Walker Evans: The Getty Museum Collection [Hardcover]

Judith Keller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2, 1995

The J. Paul Getty Museum holds nearly 1,200 prints by master photographer Walker Evans, spanning four decades of his professional life. Many of them have never before been published. This catalogue brings together all of the museum's material on Evans. Included are images both familiar, such as his photographs of tenant farmers in the 1930s, and unfamiliar, such as those he made in Florida in the 1940s and his late Polaroid studies from the 1970s. Keller's lively text provides essential background on the major phases of Evans's artistic development, and a wealth of biographical and bibliographical information. Altogether, this book immediately becomes one of the essential studies of this American master's long and influential career.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Even readers who know photographer Walker Evans's work will find much new in this catalogue of the Getty Museum's complete Evans collection in Malibu, Calif. Containing 1054 duotone and 31 color illustrations, the book includes familiar pictures such as those of Alabama tenant farmers made in the 1920s, as well as much that is unfamiliar; e.g., his images of trailers, wildlife, road scenes, tourists and the circus from Florida's west coast in the early 1940s, or the carefully composed Polaroid studies made shortly before his death at age 71 in 1975. Also included are teeming pictures of Cuba taken in 1933, his documentary studies of African tribal art and the Deep South in the 1940s. In her thoughtful accompanying essay, Getty associate curator Keller follows the continuity of Evans's major motifs-signs, "found" objects, anonymous portraits, local architecture-from his earliest New York City street scenes of the late 1920s throughout his career, making this an invaluable resource for devotees of Evans.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Walker Evans (1903-75), whose career spanned five decades, from the 1920s to the early 1970s, was arguably the most influential 20th-century American photographer. He was accomplished technically as well-he used 21 different cameras and continued printing his own work until late in his career. This catalog of the Getty's collection of Evans's work is the most complete, most scholarly, and most useful to date, reproducing nearly 1200 images (though most are shown here in small formats, making it difficult to enjoy the high-quality reproductions). Keller, the associate curator of photographs at the Getty, spent years compiling information about Evans's life and oeuvre, working from dozens of previously published studies. She has documented, in the most exacting way, provenance, alternate croppings, signature stamps, previous publication of the images, and other identifying details about every Evans photograph in the Getty's collection, which is made up of images acquired from several major collectors, including George Rinhart, who acquired the contents of Evans's studio at the time of his death. Prints are arranged chronologically in ten chapters, each beginning with an insightful essay that examines the context and influences of the period. Photographs are reproduced from dozens of projects: from his most famous portraits of Depression-era farm families published in his collaboration with James Agee for Let Us Now Praise Famous Men to photo essays for Fortune magazine. Every library with collections on the history of photography or contemporary photography should acquire this book; it cannot be recommended too highly.
Kathleen Collins, New York Transit Museum Archives, Brooklyn
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 410 pages
• Publisher: J. Paul Getty Museum; 1st edition (November 2, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0892363177
• ISBN-13: 978-0892363179
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 9.6 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,324,765 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Evans works, February 21, 2010

By 

Robin Benson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Walker Evans: The Getty Museum Collection (Hardcover)

The only other book about this great photographer that is as comprehensive as this excellent one is Jerry Thompson's 'Walker Evans at Work', published in 1982, with 745 photos. It's worth saying though that Keller's is not a portfolio type book with large photos but a comprehensive overview of his work presented as 1121 postcard to playing card sized images.

The five chapters relate to significant years in Evans career from 1926 to 1974. They start with an introduction putting the photos in context followed by the images. Each has a very detailed caption: subject; date; size; marks and inscriptions; references. Nicely, I thought, none of the photos have been cropped, so that many of them have black strips or areas of white photographic paper, exactly as Evans would have handled them from the enlarger. A fascinating chapter (1938-1941) covers the New York subway project which made his book 'Many are called'. Here you can see 221 photos including many alternative shots of passengers. Images for 'American Photos' and FSA work (1935-1938) have 169 shots.

Don't be put off by the small size of these photos, they are beautifully printed 250 screen duotones on good matt art paper, also included are thirty-one color images, twenty-five from a projected Fortune photo-essay on street furniture taken between 1952 and 1954 and six Polaroid's from 1973 and 1974. The back of the book has an excellent bibliography presented in year order with frequent comments from the author (which I found particularly useful) to the book details.

I thought this was a quite remarkable book because it is so comprehensive and different from the other books I have of Evans work. These are portfolio format titles and the best is probably Walker Evans the Hungry Eye, with a selection of large well printed photos but go for the hardback edition, the paperback is too small.

***SEE SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.

5.0 out of 5 stars Book Nitty-Gritty, June 7, 2010

By 

Theseus "theseus" (US of A) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Walker Evans: The Getty Museum Collection (Hardcover)

A quality production from the Getty. Big, solid, square hardback, cloth over boards with a sewn binding. Heavy stock. 5.5 pounds.

3 Appendices, Index, and a 20 page Bibliography.