On Nonconformity
April 24th, 2003
Second Allegory by Ben Shahn, 1953
Tempera, 53 x 31 inches
Krannert Art Museum and Kinkhead Pavilion
University of Illinois, Champaign
“Nonconformity is the basic pre-condition of art, as it is the pre-condition of good thinking and therefore of growth and greatness in a people. The degree of nonconformity present—and tolerated—in a society might be looked upon as a symptom of its state of health.”
— Ben Shahn, The Charles Eliot Norton Lectures, 1956-1957
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