This is a watercolor named In the Courtroom Cage. It was created by Ben Shahn in 1931-32; he was a Jewish immigrant painter, originally from Lithuania. Ben Shahn’s main focus fell on creating narrative art that highlighted social and political justice, or injustice in most cases. He was born into an Orthodox Jewish family, and during his childhood Shahn witnessed both anti-Semitism and political persecution. With this, he always stood amongst the crowds to fight for justice and equality. Initially, I was grabbed by another artwork, Hunger also by Ben Shahn, simply because of the positioning of the works. Hunger was a huge painting that dominated its area, while In the Courtroom Cage was rather small and at a higher eye level for me. Yet, the original and rather unusual appearance of this artwork caught my interest more. 

Shahn’s views on life led him to the creation of the series The Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti. This collection consisted of twenty- three gouaches one of which was In the Courtroom Cage. The series illustrates parts of the trial as well as the execution of two Italian immigrants, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. The watercolor In the Courtroom Cage, in particular, is a mimesis of a press photograph of the two men in the prisoner’s dock with Sacco’s wife, Rosina, on the other side of the cage. The entire series, including this artwork, is conceptual art with a political view. It was important for Shahn to depict the injustice that Sacco and Vanzetti were experiencing. This, in fact, was one of the most controversial trials.  At the time the watercolor was created, great controversy was in the air.  Many sided with Sacco and Vanzetti, and therefore tried to prove that the guilty verdict was unfair. The theory held that the men were punished for being anarchists as well as the political views of this era. 

This watercolor was done with a certain perspective in mind. As the viewer looks at this painting it seems as though he/she is part of the scene. It was created from such a perspective that you are placed in that exact moment, even though this was done from a photograph. To elaborate, Shahn wanted to show how important this issue is to him, and he was not afraid to do so, regardless of the fact that the government was against such ideas. As for the technique, while I view this to be a mimesis, it is not quite realistic. The subjects do not look in proportion to each other, just as the facial features look too cartoon-like. With that, it seems as though Shahn completed this in a hurry and it resembles more of a sketch. While shading and highlighting are present in the watercolor, they look more abstract and unrealistic. For example, the hat has too much highlighting, giving it more of a metallic appearance; the faces have too much shading. Nonetheless, I believe Shahn did this on purpose; he wanted to create a sketch effect, as if he was there when this was happening. This emphasizes the importance that this injustice had for Shahn, and characterizes him as a social realist.