Exhibition

The Black Image Corporation

20 Sep 2018 – 14 Jan 2019

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Fondazione Prada presents "The Black Image Corporation", an exhibition curated by the artist Theaster Gates, from 20 September 2018 to 14 January 2019 in the Observatory spaces, in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan.

About

The project explores the fundamental heritage contained in the archives of the Johnson Publishing Company, a collection of over four million images that has helped define the aesthetic-cultural codes of contemporary Afro-American identity.

Founded by John H. Johnson in 1942, the publishing house of the same name created two essential publications for the black community of the United States: the monthly  Ebony  and the twin weekly  Jet , whose circulation began respectively in 1945 and 1951. Both the magazines celebrated the positive situations of daily life and portrayed the complex realities experienced by the black population of the United States in the post-war period. Quickly become two of the major platforms for representing and discussing the "black" culture,  Ebony and  Jet they have hosted a wide range of events and characters, from historical events such as the 1963 Washington march and the first expedition of an African-American astronaut to sports icons and celebrities from the entertainment world.

For Fondazione Prada Osservatorio Theaster Gates has created a choral and participatory exhibition focusing on the work of two photographers: Moneta Sleet Jr. and Isaac Sutton. As Gates states, "with this project, I intend to present the creation by Sleet and Sutton of some iconic moments of female identity and, at the same time, propose rapid raids in the life of ordinary people through unpublished images selected by the Johnson Collection. These archives investigate the themes of beauty and black female power, and I think today is the right time to dig into the visual lexicon of American history and unveil an iconography that, outside of my community, enjoys poor visibility. I wanted to celebrate women of all kinds, with a particular focus on African-American women ".

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Theaster Gates

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