.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Hank Willis Thomas’ American Gothic, 2014 is a contemporary reimagining of Gordon Parks’ 1942 photograph of the same title. Both works draw upon the imagery in Grant Wood’s classic 1930 painting American Gothic, yet both Parks and Thomas adapt the image to reflect the social and political conditions of their own times.
Gordon Parks’ American Gothic, Washington, D.C. depicts Ella Watson, a Black janitor for the Farm Security Administration (F.S.A.), in a stoic posture that echoes Wood’s original composition, holding a mop and broom instead of a pitchfork. Praised for its layered yet easily comprehendible imagery, Parks uses familiar iconography to expose deep-rooted social issues of a war-torn America.
Thomas revisits this method of visual critique in his 2014 work by segmenting Parks’ image into a dimensional quilt-like pattern. In 2019, Thomas had been awarded a fellowship from the Gordon Parks Foundation and explored the many historical events that Parks photographed, such as the March on Washington and Martin Luther King Jr.’s funeral.
Thomas’ practice of reconstituting important photographs by Black American photographers into modern, geometric compositions is well known. The noticeable negative space between the prints is left to remind the viewer of the gaps throughout American history and the intentionally forgotten stories of the disenfranchised. Thomas’ American Gothic, 2014 is a powerful testament to the ongoing, unresolved questions surrounding our nation’s identity.
The present lot is from a limited edition of three plus one artist's proof and is coming to auction for the first time. Thomas is represented by Jack Shainman Gallery and has been awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship (2018) and the AIMIA AGO Photography Prize (2017) among others. He also has several major public art commissions including The Embrace in Boston, commemorating Martin Luther King Jr., Unity in Brooklyn, and Love Over Rules in San Francisco.
Gordon Parks’ American Gothic, Washington, D.C. depicts Ella Watson, a Black janitor for the Farm Security Administration (F.S.A.), in a stoic posture that echoes Wood’s original composition, holding a mop and broom instead of a pitchfork. Praised for its layered yet easily comprehendible imagery, Parks uses familiar iconography to expose deep-rooted social issues of a war-torn America.
Thomas revisits this method of visual critique in his 2014 work by segmenting Parks’ image into a dimensional quilt-like pattern. In 2019, Thomas had been awarded a fellowship from the Gordon Parks Foundation and explored the many historical events that Parks photographed, such as the March on Washington and Martin Luther King Jr.’s funeral.
Thomas’ practice of reconstituting important photographs by Black American photographers into modern, geometric compositions is well known. The noticeable negative space between the prints is left to remind the viewer of the gaps throughout American history and the intentionally forgotten stories of the disenfranchised. Thomas’ American Gothic, 2014 is a powerful testament to the ongoing, unresolved questions surrounding our nation’s identity.
The present lot is from a limited edition of three plus one artist's proof and is coming to auction for the first time. Thomas is represented by Jack Shainman Gallery and has been awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship (2018) and the AIMIA AGO Photography Prize (2017) among others. He also has several major public art commissions including The Embrace in Boston, commemorating Martin Luther King Jr., Unity in Brooklyn, and Love Over Rules in San Francisco.