Funeral services were held here today for Ben Shahn, an internationally prominent American Jewish artist and champion of liberal causes, who died here Friday at the age of 70. Mr. Shahn was born in Kovno, Lithuania, the son of a woodcarver and carpenter. He came to the United States with his family in 1908and worked as an apprentice in a lithography shop to pay for his studies at college and at the National Academy of Design. Mr. Shahn was an assistant to the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera and from 1933 to 1943 was active in the Federal Government’s public art works projects. He was known for blending written messages into many of his paintings which were on universal Jewish themes. He illustrated recently a Passover Haggadah.
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