Source: Common Dreams
by John P Murphy
“Painted figures haunt an empty building. A boy leaning on a pair of crutches. A father and son wandering a barren railroad track. A nuclear family at a picnic table. These poignant scenes were painted by two of the foremost American artists of the twentieth century, Ben Shahn and Philip Guston. No one is around to see them. They are on the walls of the Wilbur J. Cohen Building in Washington, DC, one of forty-five federal properties currently earmarked for sale. The staff who worked in the building have been mostly fired, furloughed, or relocated. Only the murals remain—and perhaps not for long. The Cohen Building has been called ‘the Sistine Chapel of the New Deal’ for its ambitious mural cycles.” (11/30/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/sistine-chapel-of-the-new-deal