Vivid vernacular
dal 10/1/2008 al 19/4/2008
Segnalato da
10/1/2008
Vivid vernacular
Menil Collection, Houston
Walker Evans, William Christenberry and William Eggleston. The exhibition highlights the American landscape as evoked through the images of three pioneering photographers, who have transformed glimpses of ordinary places into surprising and captivating images.
The exhibition highlights the American landscape as evoked through the images of three pioneering photographers, who have transformed glimpses of ordinary places into surprising and captivating images.
In 1936, Fortune magazine sent Walker Evans (1903-1975) on assignment with James Agee to Hale County, Alabama. The collaboration extended beyond the proposed article to become the book “Let Us Now Praise Famous Men,” 1941. Evans has since become one of the most celebrated of American photographers, known primarily for his carefully composed black-and-white images created in a direct, documentary style.
Born just north of Hale County, William Christenberry (b. 1936) sought out Evans after recognizing the people and buildings captured in his iconic images. Christenberry began his own photographic record of the area in 1958, originally intending the images to be color studies for his oil paintings. When Evans and Christenberry met in 1961, Evans helped the younger artist to see the photographs as artworks in themselves.
William Eggleston discovered photography while still in boarding school in the 1950s. His experiments with color photography in the mid-1960s were due in part to his friendship with Christenberry. The exhibition will explore both the correspondences and the distinctions among the work of these three artists.
The exhibition is generously supported by Roy and Evelyn Nolen, Nancy C. Allen, Michael Zilkha, and the City of Houston.
Image: William Christenberry, Church, Sprott, Alabama, 1971, The Menil Collection, gift of Gerard Junior Foundation © William Christenberry
The Menil Collection
1515 Sul Ross
Houston, Texas 77006
Museum Hours: Wednesday – Sunday, 11:00 am to 7:00 pm