Muhammad Ali, Miami, Florida

Gordon Parks, artist

1912–2006

Muhammad Ali, Miami, Florida, 1966

Where object was made: United States

Material/technique: gelatin silver print

Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 50.8 x 40.6 cm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 20 x 16 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 32 x 24 in

Credit line: Museum purchase: Friends of the Art Museum

Accession number: 1993.0049

Not on display

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Images

Label texts

American Dream

Gordon Parks’s photograph captures the famous boxer and activist Muhammad Ali mid-workout. Ali is often remembered for his vocal stance against both racism and the Vietnam War despite encountering public opposition, which negatively affected his career. Rather than portray Ali as a fighter, Fischer compares the Muslim Ali to the tragic Christian martyr Saint Sebastian, the patron saint of athletes. Sebastian was ordered to death by arrows for having been a Christian and trying to convert others while serving in the army. While Sebastian actually went to battle, Ali refused to fight because of his religious beliefs.
—Ronnie Bryant

Archive Label:
Gordon Parks has enjoyed a long and successful career as an artist, working in poetry, fiction, autobiography, film, and ballet as well as in the medium for which he is best known, photography. During the 1940s he made photographs for the Farm Security Administration and the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, projects that documented American life during that time. He joined the staff of Life magazine in 1949 as its first African-American photographer, working in France, the United States, and Brazil. He retired from Life in the early 1970s and now makes film, writes, paints, and composes music, in addition to his photography.