"A Good Man is Hard to Find"
Ben Shahn
American, born Lithuania. 1898–1969
1948
A large gouache on paper in which Ben Shahn caricatures two men at a piano, using song titles and comic exaggeration to explore character and American popular culture.
You first notice the flat, poster-like colors and oversized, whimsical heads—one man perched atop the piano, another hunched at the keys—while the row of sheet-music titles reads like a wry, theatrical caption to the scene.
By combining bold, text-rich drawing with folk and graphic modes, Shahn helped bring vernacular imagery and moral satire into mid‑century American modernism, expanding the expressive range of drawing.
Medium
Gouache on paper
Dimensions
96 x 62" (243.5 x 157.5 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of the artist
Accession
23.1951
Palette
Exhibitions
