Every great historic change has been based on nonconformity, has been bought either with the blood or with the reputation of nonconformists.

- Ben Shahn

Form is the shape of content.

- Ben Shahn

Paint what you are, paint what you believe, paint what you feel.

- Ben Shahn

I love chaos.... It's the poetic element in a dull and ordered world.

- Ben Shahn

It is the mission of art to remind man from time to time that he is human, and the time is ripe, just now, today, for such a reminder.

- Ben Shahn

To abstract is to draw out the essence of a matter.

- Ben Shahn

I believe that if it were left to artists to choose their own labels, most would choose none.

- Ben Shahn

Being an artist is not only what you do, but how you live your life.

- Ben Shahn

An ametuer is an artist who supports himself with outside jobs which enable him to paint. A professional is someone whose wife works to enable him to…

- Ben Shahn