Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1162043
e r i n @ e r i n h o m e . c o m 2 1 4 . 5 2 0 . 8 3 0 0 E R I N M A T H E W S e r i n h o m e . c o m THE RESIDENT EXPERT ERIN MATHEWS 38 O ne of fall's highlights in the Texas museum c o m m u n i t y i s t h e reopening of the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. An 11-month refresh of the modernist, circa-1961 Philip Johnson–designed building promises state-of-the-art lighting, improved sightlines, moveable walls, handsome new hardwood flooring, increased accessibility at the main entrance, and expanded storage for the museum's signature photography department, whose holdings number 45,000 prints spanning the history of the medium. The reborn building will be celebrated with a day-to-evening Party on the Porch Saturday, September 14. A flurry of special exhibitions also marks the occasion. The most seminal of these signifies diversity and offers discoveries about barrier-breaking magazine photographer Gordon Parks (1912-2006) — a National Medal of the Arts lensman, activist for social justice and civil rights, and polymath talent who directed one of Hollywood's first blaxploitation films, Shaft. The exhibition, organized in collaboration with The Gordon Parks Foundation, travels from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., with 150 images from the first decade of Parks' 60-year career, including portraits of black working- class heroes, from a D.C. charwoman haloed by the American flag to dashing World War II Tuskegee airman Lt. George Knox. "Gordon Parks: The New Tide, Early Work 1940-1950," September 14 – December 29; fall exhibition lineup, member events, and opening-day details cartermuseum.org. Catherine D. Anspon IN THE LENS: AMERICAN MASTER AT THE REBORN CARTER PRIVATE COLLECTION, COURTESY OF AND © THE GORDON PARKS FOUNDATION THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY, COURTESY OF AND © THE GORDON PARKS FOUNDATION GEORGE EASTMAN MUSEUM, COURTESY OF AND © THE GORDON PARKS FOUNDATION Clockwise from top left, all at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art: Gordon Parks' Self-Portrait, 1941; Gordon Parks' Grain Boat taking on a load of wheat, Port Arthur, Ontario, Canada, October 1945; Gordon Parks' Washington (southwest section), D.C. Negro woman in her bedroom, November 1942. OBSESSIONS. DECORATION. SALIENT FACTS.