Ben Shahn would have been delighted to see his work in the museum that houses Picasso’s Guernica. Shahn’s goal, after all, was to use art to protest cruelty and to make injustice visible. Presenting inhumanity in a contemporary style that draws us in, Shahn employed color and line to summon the viewer’s full attention. It was an unusual ability—to excite us optically while at the same time distressing us emotionally—but, like Picasso, Shahn’s heart was awake to the harsh realities of life. The exhibition “Ben Shahn: On Nonconformity” is a jolt that’s both exhilarating and distressing. —Nicholas Fox Weber