id: 156868
accession number: 1992.8
share license status: Copyrighted
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1992.8
updated: 2024-03-26 02:00:16.438000
New York City, 1928–1929. Walker Evans (American, 1903–1975). Gelatin silver print; image: 20.8 x 13.2 cm (8 3/16 x 5 3/16 in.); paper: 20.8 x 17.4 cm (8 3/16 x 6 7/8 in.); matted: 50.8 x 40.6 cm (20 x 16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1992.8 © Walker Evans Archive, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
title: New York City
title in original language:
series:
series in original language:
creation date: 1928–1929
creation date earliest: 1928
creation date latest: 1929
current location:
creditline: Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund
copyright: © Walker Evans Archive, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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culture: America, 20th century
technique: gelatin silver print
department: Photography
collection: PH - American 1900-1950
type: Photograph
find spot:
catalogue raisonne:
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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: 20.8 x 13.2 cm (8 3/16 x 5 3/16 in.); Paper: 20.8 x 17.4 cm (8 3/16 x 6 7/8 in.); Matted: 50.8 x 40.6 cm (20 x 16 in.)
state of the work:
edition of the work:
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inscriptions:
inscription: Written in pencil on verso: "RMG #E8905.182-0"; "XIV 7 / c.1929"
translation:
remark:
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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
title: Selected Acquisitions
opening date: 1993-02-09T05:00:00
Selected Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 9-April 11, 1993).
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).
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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
* {'description': 'CMA, January 28 - March 15, 1992: "Selected Acquisitions," CMA Bulletin, 80 (February 1993), p. 68, no. 94.', 'opening_date': '1992-01-28T00:00:00'}
* {'description': 'The Cleveland Museum of Art (6/24/07 - 9/16/07) and Frick Art and Historical Center, Pittburgh, PA (10/3/2009 - 1/3/2010); "Icons of American Photography: A Century of Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art", no exhibition catalogue.', 'opening_date': '2007-06-24T00:00:00'}
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PROVENANCE
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fun fact:
digital description:
wall description:
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RELATED WORKS
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CITATIONS
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