MONTGOMERY MUSEUM CELEBRATES BLACK HISTORY MONTH
Montgomery Advertiser
February 2, 2010
The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts is providing a special exhibition
of nine photographic portraits of famous Africans and African Americans
in celebration of Black History Month.
Portraits of Martin Luther King, Jr., Muhammad Ali, Marian Anderson,
Dizzy Gillespie, Judith Jamison, Jessye Norman, Paul Robeson, Desmond
Tutu and Nelson Mandela will be on display through Feb. 28, in the
Museum’s Orientation Lobby.
These photographs are drawn from the MMFA collection of 100 portraits
by Yousuf Karsh (1908-2002), the Armenian-born Canadian artist who
claimed his place in art history with his iconic image of Winston
Churchill during World War II.
The exhibition features the museum’s newly acquired portrait of Martin
Luther King, Jr., which was a recent gift from Mrs. Yousuf Karsh,
the wife of the late Yousuf Karsh.
In August 1962 Karsh rushed to Atlanta, where King was co-pastor
with his father of Ebenezer Baptist Church, to photograph King for
a national publication.
The pictures were made in a corner of the church just days after King’s
brief incarceration in Albany, Ga., with other peaceful protesters
of the city’s segregation laws.
Karsh wrote, "I found him tired, but harboring no hatred, not even
disapproval. He sought only justice; that he and his people should
be treated as first-class citizens." Karsh added, "What emerged in
my mind, and, I trust, in the portrait was the dedication of the man
and his clear vision of ultimate victory."