An exhibition on what matters: The Black Image Corporation

“I wanted to celebrate women of all kinds and especially black women”. -Theaster Gates

Fondazione Prada presents the new exhibition The Black Image Corporation curated by social practice installation artist Theaster Gates. The exhibition will be featuring more than 4 million images which shaped the aesthetic and cultural languages of the contemporary African American identity. The Project explores the fundamental heritage found in the archives of the Johnson Publishing Company. Lt. The company is founded by John H. Johnson in 1942. The self-named company created two essential magazines for black community in the United States. The magazines were named Ebony which is a monthly and Jet which is a weekly magazine. Both quickly became a huge platform of representing and discussing black culture. The magazine featured historic milestones such as the March on Washington in 1063 and the first African-American astronaut as a sport icon. The language of the both magazines seen as mid-century modern aesthetic from the eyes of black life. This wide collection of images helps to understand the richness of African American culture with its professional codes, modes of dress, social structures, domestic lives, and forms of beauty and glamour.

Theaster Gates bu sergide iki fotoğrafçıya odaklandı: Pulitzer Ödülü kazanan ilk Afrikalı-Amerikalı Moneta Sleet Jr. ve Prada Osservatorio’dan Isaac Sutton. Her iki fotoğrafçının eserleri Afrikalı-Amerikalı topluluğundaki standart sosyal elitleri ve ünlülerin yaşamını geniş bir yelpazede anlatıyor. Siyaset, spor, güzellik ve cinsellik de serginin bir parçası olacak. “The Black Image Corporation” Moneta Sleet Jr. ve Isaac Sutton’ın imzasını taşıyan 300’den fazla fotoğrafı bir araya getirerek Fondazione Prada’nın yayımladığı bir portfolyo sunacak. Ayrıca Theaster Gates ve Johnson Publishing Company’nin yönetim kurulu başkanı Linda Johnson Rice arasındaki sohbetin bir kitabını da sunacak.