GREENHOUGH (Sarah) - EVANS (Walker)]. — Walker Evans, Subways and streets.
Washington, National gallery of Art, (1991). Un vol. au format in-4 ˆ l'italienne (253 x 273 mm) de 132 pp., brochŽ. Textes en anglais. L'ouvrage s'agrŽmente d'une abondante iconographie. ''This exhibition, Walker Evans: Subway Photographs and Other Recent Acquisitions, has as its core a compelling group of photographs Evans made on the New York subways between 1938 and 1941. Although admired by scholars and connoisseurs of twentieth-century art and photography as well as by artists and photographers themselves, these images are not well known by the general public. A few have occasionally been included in group exhibitionsÑas we did in our sesquicentennial celebration, On the Art of Fixing a Shadow: 150 Years of PhotographyÑyet the last major show and publication of subway photographs was organized twenty-five years ago by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. As this exhibition and catalogue make clear, the subway photographs deserve to be more widely heralded. Not only do they occupy a pivotal position in the development of Evans' art but they contribute to a new understanding of how Evans worked and how he conceived of photography. In addition, these haunting photographs of anonymous individuals enduring the assaults of the modern urban environmentÑtrapped within "the swaying sweatbox," to use Evans' wordsÑare also telling predictions of the direction American photography would take after the Second World War.'' Coupes lŽgrement ŽlimŽes. Du reste, trs belle condition.