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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

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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

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu