Rikers Island Penitentiary Mural Project

From the spring of 1934 through the winter of 1935, Shahn worked on an ambitious public art project: a mural design for the newly constructed penitentiary on Rikers Island, a 400-acre plot of land situated in the East River, between Queens and the Bronx. He collaborated with the painter and photographer Lou Block, and the Temporary Emergency Relief Administration provided funding. Choosing a long corridor in the main building for his site, Shahn developed a didactic scheme on the hotly debated issue of prison reform. He designed one wall to show the "unenlightened" penal system while on the opposing wall he envisioned a "reformed" American penal code. Block, meanwhile, designed a series of panels about religious charity for the penitentiary chapels.

In preparation, the two artists studied law and penology and drew on the expertise of local sociologists and prison officials. They also visited correctional facilities in and around New York City. Shahn was granted the unusual privilege to photograph inmates at the model New York City Reformatory in New Hampton and at the antiquated and overcrowded Blackwell’s Island Penitentiary on Welfare Island (renamed Roosevelt Island in 1973), just south of Rikers Island. From Shahn’s perspective, the American prison population included martyrs and heroes of the radical labor movement, as well as political agitators, the unemployed, and victims of racial and class discrimination. Although Shahn had used photographs in the previous year to help prepare for his Prohibition mural studies, this was the first instance of his making photographs to be used as primary research tools for a mural. Through this project, Shahn developed a manner of using his own camerawork that would affect his art making for years to come.

Untitled (New York City Reformatory, New Hampton, New York), 1934  Fogg Art Museum, Gift of Bernarda Bryson Shahn