Definitions

Jamin

Shahn, Ben(jamin)

Ben Shahn, 1966.

(born Sept. 12, 1898, Kaunas, Russia—died March 14, 1969, New York, N.Y., U.S.) Lithuanian-born U.S. painter and graphic artist. His family immigrated to New York City in 1906. As a youth he worked as a lithographer's apprentice; he later attended New York University and the National Academy of Design. In 1931–33 he achieved fame with a series of gouache paintings inspired by the Sacco-Vanzetti case, combining realism and abstraction in the service of sharp sociopolitical comment. In 1933 he assisted Diego Rivera with his Rockefeller Center mural and worked for the Public Works of Art Project. In 1935–38 he depicted rural poverty while working as an artist and photographer for the Farm Security Administration. After World War II he concentrated on easel painting, poster design, and book illustration.

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(born June 11?, 1572, London, Eng.—died Aug. 6, 1637, London) British playwright, poet, and critic. After learning stagecraft as a strolling player, he wrote plays for Philip Henslowe's theatres. In 1598 his comedy Every Man in His Humour established his reputation. He wrote several masques for the court of James I and created the “antimasque” to precede the masque proper. His classic plays Volpone (1605–06), The Alchemist (1610), and Bartholomew Fair (1614) use satire to expose the follies and vices of his age, attacking greed, charlatanism, and religious hypocrisy as well as mocking the fools who fall victim to them. Regarded as the era's leading dramatist after William Shakespeare, Jonson influenced later playwrights, notably in the dramatic characterization of Restoration comedies (see Restoration literature). He was also a lyric poet whose works include two famous elegies for his son and daughter.

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