September 10 - December 5, 2021
To commemorate the 75th anniversary of Walker Evans’ landmark photography exhibition at MoMA and the influential accompanying publication, this selection of Evans works presents a portrait of the United States during a decade of profound transformation.
Walker Evans (United States, 1903–1975), Parked Car, Small Town Main Street, 1932, gelatin silver print, printed circa 1969 by Charles Rodemeyer. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the artist, 1975. © 2021 Walker Evans Archive, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
This fall, the PMA is proud to present a selection of works by American artist Walker Evans (1903-1975) that were originally featured in his important and highly influential 1938 exhibition and book Walker Evans American Photographs.
More than any other artist, Evans invented the images of an essential America that we have long accepted as fact. American Photographs is the purest and most complete expression of his cool, unblinking vision. When it opened at The Museum of Modern Art in 1938 it was the first one-person photography exhibition there, and its accompanying landmark publication established the photobook as an indivisible work of art. In that book, arts impresario (and Evans’ friend) Lincoln Kirstein wrote: “Compare this vision of a continent as it is, not as it might be or as it was, with any other coherent vision that we have had since the [first world] war. What poet has said as much? What painter has shown as much? Only newspapers, the writers of popular music, the technicians of advertising and radio have in their blind energy accidentally, fortuitously, evoked for future historians such a powerful monument to our moment. And Evans’ work has, in addition, intention, logic, continuity, climax, sense and perfection.”
This display follows the original bipartite structure of the book, respecting Evans’ attentiveness to sequencing and his aversion to facile reading: the first section portrays American society through images of its individuals and social contexts, while the second consists of photographs of American cultural artifacts—the architecture of Main streets, factory towns, rural churches, and wooden houses. Evans was not a fastidious printer: many people printed from his negatives throughout his lifetime. Most works here fall into two categories: some were made by Charlie Rodemeyer under Evans’ direct supervision in 1969-70; others were made recently from scans of Evans’ negatives in the Library of Congress, using the 1938 publication as a guide. In all, the detail and clarity of Evans’ piercing vision is offered for contemporary audiences to enjoy.
Based on an exhibition originally organized by The Museum of Modern Art, New York and organized by Sarah Hermanson Meister, former Curator, with Tasha Lutek, Collection Specialist, Department of Photography, The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Support provided by Art Bridges
Support provided by the Portland Museum of Art