As early as the 1870s, the quick-lunch counter had become commonplace in New York City. With the introduction and success of the coin-operated automat in the 1910s, lunch and coffee could be had in a New York minute. Walker Evans discovered this trio of natty, pre-stock market crash consumers near Grand Central terminal at a lunchroom at the corner of Lexington Avenue and 44th Street.
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Inscription: Photographer's stamp on mount, verso CR: "WALKER EVANS"; collector's stamp on mount, verso LR: "COLLECTION // ARNOLD H. CRANE, CHICAGO, U.S.A."; inscribed in hand of Arnold Crane on mount, verso LR: "withdrawn 12/71 AHC // N.Y.C. 1931"
Walker Evans; Arnold H. Crane, late 1960s
Munich. Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus. "Walker Evans, Amerika," August 15, 1990–October 15, 1990.
Museum Folkwang. "The Truth of the Real: Edward Hopper and Photography," June 28, 1992–September 20, 1992.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Walker Evans," February 1–May 14, 2000.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. "Walker Evans," June 2–September 12, 2000.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "Walker Evans," December 17, 2000–March 4, 2001.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "New York New York," May 7–September 15, 2002.
Amon Carter Museum of American Art. "American Modern: Documentary Photography by Abbott, Evans and Bourke-White," October 2, 2010–January 2, 2011.
Art Institute of Chicago. "American Modern: Documentary Photography by Abbott, Evans and Bourke-White," February 5, 2011–May 15, 2011.
Colby College Museum of Art. "American Modern: Documentary Photography by Abbott, Evans and Bourke-White," July 9, 2011–October 2, 2011.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Thomas Hart Benton’s 'America Today' Mural Rediscovered," September 30, 2014–April 19, 2015.
Evans, Walker. Walker Evans: First and Last. 1st ed. New York: Harper & Row, 1978. p. 14.
Hambourg, Maria Morris. The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars, Ford Motor Company Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1989. p. 57.
Brix, Michael, and Birgit Mayer, ed. Walker Evans: Amerika: Bilder aus den Jahren der Depression. Munich: Lenbachhaus Kunstbau, 1990. no. 8.
Hopper, Edward. The Truth of the Real: Edward Hopper and Photography, edited by Georg W. Koltzsch, and Heinz Liesbrock. Essen: Museum Folkwang, 1992.
Hornbostel, Wilhelm, and Nils Jockel, ed. Automatenwelten: Freizeitzeugen des Jahrhunderts. New York: Prestel, 1998. p. 88.
Hambourg, Maria Morris, Doug Eklund, Mia Fineman, and Jeff L. Rosenheim. Walker Evans. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000. no. 15.
May, Jessica L., Sharon Corwin, and Terri Weissman. American Modern: Documentary Photography by Abbott, Evans, and Bourke-White. Berkeley: Amon Carter Museum of American Art, 2010. p. 84, pl. 27.
Walker Evans (American, St. Louis, Missouri 1903–1975 New Haven, Connecticut)
1943
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