id: 153624
accession number: 1987.152
share license status: Copyrighted
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1987.152
updated: 2024-03-26 02:00:00.710000
Subway Portrait, 1938–41. Walker Evans (American, 1903–1975). Vintage gelatin silver print; image: 12.3 x 18.2 cm (4 13/16 x 7 3/16 in.); matted: 35.6 x 45.7 cm (14 x 18 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift in memory of Laura Burgess 1987.152 © Walker Evans Archive, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
title: Subway Portrait
title in original language:
series:
series in original language:
creation date: 1938–41
creation date earliest: 1938
creation date latest: 1941
current location:
creditline: Gift in memory of Laura Burgess
copyright: © Walker Evans Archive, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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culture: America, 20th century
technique: Vintage gelatin silver print
department: Photography
collection: PH - American 1900-1950
type: Photograph
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CREATORS
* Walker Evans (American, 1903–1975) - artist
Walker Evans American, 1903-1975
Greatly admired for his photographs of America during the Great Depression, Walker Evans (born in St. Louis) originally wanted to be a writer. He studied literature and languages at Phillips Academy in Massachusetts, then spent one year at Williams College. In 1926 he traveled to Paris, where he audited courses at the Sorbonne before moving to New York City in 1927. Over the next two years Evans developed a strong interest in photography, taking numerous pictures of New York. The unusual viewpoints and sharp angles of this early work reveal his awareness of contemporary European photography. Also influential was the work of Eugène Atget and Paul Strand, whose strong, direct style Evans admired.
In 1931 Evans undertook his first major photographic project in collaboration with Lincoln Kirstein: a series of photographs of New England architecture for a proposed book by architectural historian John Brooks Wheelwright. A selection of these photographs was later exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1933). From 1935 to early 1937, Evans worked for the Resettlement Administration (later known as the Farm Security Administration), documenting the effects of the depression. He spent most of his time traveling through the South, taking photographs in the clear, straightforward manner for which he became famous. His subjects ranged from rural farmers and miners to roadside architecture and main streets. In 1936 Evans took three weeks' leave from the fsa to work with writer James Agee on an illustrated article on tenant farm families for Fortune magazine. This collaborative project later appeared in book form as Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941).
In 1938 the Museum of Modern Art organized a major traveling exhibition of Evans's pictures, accompanied by the book American Photographs. Two years later Evans received the first of three fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (1940, 1941, 1959). From 1943-45 he worked as a writer for Time magazine and from 1945-65 was on the staff of Fortune, producing numerous portfolios and photographic essays. Evans then moved to New Haven, Connecticut, to join the faculty of Yale University as professor of photography/graphic design; in 1974 he was named professor emeritus. M.M.
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measurements: Image: 12.3 x 18.2 cm (4 13/16 x 7 3/16 in.); Matted: 35.6 x 45.7 cm (14 x 18 in.)
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inscription: Written in pencil on verso: "WE v.132.y"
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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
title: The Year in Review for 1987
opening date: 1988-02-24T05:00:00
The Year in Review for 1987. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 24-April 17, 1988).
title: Icons of American Photography: A Century of Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art
opening date: 2007-06-24T00:00:00
Icons of American Photography: A Century of Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 24-September 16, 2007); Frick Art and Historical Center, Pittsburgh, PA (October 3, 2009-January 3, 2010).
title: From Riches to Rags: American Photography in the Depression
opening date: 2017-08-13T04:00:00
From Riches to Rags: American Photography in the Depression. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 13-December 31, 2017).
title: A New York Minute: Street Photography, 1920-1950
opening date: 2021-07-11T04:00:00
A New York Minute: Street Photography, 1920-1950. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 11-November 7, 2021).
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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
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PROVENANCE
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RELATED WORKS
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CITATIONS
Turner, Evan H. "The Year in Review for 1987." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 75, no. 2 (1988): 30-71.
page number: p. 66, no. 56
url: www.jstor.org/stable/25160017
Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996.
page number: Reproduced: P. 150
url:
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IMAGES