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For the Sake of a Single Verse Ben Shahn

Ben Shahn (Lithuanian-American) For the Sake of a Single Verse, 1968 Lithograph

After his family immigrated from what is now Lithuania in 1906, Ben Shahn (1898-1969) became an apprentice to a lithographer after elementary school and left high school early to pursue a career in lithography and photography, completing his degree by taking classes at night. Shahn was a member of the Social Realist movement, which focussed on portraying the socio-political situations of the working class and the factors behind these conditions.

Shahn assisted Mexican muralist Diego Rivera in the early 1930s, and was hired as one of the first photographers of the Farm Security Administration, which was a product of the New Deal that focussed on combating poverty during the Great Depression. He was also a photographer for the Resettlement Administration in the years leading up to World War II in an attempt to reconnect with his Orthodox Jewish heritage and shed light on socio-political happenings of this time.

These prints are part of Shahn’s 24-piece portfolio, For the Sake of a Single Verse. This collection of lithographs illustrates passages from Rainer Maria Rilke’s only novel, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge (1910). This semi-autobiographical novel tells the fictional story of a college student from an aristocratic Danish family living in destitution in Paris in the early 1900s in the form of plotless diary entries. It exposes the gritty undercurrent of poverty and sorrow in Paris as the young narrator navigates the city.

This particular work of his stuck with Shahn over the course of his life. He first read it when visiting Paris in the 1920s but did not create his illustrations of this text until 1968, a year before his death.

These two selections from For the Sake of a Single Verse illustrate lyrics that provide an overview of life, describing seemingly insignificant moments of our existence that add up to a whole. In this passage, Rilke theorizes that one must explore the simplicities and intricacies of life in order to be able to write with purpose. Shahn animates these lyrics through the painterly quality of lithography and demonstrates his abstract and whimsical sensibility.

Maddie Douglas (‘23)

The FOCUS series features one artwork per month from the Wake Forest University Art Collections. Reflections from students, faculty, staff and alumni are encouraged. To include your voice in the dialogue, contact artcollections@wfu.edu.

For the sake of a single verse, one must see many cities, men, and things. One must know the animals, one must feel how the birds fly and know the gesture with which the little flowers open in the morning. One must be able to think back to roads in unknown regions, to unexpected meetings and to partings one had long seen coming; to days of childhood that are still unexplained, to parents whom one had to hurt when they brought one some joy and did not grasp it (it was a joy for someone else); to childhood illnesses that so strangely begin with such a number of profound and grave transformations, to days in rooms withdrawn and quiet and to mornings by the sea, to the sea itself, to seas, to nights of travel that rushed along on high and flew with all the stars—and it is not yet enough if one may think of all this. One must have memories of many nights of love, none of which was like the others, of the screams of women in labor, and of light, white, sleeping women in childbed, closing again. But one must also have been beside the dying, must have sat beside the dead in the room with the open window and the fitful noises. And still it is not enough to have memories. One must be able to forget them when they are many, and one must have the great patience to wait until they come again.

For it is not yet the memories themselves. Not till they have turned to blood within us, to glance, and gesture, nameless, and no longer to be distinguished from ourselves—not till then can it happen that in a most rare hour the first word of a verse arises in their midst and goes forth from them.

– Rainer Maria Rilke, Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge (The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge), 1910

How to Purchase Art in the New York Market...and Survive, by J.D. Wilson (‘69, P’01 )

Participating in the 1969 Student Buying Trip to New York was both surreal and like a dream. We were students -- with buying power -- and fully empowered by the University to make lasting decisions. It was both an honor and a heavy responsibility to spend wisely the student fees for art that generally was not fully appreciated - aesthetically or monetarily. As I look back, thirty-five years later, I can see clearly that this experience was but one example of how Wake Forest nurtured and mentored students to live in and make a difference in the real world.

To most students, Mark Reece was the Dean of Men -- his salaried or “day job.” To those of us in the College Union, he was a quiet and unassuming Renaissance Man. He was passionate about empowering students to develop leadership skills, and he gave us the latitude to make decisions knowing full well we might make mistakes. His vision to bring focus to the importance of art and its value to the human experience is a significant part of his legacy, and in turn the University legacy. In many ways, the College Union art experience was the University’s “unofficial” art department in those early days.

Throughout the school year we did research on a variety of artists and the contemporary art scene. Once in New York we operated at a fast pace. Our days were filled with visits to galleries, examining works of art, talking to gallery owners, getting bio’s on artists and prices on their works, and taking copious notes….In all of this, students were expected to lead the discussions and make the decisions.

At the end of our trip, we were pleased with the quality (and quantity) of our purchases, which included a variety of media and styles. Of course, there were many other works we wanted but could not buy because of budget limitations. One lesson we learned was to exercise our instincts and judgment in making critical art buying decisions. The fact that we had limited funds...forced us to “appreciate” art in terms of real dollars -- to make our selections with discerning eyes….We were forced to make good decisions.

J.D. Wilson (‘69, P’01) is the founder of The Creative Center of North Carolina, Inc. where he serves as its Board Chair and President, and he has continued his involvement in the arts in Winston-Salem.

This excerpt originally appeared in the Wake Forest University Student Union Collection of Contemporary Art catalogue, published 2005.

Mark H. Reece Collection of Student-Acquired Contemporary Art purchased on the 1969 Buying Trip

Art © Estate of Ben Shahn / Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY