The Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti, Social realist painting series at Syracuse University, US.
The Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti is a series of gouache paintings by American artist Ben Shahn, depicting scenes from the trial and execution of two Italian immigrants in the United States. The works are installed on an exterior wall of the College of Law at Syracuse University, where they form a continuous visual narrative.
Ben Shahn began this series in the early 1930s, shortly after the execution of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, making it one of the first artistic responses to that trial. The case had deeply divided the country, and Shahn used the paintings to document what many saw as a failure of justice.
The series draws directly from a real trial, mixing courtroom images with portraits of the accused, making the story readable without prior knowledge of the case. Visitors who walk along the wall can follow the narrative from panel to panel, as if reading a visual account of the events.
The works are on an exterior wall of the Syracuse University campus and can be visited during normal campus hours at no cost. Because the installation is outdoors, visiting on a clear day with good natural light makes it much easier to take in the details.
The original gouaches were later interpreted by French artist Gabriel Loire as a large-scale mosaic, in which the two main figures appear at a size well above life scale. The shift from paint to mosaic tile gives the same compositions a completely different physical presence.
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