In 1935, Walker Evans was commissioned to photograph the exhibition African Negro Art at the Museum of Modern Art. Organized by Alfred H. Barr Jr., then director of MoMA, with curatorial oversight provided by James Johnson Sweeney, the exhibition comprised 603 sculptures on loan from various institutions and private collections. The show endeavored to depart from ethnographic art displays typical for the time and, instead, emphasize the artistic qualities of the sculpture by drawing parallels to modern art. Barr believed that the artwork ought to be photographed and used for educational purposes. After securing funding from the General Education Board of the Rockefeller Foundation, Evans was hired and began photographing in mid-April. He produced an edition of 17 portfolios featuring 477 pictures each. Most of the sets were given to historically Black colleges and universities, while a few were sold to institutions.
“The Museum has engaged Walker Evans to make the photographs for the collection. A successful photographer of sculpture, Mr. Evans is perhaps more widely known for his documentary photographs of the recent Cuban revolt and for his photographic record of 19th century American houses, of which the Museum has a collection.”
—Excerpt from a press release for African Negro Art
Importantly, Evans’ renderings of the exhibition contributed to his long-standing relationship with MoMA. During 1938, he became the first photographer to have a solo exhibition at the museum Walker Evans: American Photographs. Decades later in 1971, Director of Photography, John Szarkowski, curated a major retrospective of Evans’ work.
