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WALKER EVANS, (American, 1903-1975), UNTITLED (NEW YORK SUBWAY PORTRAIT), Lunn Gallery "Walker Ev...

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:10,000.00 - 15,000.00 USD
WALKER EVANS, (American, 1903-1975), UNTITLED (NEW YORK SUBWAY PORTRAIT), Lunn Gallery  Walker Ev...
WALKER EVANS
(American, 1903-1975)
UNTITLED (NEW YORK SUBWAY PORTRAIT)
Lunn Gallery "Walker Evans" stamp with pencil notations: "VI" (Subway) and "118" on verso
gelatin silver print
image: 415/16 x 73/8 in. (12.5 x 18.7 cm)
paper: 81/16 x 10 in. (20.5 x 25.4 cm)
1938
ESTIMATE: $10,000-15,000
PROVENANCE
Fraenkel Gallery, SAN FRANCISCO
EXHIBITED
SAN FRANCSICO, Fraenkel Gallery, MANY ARE CALLED, March 1 - April 3, 1982
LITERATURE
Walker Evans, MANY ARE CALLED, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1966, p. 119 (illustrated)
Walker Evans, FIRST AND LAST, NEW YORK: Harper & Row, 1978, p. 136 (variant cropping illustrated)
Sarah Greenough, WALKER EVANS: SUBWAYS AND STREETS, Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1991, pp. 80-81, pls. 30 and 31 (variant croppings illustrated)
Judith Keller, WALKER EVANS: THE GETTY MUSEUM COLLECTION, Malibu, 1995, p. 218, no. 718 (variant cropping illustrated)
Maria Morris Hambourg, et al., WALKER EVANS, NEW YORK, Metropolitan
Museum of Art, 2000, pl. 119 (variant cropping illustrated)
Jeff L. Rosenheim, ed., UNCLASSIFIED: A WALKER EVANS ANTHOLOGY, NEW YORK, Scalo/Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000, pp. 182-183 (contact sheet and variant croppings illustrated)
Inspired by Daumier's THIRD CLASS CARRIAGE (1863-1865), Walker Evans recorded a cross-section of citizens riding the New York City subway. Here in the underground tunnels, environmental conditions were comparable to those of a studio. By hiding his camera in his jacket, Evans captured unsuspecting expressions on the faces of his fellow passengers. But since the subway offered poor lighting, which increased the necessary exposure time, some of Evans's subjects had an opportunity to discover his secret tactics. A caption for a selection of the subway portraits described their achievement as follows. "The guard is down and the mask is off; even more than when in lone bedrooms (where there is a mirror), people's faces are in naked repose down in the subway" ("The Passengers," HARPER'S BAZAAR, March 1962).