Thursday, September 19, 2024

Homeward to the Prairie I Come: Gordon Parks Photographs
Syracuse University Art Museum

Syracuse University Art Museum, Shaffer Art Building
Syracuse University, Syracuse

A new exhibition of the work of renowned photographer, writer, poet, musician, and composer Gordon Parks features more than 75 of Parks' images, examining his wide-ranging artistic ideas. The exhibition not only includes Parks' documentary photography such as the series Paris Fashions, Fort Scott Revisited, The Redemption of the Champion (featuring images of Muhammed Ali), but also his thoughts on photography as a fine art medium and his engagement with celebrated paintings and sculptures. 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.