Walker Evans.Anonymous

Walker Evans.Anonymous

 

curated by David Campany, Jean-Paul Deridder and Sam Stourdzé

 

The exhibition curated by David Campany, Jean-Paul Deridder and Sam Stourdzé, which comes to Palazzo Magnani in a national premiere following European showings in Arles and Brussels, investigates a lesser known aspect of the work of Walker Evans, focussing on the images he published in widely circulated American magazines starting in 1929.

Over the course of this experience, Evans developed a method and a poetics based on a close connection and a complementary relationship between images and texts. Differently from many photographers, in fact, Walker Evans did not work for the magazines only as a photographer, but followed the entire process leading up to the publication of his images. He himself often chose the theme, wrote the texts, selected the photos, and worked on the page layout. During the course of almost four decades, Evans used the pages of popular magazines to produce a “counter-comment” to American society and its values. While the mass media lingered over the cult of celebrity, Evans photographed anonymous citizens, creating direct and frontal images of the conditions of the country, in an austere style and with a clarity and simplicity free from any form of romantic idealism.

The exhibition includes numerous original magazines and period prints, along with various documents and materials that illustrate this unusual aspect of the work of Walker Evans, a pioneer of modern photography, editing, writing, and graphic design.

BIO

Walker Evans(St. Louis, 3rd November 1903 – New Haven, 10th April 1975)

After studying at Williams College (Massachusetts) and at the Sorbonne, Evans started photographing by shooting images of everyday life in Manhattan in the late 1920s.

In 1934, he began working with Fortune magazine, and subsequently, like Dorothea Lange, he was hired by the Farm Security Administration to document the impact of the American Great Depression. His work became famous and he made a mark in the history of photography not only in America but also in Italy during the post-war era.

In 1948, Evans was named photographic editor of Fortune magazine, a position he held for 17 years and which enabled him to carry out an in-depth analysis of the relationship between words and images.

Solo exhibitions of his work were held worldwide, and in 1970 the MoMA in New York dedicated an extensive retrospective to him.

EVENTS

7 May 10 am, Palazzo Magnani

Walker Evans. Anonymous guided tour with Jean-Paul Deridder, Sam Stourdzé and Jerry Thompson.

booking required. ph.+39 0522 444446

 

7 May 7 pm, Palazzo Magnani

Walker Evans. Anonymous

Walker Evans. Italia

booking required. ph.+39 0522 444446

 

7 May 9 pm, Teatro Cavallerizza 

A tribute to Walker Evans. Music from the New World 

Class concert by Marcello Mazzoni (piano)

 

8 May 6 pm, Palazzo Magnani

Walker Evans. Anonymous

Walker Evans. Italia

booking required. ph.+39 0522 444446

 

4 June, 10pm – 02am, Palazzo Magnani

La notte degli Anonimi. Performance in Walker Evans’s exhibition.In collaboration with Spazio Gerra and Bottega Burger Bar.

Paid event. info tel 0522 444446

EXHIBITION VENUE

Palazzo Magnani
corso Garibaldi, 31
42121 Reggio Emilia

1
 

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from June 15 to July 10
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Category
Palazzo Magnani