California African American Museum
Half Past Autumn: The Art of Gordon Parks
The first retrospective exhibition of the
works of renowned American artist Gordon Parks will open at the California
African American Museum on Saturday, October 14 and run through Saturday,
December 30, 2000. Parks is an American Renaissance man who has mastered
many media to express an uplifting and influential message of hope in the
face of adversity. (left: Photo Credit: © Johanna Fiore, Portrait
of Gordon Parks, 1977)
This exhibition is organized by the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and co-curated by
Philip Brookman, curator of photography and media arts at the Corcoran,
and Deborah Willis, collections coordinator at the Center for African-American
History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution. (right: © Gordon
Parks: Ella Watson and her Grandchildren, Washington, D.C., 1942,
gelatin silver print)
Although
the 87 year-old Parks is best known as a photojournalist, this retrospective
brings together for the first time his works as a filmmaker, novelist, poet
and musician. Half Past Autumn: The Art of Gordon Parks begins in
the present with several of his most recent images and then, like a cinematic
flashback, propels visitors into the past through Park's early photographs
of Kansas that represent his childhood. (left: © Gordon Parks,
New England Fisherman, John Lafond 1942, gelatin silver print)
Sponsored by Ford Motor Company and Time Warner Inc., the
exhibition features 219 
photographs, with
significant works from each of Parks' major series from 1940 through 1997,
including several galleries of color photographs and portraits, combined
with his books, music, film and poetry. The result is, in the artist's words,
a "tone-poem" that impressionistically tells his own story. The
exhibition is accompanied by a full-color 360-page book by Parks, entitled
Half Past Autumn: Gordon Parks, published by Bulfinch Press/Little,
Brown and Company. (right: © Gordon Parks, Travelers,
1995, Iris ink jet print)
"Half Past Autumn: The Art of Gordon
Parks is a record of one artist's creative search for humanity in the
face of intolerance," says Brookman. "Parks' art is about pressing
social issues, such as poverty, race, segregation and crime, while it also
enhances our understanding of beauty, nature, landscape, childhood, music,
fashion and memory. His striking balance, moving seamlessly between these
diverse topics, sketches a poetic portrait of post-war culture." (left:
© Gordon Parks: Spanish Fashions, 1950, gelatin silver print)
Related articles in this magazine include:
CAAM hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The museum is closed on Mondays, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day. CAAM is located at 600 State Drive, Exposition Park in Los Angeles. Admission to the museum is free. (information as of 10/00)
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