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Walker Evans at
the Met |
I'm a sucker for Walker
Evans and this first comprehensive retrospective of his work at
the Metropolitan
Museum in New York is a must see. In
a world flooded with images, these pictures spanning most of the
past century, still resonate power and conviction. Even the famous
continually reproduced images defy overexposure. His work seems
to satisfy both aesthetic formal requirements as well as a human
need for contact and social connections.
The documentation of vernacular architecture is right up my street.
These images of dirty grimy (soon to be torn down?) 19th century
shacks and churches are a testimate to our history before we insisted
on washing everything squeaky clean and traded in Victorian/Federal
detail for vinyl siding. Too bad there weren't more Walker Evans
around at the time to save these objects for posterity. His preoccupation
with roadside advertising and signs seems now to speak to our
culturally retro fancies. They function as both abstract images
and surreal encapsulations of common language, a perfect meld
of cultural high & low. There's even a hint at something Pop well
before Pop, pointing towards the later influence of semiotic theory
on just about everything. He began his career as a writer after
all. Even the later Polaroid work transcends it's nature as "developed
in the camera" throw away art.
Walker Evans' work is a mine of classic modern (populist) photography,
a history book of the 20th century. It's all here, the Brooklyn
Bridge, the Dust Bowl farmers, the signs. Was he also the first
to begin ordinary street photography? Separate city dwellers caught
by the lens unawares, lost in their private worlds. It is a tribute
to the work that it has been well published and is relatively
known by several generations. It is also worth noting that much
of this work was sponsored by the United States government. Did
we have better taste back then or just an active interest in preserving
history at a high level?
The show is made up of pieces from public and private collections
as well as the Walker Evans archives which the Metropolitan Museum
acquired in 1994. Incidentally, the work in the show is made up
of "vintage prints" reflecting his own printing in the darkroom.
This is topical for the InLiquid site these days and interesting
given current debate about the nature of craft and production
versus art. One thing is clear, regardless of which variant one
adheres to, the work of Walker Evans transcends this issue. With
this exhibition it is fitting that work so much about the "real"
should be directly from the creator at the time of creation.
- J. R.
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