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Citizen in Downtown Havana, Cuba

A work made of gelatin silver print.

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  • A work made of gelatin silver print.

Date:

1932/33, printed c. 1962

Artist:

Walker Evans
American, 1903-1975

About this artwork

Walker Evans is perhaps best known for his dispassionate photographs of the American South during the Depression. It was during a 1933 assignment in Havana, Cuba, however, that he truly honed his eye as a social documentarian. Evans was hired by Carlton Beals to illustrate his book The Crime of Cuba, a polemical work that criticized American capitalists for their contribution to the island’s economic and political collapse. In the three weeks Evans spent in Havana, he was dismayed by the cultural crisis and police repression but visually delighted by the urban crowds, street grids, advertisements, and cinema posters. “It’s still a frontier town, and half savage, forgetful and unsafe,” he noted. “I have been drunk with this new city for days.” This photograph of a Cuban man—nonchalantly dapper in a white suit and skimmer hat, calling to mind the “dandy” figure praised by nineteenth-century critic and poet Charles Baudelaire—suggests Havana streets that were overwhelmingly male but racially diverse. Although omitted from Beals’s book, this image became one of Evans’s favorites, and he featured it in his landmark 1938 Museum of Modern Art exhibition and book, American Photographs.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Photography and Media

Artist

Walker Evans

Title

Citizen in Downtown Havana, Cuba

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 1932–1933

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Inscriptions

Unmarked recto; inscribed verso, on mount, upper right, sideways, in graphite: "31"

Dimensions

Image/paper: 22.2 × 11.7 cm (8 3/4 × 4 5/8 in.); Mount: 45.7 × 35.6 cm (18 × 14 1/16 in.)

Credit Line

Purchased with funds provided by Mrs. James Ward Thorne

Reference Number

1962.162

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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