Overview
This exhibition features photographs selected and donated by Parks to Kansas State University in 1973. Becoming a kind of self-portrait, the gift expresses wide-ranging artistic ideas beyond documentary photography. “Homeward to the prairie I come” is the first line of a poem that Kansas native Gordon Parks wrote in 1984.
It was part of a commission from a local newspaper for a special insert to celebrate its centennial. Parks visited Manhattan, Kansas, in 1984 for the commission and returned in 1985 for a second residency. These activities exemplify the many relationships Parks forged in his home state during his career.
This exhibition features photographs selected and donated by Parks to Kansas State University in 1973 after he received an honorary doctorate degree there. The gift includes not only images from stories published in LIFE magazine, such as those of the da Silva and Fontenelle families, but also experimental ones, such as the multiple exposure The Stranger and Table in Snow, a study in subtle variations of white.
In addition, Parks created new narratives and thematic groups from such assignments as Paris fashions, Fort Scott Revisited, and Muhammad Ali to reflect his thoughts on photography as a fine art medium and his work vis à vis celebrated paintings and sculptures. As a result, the gift becomes a kind of self-portrait expressing Parks’ wide-ranging artistic ideas beyond documentary photography.
Most significantly, the photographs instigate cultural change by challenging viewers to imagine a more inclusive culture than the one they know: a world where Black skin represents ideal beauty, where an African American athlete embodies the exemplary hero, and where an artist of African heritage has a place within the lineage of excellent artists in Western art history.
Above: Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks, In their home outside Algiers, Parks photographed Cleaver and his wife Kathleen beneath a picture of Huey P. Newton, founder of the Black Panther Party, who is now in prison for manslaughter, from the series Black Panthers: The Hard Edge of Confrontation, 1970, printed 2017, chromogenic print, Kansas State University, Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, gift of Gordon Parks and the Gordon Parks Foundation; Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks, Muhammad Ali, 1966, printed 2017, gelatin silver print, Kansas State University, Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, gift of Gordon Parks and the Gordon Parks Foundation
Images courtesy of and copyrighted by The Gordon Parks Foundation.
The photographs instigate cultural change by challenging viewers to imagine a more inclusive culture than the one they know: a world where Black skin represents ideal beauty, where an African American athlete embodies the exemplary hero, and where an artist of African heritage has a place within the lineage of excellent artists in Western art history.
Organizer
Gordon Parks: Homeward to the Prairie I Come was organized by the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art at Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas. The exhibit is co-curated by Aileen June Wang, Curator, and Sarah Price, Registrar and Collections Manager.
Sponsor
Generous support for the national tour is provided by Art Bridges, Inc.
