The electric signs in the photograph alternately flashed the company's name and the names of its two principal products. As there were approximately one hundred million wheels rolling over America's road in 1928, the sale of tires quickly overtook that of rubber galoshes. The image expresses Evans's conviction that modern art could be timeless yet topical when perfectly wrought of vernacular materials.
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Inscription: Signed on 1st mount, verso C [sideways]: "Walker Evans";
(Sale, Sotheby's, New York, May 16, 1987, Lot #134, to Waddell); John C. Waddell
Variant [whole negative?] reproduced: Walker Evans, First and Last, Harper & Row, 1978, p.4.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 23–December 31, 1989.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 28–April 22, 1990.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," May 10–July 15, 1990.
High Museum of Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 5–April 28, 1991.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," June 8–August 4, 1991.
IVAM, Centre Julio Gonzalez, Valencia. "The New Vision, IVAM, Centre Julio Gonzalez, Valencia," January 20, 1995–March 26, 1995.
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.
Brooklyn Museum. "Youth and Beauty: Art of the American Twenties," October 28, 2011–January 22, 2012.
Dallas Museum of Art. "Youth and Beauty: Art of the American Twenties," February 24, 2012–May 27, 2012.
Cleveland Museum of Art. "Youth and Beauty: Art of the American Twenties," July 1, 2012–September 16, 2012.
Carbone, Teresa, ed. Youth and Beauty: Art of the American Twenties. 1st ed. New York: Brooklyn Museum, 2011. pp. 174–177, fig. 134.
Walker Evans (American, St. Louis, Missouri 1903–1975 New Haven, Connecticut)
1935
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![[Signs, New York City], Walker Evans (American, St. Louis, Missouri 1903–1975 New Haven, Connecticut), Gelatin silver print](/Rodan/dist/svg/rolling-0.9s-30px.svg)
