Walker Evans
1934 · Gelatin silver print
7 1/4 × 5 3/4" (18.5 × 14.7 cm)
Museum of Modern Art
WATTS INDEXThe canonical database of visual culture
James Thrall Soby
Artist
WA-00031192
PhotographySurrealism
Representation
None documented
0
Institutional Exhibitions
4
Works in Collection
7
Assets Indexed
0
Authority-backed Facts
0
Publications Referenced
70%
Profile Completeness
Cultural Positioning
Influence Graph
No influence edges encoded yet.
Authority Records (1)
Source Registry (1)
- MoMA bulk 2026-05-04Tier 1 · Institutional92%
About
Why this artist matters now
James Thrall Soby was an American art historian and curator whose institutional work and critical writing shaped postwar modernist discourse. As director of exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, he championed abstract and surrealist practices through acquisitions and curated displays, establishing frameworks for understanding European avant-garde movements within American institutions. His scholarship and curatorial decisions were instrumental in consolidating modernism's canonical position during the mid-twentieth century.
Source: Moma Bulk 2026 05 04 · Trust score: 92% · Updated 1mo ago
Graph relationships
Taste overlap and adjacency
Movement
Surrealism
Medium
Photography
Related Artists
12 in graph
Institutional
Museum Collections
Canonical record
Artworks (4)
Artwork sources (2)
4 published of 5 catalogued · 5 with image
- Art Institute Chicago3 published3 img
- MoMA1 publishedof 2 catalogued2 img
Record
Images
Relationships
3Movements1
Collections2
Institutional
Representation & Collections
In collection
Museum of Modern Art
New York, US
In collection
Art Institute of Chicago
Record
Exhibitions and timeline
No exhibitions or timeline entries yet