November Issue 2001
Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, NC, Presents Works by Gordon Parks
The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) in Winston-Salem, NC, is pleased to present Half Past Autumn: The Art of Gordon Parks through Jan. 13, 2002. Sponsored by AOL Time Warner and Ford Motor Company, and organized by curators 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, Half Past Autumn: The Art of Gordon Parks is the first exhibition to synthesize all aspects of his career. Although Parks is best known as a photojournalist - he was on the staff of Life magazine for over 20 years - this retrospective brings together for the first time his works as a filmmaker, novelist, poet and musician.
The exhibition presents 219 photographs produced by Gordon Parks between 1940 and 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. "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 Parks' early photographs of Kansas that represent his childhood. The exhibition records Parks' creative search for humanity in the face of intolerance. His art is about pressing social issues, such as poverty, race, segregation and crime. It also enhances our understanding of beauty, nature, landscape, childhood, music, fashion and memory. Parks' seamless movement between such diverse topics strikes a balance between racial and aesthetic concerns, sketching a poetic portrait of post-war culture.
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, exhibition curator. "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."
It's an honor for Ford Motor Company to salute the extraordinary achievements of Gordon Parks. His lens has captured history in the making, and recorded the many faces of our nation. All of us at Ford join many thousands of admirers in a tribute to this remarkable talent," says Alex Trotman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ford Motor Company.
Gerald M. Levin, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Time Warner, Inc., adds, "We at Time Warner are proud of our association with Gordon Parks, first as a Life photographer and later as a filmmaker. Our relationship expanded to include our role as publisher of several of his books. 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."
In conjunction with the exhibition SECCA is presenting a Gordon Parks Film Series showcasing four feature-length movies and Community Day celebrating Parks' works.
For more information check our NC Institutional Gallery listings, call SECCA at 336/725-1904 or visit our website at (http://www.secca.org).
Gordon Parks Film Series
Nov. 1 and 4 - Leadbelly 1976, 126 minutes, Thur. at 7:30pm, Sun. at 3pm, at SECCA's McChesney Scott Dunn Auditorium, $5 SECCA members/$7 general admission. Parks imbues his biography of famed folk blues singer Huddie Ledbetter (Roger E. Mosley) with the structure and significance of myth.
Nov. 15 & 18 - Solomon Northup's Odyssey
1984, 118 minutes, Thursday at 7:30pm, Sun. at 3pm, at SECCA's
McChesney Scott Dunn Auditorium, $5 SECCA members/$7 general admission,
The film tells the true story of Solomon Northup (Avery Brooks),
a black man born free and living with his family in early 1800's
upstate New York who gets kidnapped.
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