Jan Yoors "Harlem, c. 1963"

L. Parker Stephenson Photographs

poster for Jan Yoors "Harlem, c. 1963"

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L. Parker Stephenson Photographs announces its upcoming exhibition Jan Yoors: Harlem, c. 1963. This event marks the first time in thirty-five years that a gallery will host an exhibition of photographs by this Belgian artist (1922-1977), renowned for his tapestries, books and intimate knowledge of gypsy life. The images on view celebrate, with extraordinary passion and grace, the neighborhood's diversity during the height of the civil rights movement.

Jan Yoors' life, although tragically brief, was infinitely rich in experiences that served to inform and inspire his art. Born in Antwerp, Yoors left his home at the age of twelve, with his parents' permission, to travel with a gypsy kumpania. The photographs he made during his ten years with the gypsies, along with others he subsequently took of European gypsy survivors of WWII, have been widely exhibited and were published in a book titled The Heroic Present: Life Among the Gypsies (The Monacelli Press, 2004).

During WWII, Yoors was recruited by the French Resistance to enlist gypsies to smuggle food and arms for the allied forces. He was captured and imprisoned twice, first by the Gestapo and a second time by General Franco's army. He survived and then settled in England to study and there launched his artistic career in tapestry and sculpture. In 1950, he moved to New York and invited his childhood friend Annebert, along with her friend Marianne, to join him. These women became his lifelong partners and wove his designs for bold and vibrant tapestries. Yoors picked up a camera again in 1961 and four years later Simon & Schuster published his photographs of the city in a book titled Only One New York.

Now, more than 30 years after his death, Yoors' photographs, tapestries, drawings and sculpture are being rediscovered. Modern magazine featured him in a 10-page article this past summer. Contemporaneous with this show, Regeneration Modern Furniture in New York is presenting a selection of his tapestries and gouaches (through March 2011). Over the next two years, Yoors' photographs will be exhibited in Italy, Russia, and Belgium and a new book of his New York photographs is scheduled for publication. In 2012, the FelixArt Museum in Belgium will host a retrospective exhibition and publish a catalogue centered on his tapestries.

Yoor's work has been presented in close to thirty exhibitions worldwide and can be found in the collections of, among others, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Art and Design, New York; the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Holocaust Museum, both in Washington, D.C.; Austin Museum of Art; Chicago Art Institute; and FotoMuseum, Antwerp.

Media

Schedule

from December 17, 2010 to February 24, 2011

Opening Reception on 2010-12-16 from 18:00 to 20:00

Artist(s)

Jan Yoors

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