Career of Walker Evans to Be Re-Examined in Exhibition at the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme

The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Friday, March 29, 2024


Career of Walker Evans to Be Re-Examined in Exhibition at the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme
Walker Evans, Brookfield Center, CT, n.d.. Gelatin silver print. Florence Griswold Museum, Gift of the Walker Evans Estate.



OLD LYME, CT- The Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, Connecticut presents an exhibition that uses new scholarship to examine the post-Depression era work of photographer Walker Evans. The Exacting Eye of Walker Evans is on view October 1, 2011 through January 29, 2012. Walker Evans (1903–1975) captured a place in American social, cultural, and artistic history with his unforgettable images of the Great Depression. The photographs, particularly those of rural Southern sharecroppers, launched his career and remain among the most iconic images of American art. His work in ensuing years, however, has been largely overlooked. This exhibition recovers Evans’ post-Depression work by tracing the thread of his recurring artistic themes, in the process revealing images of economic hard times, capturing the essence of local identity, and discovering the beauty in common things through the 1940s, 50s, 60s, and 70s. New research delves into his career and the artist’s life in Connecticut. No exhibition has yet addressed these decades, which Evans spent in the state as a teacher at Yale and resident of Lyme.

Evans sometimes called his work “lyric documentary,” presenting images that purport to be more or less “straight photography” but which have been captured, edited, and printed with a high degree of sensitivity to their aesthetic representations. In the guise of a documentarian he took liberties with his subject, displaying a keen awareness of the viewer’s experience of his photographs. His purposefulness as creator, editor, and collector-curator is illustrated through over 100 photographs and artifacts, borrowed from public and private collections, from his first endeavors with a camera to his final photographs in 1974.

Reexamining Icons
Gelatin silver prints of his work for the Farm Security Administration in 1935-36 are exhibited with an invitation to re-experience these familiar images of poverty in the rural South through new, enlarged ink-jet prints that are being produced under the direction of John T. Hill, the executor of the Walker Evans estate. Shown at large scale (some over 4 feet wide), these photos reveal Evans’s eye for both the grit and poetry of daily life. A variety of photographic print processes are compared, exploring the special traits of each. Evans’s sensitivity to the visual consequences of printing decisions is a theme of the exhibition. Portfolios assembled and printed in the 1970s under Evans’ close supervision present the photographer’s own retrospective thinking about his career.

Evans and the Printed Page
The significance of published books in establishing and maintaining Evans’s reputation and his role as a discerning editor of these printed images is also addressed. His most highly acclaimed work, 1941’s Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, in which Evans’ imagery was paired with the words of renowned writer James Agee, was hailed by the New York Public Library as one of the most influential books of the 20th century. From the 1940s into the 1960s, Evans worked for Fortune magazine as a photo editor, again coupling his images with short essays he wrote on a broad array of themes and subjects in American life. A number of important editions, both books and periodicals, are displayed, including the April 1962 Fortune magazine essay “The Auto Junkyard,” which was photographed in Lyme, Connecticut. In these editions the photographer can be observed as the consummate editor, carefully controlling the viewer’s experience of his subject.

The Beauty of the Common Object
Evans aesthetically considered the ordinary experiences of American life, another significant theme over his decades-long career. The exhibition looks at the photographer’s practice of collecting common things, both actual objects and their images, and curating these collections in personal displays throughout his home. From his collections of signs, postcards, driftwood, and other objects to his late engagement with the “common tool” of the Polaroid SX-70, Evans looked with rigor at everyday objects and scenes, selecting and recasting them as works of art.

Images on Demand
When Polaroid developed the first instant print cameras, Evans was an early adopter—keeping one close at hand to document scenes and people from his daily life. He produced more than 2,500 instant color prints in the final years of his life, a rotating selection of which will be on view in the exhibition. At a time when Evans’s photographic output had all but ceased, the new camera reinvigorated him. “I bought that thing as a toy, and I took it as kind of a challenge,” Evans said. The Polaroid prints, seemingly so different in style and aesthetic quality from his work of the 1930s, discouraged serious scholarly consideration of the material for decades. This exhibition begins a much-needed inquiry by examining the formal aspects of the prints, leading to the consideration of their place in the continuity of Evans career and also as objects in and of themselves that Evans eagerly collected.

Evans’s embrace of new technology suggests that recent advances in digital photography would have fascinated him—and visitors to this exhibition benefit immensely from that technology. High-resolution scanners and ink jet printers now have the power to obtain highly detailed image files from Evans’s original plates and negatives. With a simple wireless download, modern portable electronic devices can bring these images into the palm of the viewer’s hand, fulfilling Evans’s wish for viewers to have an immersive, personal viewing experience of his photography.










Today's News

May 23, 2011

The Fruit of Promise: Citrus Fruits in Art and Culture at the Germanisches National Museum

Landmark SFMOMA Exhibition Showcases the Art and Influence of Gertrude Stein and Her Family

Sotheby's London to Offer the Earliest Surviving Manuscript for a Novel by Jane Austen

A Passion for Glass: Exhibition of Modern Glass Shines at the National Museum of Scotland

Utah Tour Guide David Lund Accused by Government of Israel of Smuggling Artifacts

"Hiroshima: Ground Zero 1945" Exhibition Drawn from ICP's Permanent Collection

Much-Loved Paris Shopping Shrine "La Samaritaine" to Become 450 Million Euro Hotel

Royal Institute of British Architects Award Winners 2011 Announced in London

Women Make Sculpture: Sarah Lucas, Polly Morgan & More at Pangolin London

Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney to Re-Open in March 2012 After Major Redevelopment

Priska C. Juschka Fine Art Presents New York City Artist Rosemarie Fiore: Artificiere

Jim Dine's Glyptotek Series of Extraordinary Drawings on View at the Morgan Library

Reinterpretation of the Ancient Three Graces Myths by Artist Francesca Lowe at Riflemaker

Phillips de Pury & Company Announces Higlights from Its Modern and Contemporary Editions Auction

Christie's in Hong Kong Announces Charity Sale of Zeng Fanzhi's The Leopard

"Paper Wars" at International Poster Gallery Shows Original War Propaganda Posters

Royal Wedding Hat Sells for Over $130,000 on eBay

Key Artist of the New Generation of Emerging Chinese Artists Exhibits at Lombard Freid Projects

Mary Moorman, JFK Assassination Photographer, Tells Where She Stood and What She Saw

Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya Opens Exhibition Dedicated to the Work of Joaquin Torres-García

New Book Presents 150 Images Captured by the First Female Photographer of Mexican Revolution

George Washington Items Bring More than $167,000

One of the Last 'Beautiful Boys" Painted by Henry Scott Tuke to Sell at Bonhams

Paul Kasmin Gallery Presents a Solo Installation of Over 30 Ink Drawings by Jan Frank

artnet Auctions Announces Launch of New Design Department

Freedom Riders Get Place in History 50 Years Later

'Miracle on the Hudson' Plane Preps for Final Trip

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Presents United Sates Debut of David Clearbout Video Work

International Center of Photography Presents Exhibition by Photojournalist Ruth Gruber

artMRKT Hamptons to Debut July 14-17 at Bridgehampton Historical Society

Career of Walker Evans to Be Re-Examined in Exhibition at the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme

National Air and Space Museum Presents 2011 "Become a Pilot" Day

Metropolitan Museum to Open 15 Renovated Galleries in November

Alighiero e Boetti Day: Explore the Complex, Multifaceted Figure of Alighiero Boetti

French Decorative Arts from the Estate of Dallas Socialites Ray & Clare Stern for Sale at Heritage Auctions




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful