Ben Shahn's Social Security Murals

East wall, Ben Shahn's Meaning of Social Security, Cohen Building, Washington D.C. Photo by: Richard A Walker © Creative Commons 2019

The Wilbur J. Cohen building was originally built to house the Social Security Administration in 1938, but as the result of the United States entering World War II, the building was used instead for the war effort. As part of its original purpose, the building features a magnificent fresco cycle of social security themed compositions by Lithuanian-born American artist Ben Shahn, entitled The Meaning of Social Security.

Shahn’s mural cycle covers both sides of the central corridor of the  building. On the east wall are three panels depicting the economic problems Social Security was intended to alleviate:  child labor, unemployment, and poverty in old age.  On the west wall Shahn painted scenes of a society released from these insecurities called, Work, the Family, and Social Security.  

In the Meaning of Social Security, Ben Shahn gave pictorial form to the words of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt from his June 8, 1934 address on the Social Security legislation:  This security for the individual and for the family concerns itself primarily with three factors. People want decent homes to live in; they want to locate them where they can engage in productive work; and they want some safeguard against misfortunes which cannot be wholly eliminated from this man-made world of ours. Shahn’s Social Security mural vividly captures the ambitions of the New Deal programs and also serves as an example of government efforts to extend patronage to the arts in the 1930s. As a member of the immigrant community, the artist displayed his own deeply held affection for disenfranchised people and his abhorrence of injustice and oppression. Early in his career, Shahn's art exemplified the Social Realist style with commentary on political corruption and social problems of the day. He fervently believed that art contributes to an educated and compassionate public.

See more panels from Shahn's Social Security fresco at: https://livingnewdeal.org/sites/wilbur-j-cohen-building-shahn-frescoes-washington-dc/

See more about Ben Shahn at : https://www.moma.org/artists/5366-ben-shahn

Learn about the government's intentions to sell this building: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzQcqHbhgGJrlfVrKnvHZSdBdnNq

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