WALKER EVANS (1903-1975)

Roadside Stand near Birmingham, Alabama

Details

WALKER EVANS (1903-1975)
Evans, Walker
Roadside Stand near Birmingham, Alabama
Gelatin silver print. 1936.
7.5/8 x 9.5/8in. (19.4 x 24.4cm.)

Provenance

From the artist;
to James Agee;
to Mia Agee;
with LIGHT Gallery, New York;
to the present owner.

Literature

See: The Museum of Modern Art, American Photographs, part I, pl. 35 for a cropped version; also see Mora and Hill, The Hungry Eye, p. 171 fig. 69; Brix and Mayer, Walker Evans, America, pl. 68; Harper & Row, Walker Evans: First and Last, p. 100; Da Capo, Walker Evans: Photographs for the Farm Security Administration, 1935-1938, fig. 216; Keller, Walker Evans: The Getty Museum Collection, fig. 513.

Lot Essay

Included in Evans' 1938 landmark exhibition "American Photographs" at The Museum of Modern Art, as well as the accompanying book, this image relates to the viewer many of the qualities at the essence of what most interested Evans visually. Clearly he enjoyed visual wit and irony and this image is no exception. Not unlike Eugne Atget, Evans shared a strong affinity for signage and other elements of popular culture. In many of the images he made during his work for the Farm Security Administration, he juxtaposed words and figures. On the surface many of the images made for the FSA and Let Us Praise Famous Men can be viewed simply as documentary. Looking further we begin to see the many layers of Evans' work and how skilled he was in observing and recording his subject while at the same time addressing the formal complexities of picture making which so concerned him.

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