This exhibition features the photographs of Art Shay (1922-2018) a Chicago-based freelance photographer whose work appeared in Time, Life, Sports Illustrated and many other national publications. During the 1960s, Shay photographed America’s landmark civil rights movements reflecting a struggle that is not history, but continues today.
The exhibition includes 60 photographs depicting the 1965 voter registration effort in Fayette County, Tennessee; political action and unrest in Chicago during the 1960s (including the protests surrounding the 1968 Democratic Convention) and Memphis in 1968 at the time of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination.
In addition to his important series on the civil rights movement in the 1960s, Shay also documented the beautiful (Liz Taylor, Muhammad Ali), the powerful (Nixon, the Kennedys, Richard Daley) and the dangerous (the Chicago mafia). His work is included in the permanent collections of the National Portrait Gallery, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Contemporary Photography – Chicago, among others.
Admission is free for everyone, Monday through Saturday. Convenient and affordable parking available at the public parking garage on Innovation Drive or at the Central Avenue parking lot.
Art Shay (American, 1922—2018)
Chicago Fire, 1968
Courtesy Art Shay Archives
Copyright © Art Shay Archives Project llc, 2019.
All rights reserved
For more information please visit:
memphis.edu/benhooks or memphis.edu/amum
