Artwork Page for Roadside Stand, Vicinity Birmingham, Alabama

Details / Information for Roadside Stand, Vicinity Birmingham, Alabama

Roadside Stand, Vicinity Birmingham, Alabama

1936

Walker Evans

(American, 1903–1975)
Culture
America
Medium
gelatin silver print, printed later
Measurements
Image: 19 x 23.7 cm (7 1/2 x 9 5/16 in.); Matted: 40.6 x 50.8 cm (16 x 20 in.)
Credit Line
Wishing Well Fund 1975.36
Copyright
© Walker Evans Archive, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location
Not on view
Print

Description

This image reflects Evans’s fascination with vernacular architecture and handmade signs, which he collected. It is an urbane version of a penny postcard, a work with humor but also sophistication. Evans confounds the perspective we expect to see. Instead of objects receding into space, there are flat layers that resemble a stage set: the boys holding watermelons in the foreground, the men and curtsying girl in the middle ground, and the truncated figure in white occupying center stage in the extreme background. They all perform, providing a semicomic but true-to-life vision of roadside America.
Black-and-white photograph of a stand displaying produce with two kids holding watermelons out front. The sign above them reads largest "FISH," then a painted fish the size of the word before and "&" symbol and, below that, "Honest Weights, Square Dealings." Flanking the doorway are two boards labeled "Special' To Day River Fish" with lists of types of fish and prices. A rectangular sign over the stand reads "F.M. Pointer The Old Reliable House Mover."

Roadside Stand, Vicinity Birmingham, Alabama

1936

Walker Evans

(American, 1903–1975)
America

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