When in New York City years back, a friend kidded me about noticing the amount of brick that was used in the structures of the city. Bricks, and bricks, and bricks. The Roman emperor Augustus stated, according to Suetonius, “I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble.” Perhaps the quote illustrates a status of materials in visual culture.
Stacking materials is a primary way of building. American cities are a testament to stacking as are cities of the world.
Ben Shahn’s painting, Ohio Magic, screams brick in a quiet way. Brick is a material of the visual repertoire of the artist, Miners Wives of 1948 is also a good example of his technique of employing the stacked element as a visual device. In Ohio Magic the way Ben Shahn takes the time to draw the bricks including the layer that is on and within the surface is the magic of the painting. It is difficult to see online, there is a wall that is wedded to the picture plane. This layer speaks to a sense of the actual physicality of brick and also psychological walls.
The depicted buildings are recognizable in the context of American places. On the street is a church. Mr. Shahn’s unique artistic ability was the way he provided the regular with emotional movement. The perspective is confident and distorted at the same time. His works, in general, give a feeling of activity to static elements, a sense of life—with poetry. The dialogue of delicate lines and masses.
The bus is at odds with the street, seemingly going in a different direction. The perspective is distorted. The characters are a selection from a smorgasbord of townfolk, flags adorn the bus. No one is causing trouble and it is a humdrum moment.
Yet in a second floor window is a figure that signals there is a sensitivity at work, differentiated from the monotony of the brick, and the slow moving vehicle. The figure is presented within the frame of the window with their head resting at an angle, nurtured by the shoulder. The angle of the sitter’s head, the facial expression and gaze, are exquisitely rendered to portray a contrast to outside activity, the safety of a room, and a measure of lonely curiosity too. The linear presentation of the climbing plant reads as a suggestion of the inner life of the inhabitants. The natural element is echoed on the ground floor window, a floral display.
Viewing the painting my memory is sparked with a recognition of Shahn’s writing in his book, The Shape of Content. The depiction of the brick in this work is shape as well as content—it is the manifestation of his specific outlook and approach. I find it magnificent.
By Drew Burgess
Drew Burgess is an art professor at the College of Alameda of the Peralta Community College District of California.
Ohio Magic, Ben Shahn, 1945, Tempera on paperboard mounted on hardboard, 26 x 39 in. M.H. de Young Memorial Museum.
Additional resources:
https://www.famsf.org/artworks/ohio-magic Curatorial notes at the museum, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, FAMSF, July 2024:
Cite this page as: Drew Burgess, “Ohio Magic by Ben Shahn at the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum”, July 18, 2024, https://www.drewburgess.art/museum-visits/ohio-magic-by-ben-shahn