P2000.51: Untitled (copy photograph of Ben Shahn's Rikers Island Penitentiary mural study: panels 1 and 2, north wall, "Police Line up")

Identification and Creation

Object Number

P2000.51

People

Attributed to Walker Evans, American (St. Louis, Mo., USA 1903 - 1975 New Haven, Conn., USA)

Title

Untitled (copy photograph of Ben Shahn's Rikers Island Penitentiary mural study: panels 1 and 2, north wall, "Police Line up")

Classification

Photographs

Work Type

photograph

Date

1934-1935

Places

Creation Place: North America, United States, New York State, New York City

Culture

American

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/194892

Physical Descriptions

Technique

Gelatin silver print

Dimensions

image: 25 x 31.9 cm (9 13/16 x 12 9/16 in.)
mount: 25.2 x 31.8 cm (9 15/16 x 12 1/2 in.)
panel 1: 14.5 x 16.7 cm (5 11/16 x 6 9/16 in.)
panel 2: 14.6 x 14.8 cm (5 3/4 x 5 13/16 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• label: recto of the mount, lower center, black ink, typed: #1 and #2
  NORTH WALL (over entrance panel)
  
  PoliceLine up--causes of crime symbolically suggested---
  Unemployment ["Unemployment" underlined in graphite] (men on line looking for jobs)---Overpublicizing ["Overpublicizing" underlined in graphite]
  of crime ["crime" underlined in graphite] (homeless men reading lurid news stories)---Mixed ["Mixed" underlined in graphite]
  racial groups ["racial groups" underlined in graphite] (rogues gallery) Criminals own feeling of mis- ["mis-" underlined in graphite]
  fortune ["fortune" underlined in graphite] (hard luck, Friday 13th) Mechanical classification ["Mechanical classification" underlined in graphite]
  by police ["by police" underlined in graphite] (police targets, child killer, gunman, racketeer)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Bernarda Bryson Shahn, Roosevelt, New Jersey, from Ben Shahn, gift to the Harvard University Art Museums, 2000. Stephen Lee Taller found this object in the former studio of Ben Shahn.
Ben Shahn, Roosevelt, New Jersey, from Walker Evans?, 1935, [death], 1969.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Bernarda Bryson Shahn

Accession Year

2000

Object Number

P2000.51

Division

Modern and Contemporary Art

Contact

am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu

Permissions

The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Publication History

• Davida Fernandez-Barkan, "Of Murals and Men: Carceral Aesthetics and Ben Shahn's Rikers Island Project", Smithsonian Journal of American Art, University of Chicago Press (Chicago and Washington D.C., 2023), Vol. 37, No. 1, pp. 32-57, pp. 42-43, ill., (color)

Verification Level