Walker Evans - Photographs from the Martin Z. Margulies Foundation New York Thursday, April 4, 2024 | Phillips

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  • In June of 1936, Walker Evans traveled to Alabama with writer James Agee on assignment for Fortune magazine to produce a new installment in a series of articles on the Depression and its effect on average Americans. While Fortune declined to print their article, Agee and Evans continued the project, ultimately publishing the book Let Us Now Praise Famous Men in which Evans’s rigorously composed photographs prefaced Agee’s highly innovative text.    

     

    In Alabama, Agee and Evans befriended three families of farmers in Hale County: the Fields, the Tingles, and the Burroughs, shown here. Having gained their trust, the writer and photographer embedded themselves in the lives of these families, sharing their day-to-day experiences, and even lodging with the Burroughs in their rented shack for a number of weeks. Thus immersed, Evans made photographs that were intimate depictions of the families, their homes, and their way of life. In Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, Agee notes that the Burroughs’ home, despite appearances, was only eight years old when this picture was made. In addition to farmland and housing, Floyd Burroughs also leased farm equipment and, as payment, surrendered half his harvest to his landlord. He regularly ended the year in debt. Evans’s group portrait nonetheless portrays the Burroughs’ family pride and resilience in the face of profound privation.   

    • Provenance

      Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York, 1998

    • Exhibited

      La Morada Del Hombre: Colección Martin Z. Margulies / The Dwelling Life of Man: Collection Martin Z. Margulies, Fundación Foto Colectania, Barcelona, 3 June – 25 September 2011
      American Scene Photography: Martin Z. Margulies Collection, NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale, 30 October 2014 – 22 March 2015
      Shared History: Photographs from the Martin Z. Margulies Collection, Ritter Art Gallery, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, 24 January – 7 March 2020
      The Bitter Years: Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans, Photographs from the Martin Z. Margulies Collection, The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse, Miami, 19 October 2022 – 29 April 2023; Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, 8 September 2023 – 14 January 2024

    • Literature

      Hambourg and Rosenheim, Walker Evans, p. 90
      Fundación Barrié, La Morada Del Hombre: Colección Martin Z. Margulies, p. 111

115

The Burroughs Family, Hale County, Alabama

1936
Gelatin silver print, printed 1950s or 1960s.
7 1/2 x 9 1/2 in. (19.1 x 24.1 cm)
Lunn Gallery stamp, annotated '11' and '88' in an unidentified hand in pencil, on the verso.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$10,000 - 15,000 

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Contact Specialist

Caroline Deck
Senior Specialist, Photographs
cdeck@phillips.com

Vanessa Hallett
Worldwide Head of Photographs and Chairwoman, Americas
vhallett@phillips.com

Photographs from the Martin Z. Margulies Foundation

New York Auction 4 April 2024