Gordon Parks: Centennial @Greenberg

JTF (just the facts): A total of 51 black and white and color photographs and 1 video, variously framed and matted, and hung against light brown walls in the main gallery space, the book alcove, the small back gallery, and one of side viewing rooms. The works in the show were made between 1941 and 1970. The black and white images are a mix of vintage and modern gelatin silver prints, sized between 9x12 and 30x20 (or reverse); no edition information was available for these prints. The color images are later pigment or Ektacolor prints; the pigment prints are sized 24x24 or 20x16 (in editions of 10 and 25 respectively), while the Ektacolor prints are sized 14x19 (with no edition information). The book alcove also includes a display case with 3 LIFE magazines. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: This centennial exhibit, in honor of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Gordon Parks, successfully gives the viewer an idea of the photographer's tremendous range and talent. The show includes photo essays and street photography made on assignment for LIFE, incisive portraits of artists and celebrities, and even a few fashion shots. Never seen color rarities from the 1950s round out the four decade selection, a treat for those already familiar with Parks and his work. And a mini-retrospective like this one would be incomplete without Parks' now iconic American Gothic, but not to worry, it hides on a side wall, tucked into one of the viewing rooms.

Parks' documentary work and photo essays are full of simmering tension and emotion. The Fontenelle family stands together at the poverty board desk, clinging to each other, exhausted and grimly resigned to the ruling of the bureaucracy. Gang members openly fight in Harlem streets, followed either by a tender embrace or attendance at a wake. Dirty children in Rio de Janeiro favelas play with spiders and carry water in makeshift parades. And his recently rediscovered color works capture the realities of small town segregation, picking out separate "colored" entrances at the theater, the ice cream shack, and storefront drinking fountains.

Parks' portraiture is equally accomplished. The show includes powerful images of black leaders and celebrities, from Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael in the passion of speech making, to a sweaty, meditative Muhammad Ali and a somber Eldridge Cleaver. Duke Ellington is artfully reflected in his piano, a shadowy Langston Hughes stands with an empty picture frame, and Sugar Ray Robinson plays golf with muscular style. These portraits are consistently atmospheric, personal, and full of life.

All in, this is a solid gathering of work from Parks' many projects and interests, and it provides an impressive and useful introduction to one of the most influential African-American photographers of the past century.

Collector's POV: The works in the show are priced as follows. The gelatin silver prints range in price from $8500 to $25000. The pigment prints range from $5000 to $10000, and the Ektacolor prints are $12000 each. Parks' work has only been sporadically available in the secondary markets in recent years, and many of his most famous images have not come up for sale at auction during that time. Recent prices have ranged between $1000 and $9000, but this may not be entirely representative of the market for his most important photographs.

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Parks Foundation site (here)
• Features/Reviews: New Yorker (here), Le Journal de la Photographie (here), Elizabeth Avedon (here)
• Companion Exhibit: Contact: Gordon Parks, Ralph Ellison and "Invisible Man" (DLK COLLECTION review here)

Gordon Parks: Centennial

Through October 27th

Howard Greenberg Gallery
41 East 57th Street
New York, NY 10022

Contact: Gordon Parks, Ralph Ellison, and "Invisible Man" @Greenberg

JTF (just the facts): A total of 25 black and white photographs, framed in white and variously matted, and hung in the second gallery space to the left of the main entrance. The show combines prints and contact sheets made between 1948 and 1952; there are 13 individual prints and 12 contact sheets on display. The single images are a mix of vintage gelatin silver prints and more recent pigment prints, sized between 8x10 and 20x16 (or reverse); the later prints are available in editions of 5 or 10. The contact sheets are all recent pigment prints, sized 24x20 (or reverse). The show also includes 3 magazine spreads from LIFE, displayed directly on the wall under plexiglas. (Installation shots at right.)

 

Comments/Context: Of all the exhibits dedicated to the work of Gordon Parks on view in the city right now (and there are several), this small show is my favorite. Curated by the artist Glenn Ligon, it primarily examines the images Parks made in 1952 to illustrate some of the scenes from Ralph Ellison's ground-breaking book Invisible Man. The exhibit dives deep into important single images from the project and the related contact sheets that show Parks' artistic process, and then pairs them with more documentary-style street photographs made by Parks in Harlem a few years earlier (again with the associated contact sheets). The result is a show that smoothly moves back and forth between fact and fiction, between real life and literature, all within the context of Parks' compositional eye.

 

The images Parks made for Invisible Man have a definite sense of the staged or the imagined. A man peers out from under a manhole cover in the middle of the street with an uncertain, fugitive look in his eye, another works turntables amid a light blub covered underground retreat (complete with superimposed city lights above), and various suited men dash with suitcases on darkened sidewalks. The contact sheets show Parks experimenting with poses and angles, looking for just the right range of quietly surreal tension and contrast.

 

What's amazing is that many of Parks' street scenes from Harlem exhibit some of these same kind of moments, albeit drawn from everyday life. Pedestrians trudge in the rain under a movie marquee announcing Dealers in Crime and Hoodlum Empire, while lines of abandoned shoes lie on the sidewalk. Most of these photographs document lingering life on stoops and outside storefronts: watching the world go by, yawning, arguing, in front of the Indian herb store or the grocer advertising neck bones. The contact sheets show Parks making multiple exposures of each chosen vignette, refining the spatial relationships until the gestures coalesced.

 

Seeing these two sets of photographs intermingled, along with their respective outtakes, helped me to see the literary in Parks' street pictures, to understand how his selections from the bustle of life were informed by an aim for a certain tone. His editing wasn't just a search for the cleanest negative or the crispest composition, but was often keyed by an atmospheric connection of some kind; he was looking for something in particular when he was out there with his camera. Overall, not only does this small show deliver some fantastic images, it opens up a window into Parks' working process, which was far more nuanced and complex than I had ever understood.

Collector's POV: The works in the show are priced as follows. The vintage gelatin silver prints range in price from $8500 to $15000, while the more recent pigment prints are either $5000 or $6500. The contact sheets are $2400 each. Surprisingly, Parks' work is only intermittently available in the secondary markets, and many of his best known works have not come up for sale at auction in a long time. Recent prices have ranged between $1000 and $9000, but this may not be entirely representative of the market for his most iconic photographs.

  

Rating: ** (two stars) VERY GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Parks Foundation site (here)
• Review: New Yorker (here)

Contact: Gordon Parks, Ralph Ellison, and "Invisible Man"

Through October 27th

Howard Greenberg Gallery

41 East 57th Street

New York, NY 10022