Half Past Autumn: The Art of Gordon Parks-- Oakland Museum of California

June 23– September 23, 2001
Half Past Autumn:
The Art of Gordon Parks
Great Hall-High Bay
Presented by the History Department

Exhibition sponsors

The first retrospective exhibition of works by renowned American artist Gordon Parks will be on view at the Oakland Museum of California beginning June 23 and will run through September 23. Half Past Autumn: The Art of Gordon Parks examines a remarkable career that has produced photographs, films, novels, poetry and music. The exhibition, organized by the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., includes over 200 photographs.

The 88-year-old Parks is best known as a photojournalist, but this exhibition is the first time all genres of his art will be shown together. Using such media as film, poetry and music, Parks expresses his own search for compassion during a time in American history when poverty, race segregation and crime have been major social concerns. A June 22nd Tribute Concert, featuring music composed by Parks and from films he has directed, kicked off the exhibition’s opening weekend.

The national tour of Half Past Autumn: The Art of Gordon Parks and related programs are made possible by AOL Time Warner and Ford Motor Company. The local presentation of this exhibition is supported by AOL Time Warner, Ford Motor Company and Wells Fargo.

"Gordon Parks is one of a rare breed of American artists whose work has provided this country with the opportunity to recognize itself. We feel most privileged to be able to share this exhibition with the people of the Bay Area," says OMCA Director Dennis Power.

Parks has both recorded history and made history. Born in Fort Scott, Kansas, in 1912, Gordon Parks overcame poverty and racism to achieve success in an astonishing range of artistic endeavors. The youngest of 15 children, he moved to Minneapolis after his mother died when he was 16. Before taking up photojournalism Parks worked as a piano player, busboy, basketball player and Civilian Conservation Corpsman. A stint as photographer with the Farm Security Administration during the Depression led to work with Standard Oil, then a series of fashion assignments by Vogue, and, in 1948, a relationship with Life magazine that would last for two decades. An author of novels, photography texts, numerous collections of poetry and four autobiographical volumes, Parks has also directed groundbreaking films (including The Learning Tree and Shaft) and has produced memorable musical compositions ranging from classical to blues to pop.

"Ford Motor Company is proud to be a part of this salute to Gordon Parks," says William Clay Ford, Jr., chairman of Ford Motor Company. "His photographs depict the people, places, and events that make history, transforming ordinary images into extraordinary art."

Kathy Bushkin, senior vice president of AOL Time Warner adds, "We at AOL Time Warner are proud of our long association with Gordon Parks, first as a Life photographer and later as a filmmaker and author. Whether in film, print or photography, Gordon Parks has opened our eyes and challenged our presumptions. He has brought us to a better understanding of our country, our world and ourselves."

Wells Fargo East Bay Market President, Tim Silva, states, "Wells Fargo is committed to making a difference in the Bay Area. Partnering with the Oakland Museum of California and supporting events like 'A Conversation with Gordon Parks' is a great opportunity to provide an extraordinary cultural experience for our community."

The exhibition is accompanied by a full-color 360-page book by Parks with an essay by Philip Brookman, curator of photography and media arts at the Corcoran, published by Bulfinch Press/Little, Brown and Company. Brookman co-curated the exhibition with Deborah Willis, curator at the Center for African-American Culture and History, Smithsonian Institution.

It wasn’t until Parks was 25 and working as a waiter on the Northern Pacific Railroad, that he was introduced to pictures made by social documentary photographers for Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Farm Security Administration (FSA) Historical Section, a government agency designed to create a historical record of social and cultural conditions around the country. Parks studied photographs by Ben Shahn, Jack Delano, Carl Mydans, Dorothea Lange, John Vachon and Walker Evans.

"They were photographing poverty, and I knew poverty so well," says Parks. After reading a magazine that documented migrant workers and their terrible living conditions, Parks decided to buy his first camera at a pawnshop for $7.50. Parks says that his Voightlander Brilliant was "not much of a camera, but a great name to toss around. I had bought what was to become my weapon against poverty and racism."

Parks’ first professional picture taken while he was working for FSA is now one of his most famous. The picture, American Gothic, shows a charwoman, Ella Watson, holding a broom in one hand and a mop in the other in front of a backdrop of the American flag. The exhibition takes an extensive look at this and many other images that Parks created for the FSA.

In 1943, Parks went to the Office of War Information, where he was assigned as a war correspondent to the 332nd Fighter Group, the first black air corps. Although Parks documented the training program on film, he wasn’t allowed to accompany the group to Europe, in turn denying publicity to African-American participation in the war. In 1948 Parks approached Life magazine for a job that could utilize his skills as a photojournalist while still allowing him to continue the work in fashion he had started at Vogue. Fortunately for Parks, he was hired to cover the gang wars in Harlem, as well as fashions in Paris.

"Suddenly for me," Parks recalls, "two extremely diverse worlds were about to converge—one of crime, the other of high fashion." Whether he was documenting Harlem gangs or high-class celebrities, Parks always gained his subjects' trust, enabling him to shoot intimate portraits of them. The exhibition includes Parks' portraits of Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossolini during their famous sojourn on the island of Stromboli, as well as portraits of Alberto Giacometti, Alexander Calder, Marcel Duchamp, Gloria Vanderbilt, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and others.

After gaining fame as a photographer, says Brookman, "Parks was able to fluidly move back and forth between various dichotomies—black and white, rich and poor, politics and entertainment, journalism and art, truth and fiction—to observe and report his feelings." Parks has made his own experiences—his life and feelings about those around him—central to his work. His art has questioned the boundaries of both color and expression, and in doing so it has proven to be a timeless inspiration to generations of Americans.