Reflections: Mazie Harris on Walker Evans
As we all\nadapt to working and living under these new and unusual circumstances caused by\nthe COVID-19 pandemic, we\u2019ve asked curators from the Getty Museum and Getty\nResearch Institute to share short reflections on works of art they\u2019re thinking\nabout right now. These brief recordings feature stories related to our daily lives\u2014from laundry on the line to a dog at a\nscholar\u2019s feet. Over the next few weeks, look for new recordings every Tuesday.\n\n\n\nThis week\nfeatures photography curator Mazie Harris discussing Walker Evans\u2019s Washington Street, New York City / Wash\nDay (ca. 1930).\n\n\n\nTo view this artwork, visit: https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/45404/\n\n\n\n---\n\n\n\nTranscript\n\n\n\nJAMES CUNO: Hi, I\u2019m Jim Cuno, president of the J.\nPaul Getty Trust. As we all adapt to working and living under these new and\nunusual circumstances, we\u2019ve asked curators from the Getty Museum and Getty\nResearch Institute to share short reflections on works of art they\u2019re thinking\nabout right now. We\u2019ll be releasing new recordings on Tuesdays over the next\nfew weeks. I hope you\u2019ll find these stories about our daily lives\u2014from\nlaundry on the line to a dog at a scholar\u2019s feet\u2014thought provoking,\nilluminating, and entertaining.\n\n\n\nMAZIE HARRIS: My name is Mazie Harris. I\u2019m one of the\nphotography curators here at the Getty, and working at home these days I feel\nlike all I do is laundry and dishes non-stop. So I find myself appreciating all\nthe more this photograph by Walker Evans. \n\n\n\nIt looks like the photographer walked between two buildings\nand glanced up to see these crisscrossed lines of laundry hanging out to dry. There\u2019s\nsuch delight in this sort of, it\u2019s just like an everyday occurrence. And, I\ndon\u2019t know, looking at laundry dry seems like it would be just devastatingly\nboring and yet Evans makes it look like a lively musical score. The fabrics\nbellow in the wind, the sweet string of socks swaying against each other in the\nbottom left corner. It evokes full lives and loving labor. It\u2019s all here\nilluminated and abstracted against a blank sky.\n\n\n\nPhotographers have such an incredible ability to make the\nmundane visually interesting. Photographs remind us to look, look, look, to\nlook carefully. To be observant. And I\u2019m grateful to be reminded of that as I\npull yet another load of laundry from the washer or endlessly plunk dishes into\nthe drainer by the sink. This photograph reminds me to try to find beauty in\neven the most banal places. \n\n\n\nCUNO: To view this photograph by Walker Evans, titled Washington Street, New York City /\nWash Day and made around 1930, click the link in this episode\u2019s\ndescription or look for it on getty.edu/art/collection/.