Gordon Parks: The South in Color
Overview
Jackson Fine Art is delighted to announce our spring exhibition Gordon Parks: The South in Color organized in partnership with The Gordon Parks Foundation. The exhibition is timed to commemorate two important milestones - the 70th anniversary of the landmark publication of Parks’ images of the segregated South in Life magazine and the 20th anniversary of the founding of The Gordon Parks Foundation. The South in Color will present more than thirty photographs from the artist’s Segregation Story series and debut a brand-new portfolio published by the Foundation. The exhibition brings together many of Parks’ images not previously shown in the gallery, alongside some of his most recognized such as At Segregated Drinking Fountain, Mobile, Alabama, to offer a fresh look at the series, and deepen its emotional and historical resonance.
The South in Color is curated by acclaimed American photographer Dawoud Bey, and presented in alliance with the Foundation’s yearlong celebration of Parks and his impact on the current generation of Black artists and writers. Our exhibition brings to life Bey’s 2022 essay from the expanded edition of Gordon Parks: Segregation Story (2022), in which he writes about the visual poetry of Parks’ photographs taken in and around Mobile, Alabama in Summer 1956 for Life magazine. Dawoud Bey is a groundbreaking artist and MacArthur Fellow who examines the Black past and present. His photographs and film installations have been exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the United States and Europe. Bey’s work has been the subject of numerous solo museum exhibitions, including Dawoud Bey: An American Project organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art (2020-2022), and Elegy at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (2023-2024) and New Orleans Museum of Art (2025-2026); and Dawoud Bey: Street Portraits at the Denver Art Museum (2024-2025).
The South in Color is curated by acclaimed American photographer Dawoud Bey, and presented in alliance with the Foundation’s yearlong celebration of Parks and his impact on the current generation of Black artists and writers. Our exhibition brings to life Bey’s 2022 essay from the expanded edition of Gordon Parks: Segregation Story (2022), in which he writes about the visual poetry of Parks’ photographs taken in and around Mobile, Alabama in Summer 1956 for Life magazine. Dawoud Bey is a groundbreaking artist and MacArthur Fellow who examines the Black past and present. His photographs and film installations have been exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the United States and Europe. Bey’s work has been the subject of numerous solo museum exhibitions, including Dawoud Bey: An American Project organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art (2020-2022), and Elegy at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (2023-2024) and New Orleans Museum of Art (2025-2026); and Dawoud Bey: Street Portraits at the Denver Art Museum (2024-2025).
