Bruce Silverstein is pleased to present Black Pantheon, an exhibition of extraordinary portraits spanning the last seven decades by African American photographer, Chester Higgins. The second exhibition of works by the acclaimed photographer at the gallery, the portraits featured in Black Pantheon were created to honor the distinguished luminaries of African descent. An ongoing series and Higgins’ magnum opus, Black Pantheon thus far consists of 225 subjects.
From historians and activists such as Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks, and Shirley DuBois to artists and actors including Patti LaBelle, Miriam Makeba, and Spike Lee, the portraits in Black Pantheon represent seminal figures of the African Diaspora and the African American community taken during a period marked by the urgency and progress of the U.S Civil Rights movement and decolonization across the African continent.
This exhibition, featuring over 50 works selected by art historian Deborah Willis, strives to highlight Black individuals that have been historically, socially, and culturally overlooked and, as the artist contends, Black Pantheon serves to “reclaim the history and glory of Black people that have been so long denied in the public sphere.” Black Pantheon is a celebration of Black excellence, of African peoples’ history, and an invitation to challenge preconceived notions of race, representation, and progress.
Born in 1946, Chester Higgins has been creating images with the purpose of depicting people of African descent with dignity and grace. In 1974, Higgins was hired by the New York Times with the monumental task of counterbalancing the negative portrayal of members of Black communities around the world presented in newspapers, magazines, and television, that had been common practice for over a century. For many, Higgins’ photographs would be the first time they have seen a positive representation of Black individuals and families and as Deborah Willis states, Higgins has unequivocally reshaped how Black people globally have been viewed throughout the African diaspora.
Higgins worked for the New York Times for 40 years, during which he was provided privileged access to individuals of exceptional achievements, often veiled from widespread public recognition. Although the making of Black Pantheon began well before his tenure with the Times, this period would prove to be one of great productivity for the artist. Deborah Willis writes,
“Higgins produced photographs that were “empowering, yet nuanced in framing social justice activists and artists (James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Amiri Baraka, Harry Belafonte), we have read, or seen on screen and stage such as (Cicely Tyson, Sidney Poitier, Melvin Van Peebles) and activists we have followed on the news and/or on protest lines (Rosa Parks, Stokely Carmichael, Coretta Scott King, Betty Shabazz) or historians and political leaders (John Hendrick Clarke, Benjamin Mays, Shirley Chisholm) who perform their duties, and iconic figures who changed the course of the black experience globally like (Kofi Annan, Nelson Mandela, Haile Selassie, Muhammad Ali).”
Willis further notes that Black Pantheon is not a comprehensive overview of Higgins’ work, but “rather disparate […] strategically placed moments with individuals he encountered and photographed for over fifty years. In framing the title of this exhibition under the rubric of Pantheon, we are guided by the photographer to view these faces and individuals as the greatest group of people he photographed; they belong together as iconic images in the ‘then’ and ‘now’. These images invite the viewer to consider the historical significance of the individuals who stood, sat, and performed in front of Higgins’ lens.
