Ali Jumping Rope

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Copied Gordon Parks, Ali Jumping Rope, 1966, gelatin silver print, sheet and image: 13 3⁄8 x 9 in. (34.0 x 22.8 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, 1998.121.4, © 1966, Gordon Parks Foundation

Artwork Details

Title
Ali Jumping Rope
Artist
Date
1966
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
sheet and image: 13 3⁄8 x 9 in. (34.0 x 22.8 cm.)
Copyright
© 1966, Gordon Parks Foundation
Credit Line
Museum purchase through the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation
Mediums Description
gelatin silver print
Classifications
Subjects
  • Figure group — male
  • African American
  • Portrait male — Clay Cassius — full length
  • Portrait male — Ali, Muhammad — full length
  • Occupation — sport — boxing
Object Number
1998.121.4
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1998.121.4

Artwork Description

Parks completed some three hundred assignments for Life magazine over a twenty-year period. He shot fashion spreads in Paris and portraits of luminaries Alexander Calder, Aaron Copland, Malcolm X, and others. In 1966, in Ali Jumping Rope, Parks caught the heavyweight champion with his back to the camera and both feet off the ground. The photograph, printed in soft tones, confirms that its maker neither interrupted Ali’s training regimen nor intruded on his personal space. In fact we see Ali’s face only in the mirror.


African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond, 2012