-1969), Frederick Douglass III, 1965 |
Color photo screenprint, printed in black ink and raw umber, 22 × 16 3/4 in. (55.9 × 42.5 cm) | Gift of Warren Robbins, Warren Robbins Center for Cross Cultural Communication | 1993.3.5 © 2020 Estate of Ben Shahn / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY.
Pictured: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Frederick Douglass Institute of Negro Arts and History, 1967.97.3
Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) was the most photographed man of the nineteenth century. Thus, his legacy lives on in the freedoms he helped achieve and in his writings, but also in numerous portraits. Working from an 1894 photograph, Ben Shahn created this screenprint—one of a four-part series about the abolitionist. Rather than an accurate reproduction of the portrait, however, the print is a free-hand drawing of it—one that borders on caricature. The artist pictured other public figures—both Black and white—in a similar way. In many cases, this approach humanized Shahn’s famed subjects, but, in this case, it runs counter to Douglass’s own values. The activist embraced photography as a tool to disseminate truthful images of African Americans. Commissioned by the National Museum of African Art, the series was meant to honor Douglass but illustrates how much can get lost in translation.
Portfolio
(Click on the image below to launch a full-size slideshow)
Denis Bourdon, Frederick Douglass, May 10, 1894. Albumen Print, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Reproduced in Stauffer, John, Zoe Trodd, and Celeste-Marie Bernier. Picturing Frederick Douglass: An Illustrated Biography of the Nineteenth Century’s Most Photographed American. New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2015.
Warren M. Robbins to Ben Shahn, October 21, 1964. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Ben Shahn Papers, Box 18, Folder 47, Document 19.
Left: Unknown Photographer, Warren Robbins showing Douglass print to museum patron, unknown date, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Ben Shahn Papers, Box 18, Folder 47, Document 39. Right: Pamphlet depicting the four Shahn prints for sale at the Frederick Douglass Institute of Negro Arts and History, Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Denis Bourdon, Frederick Douglass, May 10, 1894. Albumen Print, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Reproduced in Stauffer, John, Zoe Trodd, and Celeste-Marie Bernier. Picturing Frederick Douglass: An Illustrated Biography of the Nineteenth Century’s Most Photographed American. New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2015.