Oral history interview with Bernarda Bryson Shahn
Object Details
- General
- Originally recorded on 1 sound cassette. Reformatted in 2010 as 2 digital wav files. Duration is 1 hr., 26 min.
- Interviewee
- Bryson, Bernarda
- Interviewer
- Kirwin, Liza
- Names
- Artists' Union (New York, N.Y.)
- John Reed Club
- Shahn, Ben, 1898-1969
- Topic
- Art front
- Occupation
- Painters -- New Jersey -- Roosevelt
- Illustrators -- New Jersey -- Roosevelt
- Printmakers -- New Jersey -- Roosevelt
- Topic
- Art, Modern
- Women artists
- Women painters
- Women printmakers
- Provenance
- This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and others.
- Interviewee
- Bryson, Bernarda
- Interviewer
- Kirwin, Liza
- Sponsor
- Funding for the digital preservation of this interview was provided by a grant from the Save America's Treasures Program of the National Park Service.
- Biographical / Historical
- Bernarda Bryson (1903-2004) was a printmaker and painter from Roosevelt, New Jersey. She is the widow of artist Ben Shahn.
- Extent
- 37 Pages (Transcript)
- Date
- 1983 April 29
- Archival Repository
- Archives of American Art
- Identifier
- AAA.shahn83
- Type
- Collection descriptions
- Archival materials
- Pages
- Sound recordings
- Interviews
- Genre/Form
- Sound recordings
- Interviews
- Scope and Contents
- An interview of Bernarda Bryson conducted 1983 April 29, by Liza Kirwin, for the Archives of American Art.
- Bryson speaks of her family background and education; writing for the Ohio State Journal; teaching etching and lithography; meeting Diego Rivera and Ben Shahn; the formation of the Unemployed Artists Group and her role as secretary, 1933; the Gibson Committee, the John Reed Club, and the Artists' Union in New York City; founding Art Front magazine; pressure from the Communist Party; demonstrating at the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1934; lithography under Adrian Dornbush; assisting Ben Shahn; her work as an illustrator; and her painting since 1971.
- Record ID
- ebl-1596315702240-1596315702242-0
- Metadata Usage
- CC0
Oral history interview with Bernarda Bryson Shahn, 1983 April 29, Digital Sound Recording (Excerpt)
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