Jack Shainman Gallery is pleased to announce “Gordon Parks: Half and the Whole.” As a photographer, film director, composer, and writer, Gordon Parks (1912–2006) was a visionary artist whose work continues to influence American culture to this day. In collaboration with the Gordon Parks Foundation, this two-part exhibition features photographs that span from 1942–70, demonstrating the continued influence and impact of Parks’s images, which remain as relevant today as they were at the time of their making.
On view at our 20th Street location is a selection of works from Parks’s most iconic series, among them “Invisible Man” and “Segregation Story.” These images, many of which have rarely been exhibited, exemplify Parks’s singular use of color and composition to render an unprecedented view of the Black experience in America. Our 24th Street space features images of protest and portraits of leaders in the fight for social justice and racial equality, among them Malcolm X, Eldridge and Kathleen Cleaver, Muhammad Ali, and a woman only known via Parks’s searing portrait, Ella Watson. In the weeks and months since the murder of George Floyd, these images—many made over half a century ago—resonate louder than ever. Of particular note are 1963 images of protests relating to incidents of police brutality, equally striking for their relevance as for their contemporary compositions. One of the earliest photographs in the exhibition, a striking 1948 portrait of Margaret Burroughs—a writer, artist, educator, and activist who transformed the cultural landscape in Chicago—shows how Parks uniquely understood the importance of making visible both the triumphs and struggles of African American life. Regardless of subject, Parks was more than a keen observer, he was a witness who through his photographs was able to channel the humanity that powered such struggles.