Bountiful Harvest, 1944

This painting relates to Ben Shahn’s poster From Workers to Farmers…Thanks! of 1944, which was published by the CIO Political Action Committee in an edition of 20,000.  A copy of the poster is now in the New Jersey State Museum.  The poster is illustrated in The Complete Graphic Works of Ben Shahn by Kenneth W. Prescott, published by Quadrangle/The New York Times Book Co. in 1973.

In 1944 Shahn joined the Political Action Committee of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO-PAC) to help produce posters and other graphic materials for Roosevelt during that year’s successful presidential campaign.  The poster From Workers to Farmers…Thanks! was placed in rural settings to speak directly to farmers to show the urban industrial workers appreciation of the farmers’ contribution to the war effort.  The farming imagery used in Bountiful Harvest came from Shahn’s two trips through the Midwest, first in 1935 as part of the Resettlement Administration focused on the poorest farmers and another trip in 1938 for the Farm Security Administration focused on the productive lives of rural people.  Bountiful Harvest, 1944 is a powerful comment on the importance of the farmer’s role in our nation’s bounty.

Ben Shahn; From Workers to Farmers…Thanks!, 1944; Offset lithograph in colors; 40″ x 30″; Publisher; Congress of Industrial Organizations”