A black and white photograph, Pabst Blue Ribbon sign, Chicago, Illinois, 1946, by Walker Evans is sheet size: 11.75" x 10.44" and image size: 9.25" x 7.25". This is a silver gelatin print c. 1978 in an edition 5/75 inscribed in ink on front of print (left margin) with the photographer's blindstamp (lower right margin).
This work is included in Walker Evans' book "First and Last" (1978), a limited-edition volume released three years after the artist's death, to mark the 40-year anniversary of Evans’ "American Photographs." Walker Evans' (1903-1975) primary locations are rural settings, roadside stands, cheap cafes, simple bedrooms, and small-town main streets.
Provenance: Private Collector
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Artist's Bio:
Walker Evans' (1903-1975) primary subjects were poor Americans found in rural settings, roadside stands, cheap cafes, simple bedrooms, and small-town main streets.
He was drawn to capturing people when “their guard is down, and the mask is off.”
The depression years of 1935-36 were some of the peak years for Evans's work. During those important years Evans honed his skills of observation: “Stare. It is the way to educate your eye, and more. Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long.” His iconic images of small town barbers, churches, and cemeteries reveal a deep respect for the common man. In addition to the iconic "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" a book of photos by Walker Evans and text by American writer James Agee, published in 1941, Evans' book "First and Last" included the Burroughs Family photographs.
From the first day he turned to his camera, he brought literature, lyricism, irony, and storytelling to the art of photography. "Leaving aside the mysteries and the inequities of human talent, brains, taste, and reputations, the matter of art in photography may come down to this: it is the capture and projection of the delights of seeing; it is the defining of observation full and felt." - Walker Evans
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