WPLN News Archive; News Archive 12/2/05-1/12/06; Carlton Wilkinson Coming Home (Susan Knowles) 12 27 05

entering the galleries of nashville's parthenon news im one sees on the left the photographs of southern churches on the right the smooth silhouettes of black men on one side is a travelogue taken during the main man march in nineteen ninety two and on the back wall the brilliant colors of africa shine forth each gripping summarizes a larger theme for cotton wilkinson's coming home condense has over twenty years of photography well basically i grew up in nashville not far from the parthenon actually are mostly avenue in twenty thirteen his father frederick douglass wilkinson and mother to lois moved to nashville from new york and decided to de segregate themselves by moving into a white neighborhood convenient to marry medical college there was pretty much a flight at bp will and the neighborhood churn two in the black community setting apart therefore was the access point of recreational area from for my my siblings and myself got the park was segregated initially i think after americans could only

come from their own and one day a year after desegregation wilkinson attended the parks community center as a youngster and spend time browsing the parthenon santa could ease collection after high school he turned to art and photography in graduate school at ucla he did a series focusing on churches and the civil rights movement and it became his master's thesis on the altar liberty which pays homage is to the churches of the civil rights movement that were involved in some significant way and those parishioners and ministers that was largely inspired by the church that i was involved with first baptist capitol hill and to the leadership of regular nourishment you know i've had a lot exposure during that period in terms a protest in meetings and then they'd just the awareness levels three i have a whole professor photography devore well as of new york university's tisch school of the arts has no wilkinson since the

nineteen eighties she says he turned his camera to the churches as a central place for reflection there are no people in the photograph here mainly of the structures of the pulpit of the feed the car fit the windows he added that are referred to focus on the uniqueness of these experiences for the nuances that he captured were different from the photograph of the many others when he returned to nashville in nineteen eighty six wilkinson opened a studio and jefferson street and soon after an art gallery he was hired to teach photography part time at vanderbilt university founded the national association of african american artists and still found time to pursue his own work out of this fertile period and important series of dramatic black and white photographs emerged after no museum series begins in nineteen eighteen william moody discusses how i feel the

aftermath of male has not been properly defined oddly enough the inspiration for the series came from the parthenon and wilkinson's youthful memory with his heroic patent statuary by photographing beautiful male bodies with dramatic lighting he knew he could create images that looked almost sculptural going back to the party i was always intrigued by the celebration of the figure to express historical circumstances relating to war to peace relate to love related to so many areas of civilization and how that was lacking among images of african nations my attempt was to create images i'm not a sculptor but i can at least visualize the sculptures in the same way route and visualize man a mormon the turkey professor deborah willis chose four of wilkinson's african male news im series for a smithsonian traveling exhibition called reflections in black

parthenon director wesley payne says wilkinson's work as one continuous journey she finds one recent large color photograph of the alameda slaves decade and garner both breathtaking and poignant what we see is a white washed stone castle with peeling paint with the ocean and gray blue storm clouds in the background and puddles of rain on the stone paved floor a rusty cannon and barred windows it's a very evocative image for those descended from african slaves it gives the title coming home new meaning cross and wilkinson's photographs will remain on view at the parthenon to give you were eleven for national public radio i'm susan knowles