Walker Evans' series of photographs of African-American men before a row of barbershops make his work in Vicksburg, the site of one of the Civil War's bloodiest battles, a high point in his career. This photograph of the "Brother-in-Law," "New Deal," and "Savoy" shops is also a field portrait of the descendants of those for whom the Union officers fought, with President Roosevelt replacing President Lincoln as the commissioning agent.
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Artwork Details
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Title:[Barber Shops, Vicksburg, Mississippi]
Artist:Walker Evans (American, St. Louis, Missouri 1903–1975 New Haven, Connecticut)
Date:1936
Medium:Gelatin silver print
Dimensions:18.1 x 23.1 cm (7 1/8 x 9 1/8 in.)
Classification:Photographs
Credit Line:Purchase, Marlene Nathan Meyerson Family Foundation Gift, in memory of David Nathan Meyerson; and Pat and John Rosenwald and Lila Acheson Wallace Gifts, 1999
Inscription: Signed and inscribed in pencil on mount, recto BR, BL: "Walker Evans", "Mississippi, 1936"; inscribed in pencil on mount, recto CR: "4 1/2"
Walker Evans; John T. Hill, Bethany, Connecticut
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.
Tate Modern. "Cruel and Tender: The Real in the Twentieth Century Photograph," June 5, 2003–September 7, 2003.
Museum Ludwig. "Cruel and Tender: The Real in the Twentieth Century Photograph," November 29, 2003–February 18, 2004.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Philippe de Montebello Years: Curators Celebrate Three Decades of Acquisitions," October 24, 2008–February 1, 2009.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Walker Evans and the Picture Postcard," February 3–May 24, 2009.
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. "Art for the Millions: American Culture and Politics in the 1930s," September 5–December 10, 2023.
Keller, Judith. Walker Evans: The Getty Museum Collection. Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1995. no. 490.
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. 98, pl. 41, front cover.
Walker Evans (American, St. Louis, Missouri 1903–1975 New Haven, Connecticut)
ca. 1929
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![[Barber Shops, Vicksburg, Mississippi], Walker Evans (American, St. Louis, Missouri 1903–1975 New Haven, Connecticut), Gelatin silver print](/Rodan/dist/svg/rolling-0.9s-30px.svg)
