{"data":{"id":"4831","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":4831,"topgoose_id":2308,"tms_id":4831,"display_name":"Walker Evans","sort_name":"Evans Walker","display_date":"1903–1975","begin_date":"1903","end_date":"1975","biography":"\u003cp\u003eLike many American artists of his generation,\nWalker Evans made the pilgrimage to Paris,\nin his case, shortly after dropping out of\ncollege in the mid-1920s. When he returned\nto New York in 1927, Evans all but abandoned\nhis earlier ambition of becoming a writer\nand instead began photographing his newly\nadopted city. Over the course of the\nnext decade, he would become one of the\nmost well-known photographers in the\nUnited States, establishing a documentary\nstyle within a fine arts practice.\n\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAround 1929, Evans became\nacquainted with Lincoln Kirstein, a brilliant\nHarvard undergraduate who had already\nfounded the esteemed literary journal\n\u003ca href=\"/collection/works/46370\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eHound \u0026amp; Horn\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e and the pioneering Harvard\nSociety for Contemporary Art—Evans’s\nearly work would be included in both\nvenues. In 1931 Kirstein commissioned the\nphotographer to document decaying\nnineteenth-century houses in the Northeast.\nDuring a break, Evans spent the month\nof September in Provincetown and Martha’s\nVineyard, where he made a series of\nphotographs of weather-beaten posters\nthat Kirstein described as “ripped by\nthe wind and rain, so that they look like some\nhorrible accident.” The resulting images,\nincluding \u003cem\u003eTorn Movie Poster\u003c/em\u003e, combine\nEvans’s emerging interests in the American\nvernacular and Surrealism. By recording\nthe poster head-on and cropping out the\nsurrounding context, Evans ably conflates\nthe surface of the photograph with that\nof the poster itself and exploits the\nphotographic image’s inherent status as\na fragment. The couple’s terrified faces\nas they look out at the unidentified menace,\nalong with the torn shreds over the\nwoman’s forehead, perfectly allegorize\nthe economic ruin and anxiety of the\nGreat Depression.\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":false,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500012076","wikidata_id":"Q363308","created_at":"2017-08-30T17:17:32.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-03-30T07:01:18.773-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/4831/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/4831/exhibitions"}}}}