June 24, 2002

Doylestown, PA -- The James A. Michener Art Museum is proud to announce the opening of "Walker Evans and James Agee: Let Us Now Praise Famous Men," an exhibition on this seminal work by two of America's pre-eminent artists and social historians. The exhibition features over 76 Evans photographs and selected prose passages from Agee, along with letters and notebooks documenting their process. It is sponsored by DRAPER-DBS, Inc. and will run from July 20 - October 13, 2002 in the First Union Gallery.

In a time when photography was just coming into its own as an artistic medium, Walker Evans (1903-1975) established himself as a master with his powerful and enduring images. In the summer of 1936, Evans and writer James Agee (1909-1953) were sent by Fortune magazine to visit the home of a sharecropper family in Hale County, Alabama, to document living conditions during the Great Depression. Their resulting work, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, shattered existing conventions of dramatized narrative with its strenuously objective viewpoint. Published as a book in 1941, it became a landmark in American cultural history.

"These pictures help to form our public consciousness about the Depression era," says Museum Director Bruce Katsiff. "So much of what we know about our country's history in the first half of the 20th century comes through the visual memory of these pictures."

Working in a style he referred to as "transcendent documentary," Evans revealed a unique vision, finding beauty in the ordinary -- often grim -- scenes he observed. From striking portraits to still-life images of the spartan farmhouse interiors, his work captures these lives with dignity and grace.

As Agee wrote of their shared commitment to the objective documentary method: "there opens before consciousness, and within it, a universe luminous, spacious, incalculably rich and wonderful in each detail." With Agee's original manuscript and Evans's vintage prints, this exhibition examines the parallels of two artists working in different genres on the same subject matter. Together, Evans's poetic depictions of rural life and Agee's impassioned soliloquies reflect a still-poignant truth.

"At a time of great prosperity in America, these pictures help us to realize how far we've traveled in the past 50 years," Katsiff says, "and also help us to remember that this kind of poverty still exists, not just in the world but also here in America."

Let Us Now Praise Famous Men was organized by Curatorial Assistance Traveling Exhibitions of Pasadena, California, and is composed exclusively from materials preserved at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center of the University of Texas at Austin. After its opening run at the Michener, the exhibition will travel to the Davenport Museum of Art in Davenport, Iowa,

There will be a $4 extra fee for non-members to view this exhibition, to help cover traveling costs. As a special incentive to visitors, the Museum will be offering a 20% discount on new memberships for the duration of the exhibition.

Media Contact

Elisabeth Flynn
Public Relations Office
215-340-9800 ext. 113
eflynn@michenerartmuseum.org

• Walker Evans and James Agee: Let Us Now Praise Famous Men