  About the Artwork
  
  
  In Shahn's paintings we find the satisfaction of seeing the world through the eyes of a sensitive and sincere artist whose interest lies in the realities of human relationships. In his early works Shahn emphasized political and social relationships of man. As his style evolved, he showed a growing interest in a different kind of realism - the realities of man's emotional and spiritual life. Painted in 1951, Composition with Clarinets and Tin Horn represents this new direction in the artist's work. In it he paints the emotional intensity of a figure enveloped in the wailing penetration of the blues. The throbbing intensity of the music is created by the insistent beat of the clarinets arranged in vertical rhythmic pattern interrupted by the shape of the tin horn decorated with gaudy symbols of honky-tonk dance halls. The bowed figure of a man pressing tensely knotted knuckles against his lowered head seems to shrink away from the strident rhythm of the clarinets and horn.

-adapted from William E. Woolfenden, Bulletin of the DIA 32, no. 1 (1952-53): 20 (ill.).
  
  
  Title
  Composition for Clarinets and Tin Horn
  
  
  Artwork Date
  1951
  
  Artist
  Ben Shahn
  
  
  
  Life Dates
  1898-1969
  
  
  
  
  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  American
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
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  Medium
  Tempera on panel
  
  
  Dimensions
  Framed: 53 3/4 × 41 3/4 × 3 3/8 inches (136.5 × 106 × 8.6 cm)
  Overall: 48 × 36 inches (121.9 × 91.4 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Paintings
  
  
  Department
  Contemporary Art after 1950
  
  
  Credit
  Founders Society Purchase, Friends of Modern Art Fund
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  51.85
  
  
  Copyright
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