Exhibition Guide

With tightly clasped hands, six figures sit in a row on folding chairs. They seem to be waiting anxiously. Ben Shahn made this painting in the same year that he published a similar composition in Harper’s Magazine alongside an article by journalist Mary Heaton Vorse (1874–1966) that uncovered the inhumane working conditions and exploitation of New York City’s longshoremen. Every day, longshoremen waited for the “shape”— the formation of a work crew. Only those who had an inside track with the union bosses were hired.