Of Murals and Men

Over the past decade, scholars have contributed to a growing body of work interrogating the carceral system in the United States and its role in the maintenance of settler colonialism and racial capitalism. Nicole R. Fleetwood’s theory of “carceral aesthetics” allows this scholarship to be applied to the history and criticism of works of art. Using Fleetwood’s ideas as a point of departure, this article examines the context, preparatory work, and archival legacy Ben Shahn’s plans for a mural cycle at the new jail on Rikers Island (ca. 1935), which were never executed. The Municipal Art Commission responsible for the rejection of his sketches claimed that it had done so based on the “bad psychological effect” that the murals might have on the men incarcerated there. Shahn and his collaborator, Lou Block, contested this claim. This reassessment of the project argues that concerns about psychological appropriateness were merited and that the murals would have participated in the ideology that has ultimately turned Rikers Island into the notoriously inhumane institution it is today.