January 18, 2022
Exhibitions and Recent Museum Acquisitions
Jack Mitchell Photographs of Artists from Craig B. Highberger on Vimeo.
And here is a brief introduction to Jack Mitchell and the Archives:
An Introduction to Jack Mitchell and Archives from Craig B. Highberger on Vimeo.
We are proud to announce the Huntsville Museum of Art Exhibition “Harlem, Hollywood, Broadway: African American Legends Photographed by Jack Mitchell” January 19 – March 22, 2020. Presented by the museum’s Black History Month Committee, the exhibition features 36 hand-selected silver gelatin and color photographs of important African American artists and performers taken by Jack Mitchell over a career spanning five decades.
Also included are posters, proof sheets, magazine covers, and photographic and print ephemera providing a wider view into Mitchell’s life and career. The exhibition is in the Chan Gallery, and the documentary film “Jack Mitchell: My Life is Black and White” will play continuously in an adjacent gallery. Jack Mitchell Archives Executive Director Craig Highberger will give a lecture at the opening reception beginning at 6pm on Friday January 17th. The Alabama A&M University Jazz Ensemble will perform at the reception. See the link for more information: hsvmuseum.org/harlem-hollywood-broadway-african-american-legends-photographed-by-jack-mitchell/
The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery annual “Recent Acquisitions” exhibition November 15, 2019 – August 30, 2020 showcases 25 portraits to recently enter the Portrait Gallery’s renowned collection, and includes three of Jack Mitchell’s vintage gelatin silver photographs. The subjects are first-time inductees and include a 1964 Jack Mitchell portrait of choreographer and dance company founder Paul Taylor, a 1979 photograph of Alvin Ailey dancer, choreographer, and associate artistic director Masazumi Chaya, and a 1966 portrait of Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, dancer and choreographer Michael Bennett. See the link for more information: npg.si.edu/exhibition/recent-acquisitions-2
August 7, 2019
The US Postal Service recently issued an American Commemorative Panel honoring 2019 Black Heritage honoree Gregory Hines. The panel includes a 1980 color Jack Mitchell photograph of Hines leaping in costume for “Sophisticated Ladies” and a block of four of the Gregory Hines stamps, derived from a 1988 Jack Mitchell portrait of Hines.
The USPS 2019 Stamp Yearbook, which goes on sale January 23, 2020 includes the Gregory Hines commemorative, plus an Ellsworth Kelly artwork commemorative the design of which includes a 1967 Jack Mitchell black and white portrait of the artist.
We are proud to announce that a Jack Mitchell photograph of Audre Lorde has been transformed into a huge glass mosaic by artist Rico Gatson as a permanent installation at the 167th Street B D subway station in the Bronx, NYC.
The United States Postal Service announced the 42nd stamp in the Black Heritage series honoring American performer Gregory Hines. The stamp design features a Jack Mitchell photograph. At least ten million of the stamps will be produced in 2019. Gregory Hines (1946–2003), had a uniquely individual style of tap dancing, and was a versatile performer who danced, acted and sang on Broadway, on television, and in movies. Art director Derry Noyes designed the stamp. Photographer Jack Mitchell (1925-2013) took the color photograph of Hines in 1988 in his Manhattan studio.
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since 1989, and the largest monographic exhibition to date at the Whitney's new location.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art • May 18, 2019 – September 2, 2019
The Art Institute of Chicago • October 20, 2019 – January 26, 2020
and critic Clive Barnes discuss Jack Mitchell’s photographic record of the performing arts. (3 minutes)
Jack Mitchell Documentary Excerpt - Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee,
and Warhol Museum Assistant Director of Collections John W. Smith discuss Jack Mitchell's photography. (4 minutes)
Documentary excerpt - Jack Mitchell talks about the challenges of photographing dancers
and translating the work of famous choreographers for the medium of still photography. (3 min.)
Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery
Acquisition of Jack Mitchell Photographs
by Jack Mitchell into the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery.
subject inductions into the museum's collection of prominent American writers, artists and performers.
The subjects are Arthur Bell, Michael Bennett, Sarah Caldwell, Glen Campbell, Marge and Gower Champion,
Masazumi Chaya, John Corigliano, Neil Diamond, Fred Ho, Robert Joffrey, Angela Lansbury, James Levine,
David Mamet, Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Paul Taylor.
Village Voice journalist, author and LGBT rights activist Arthur Bell – 1973
Photograph © Jack Mitchell • All Rights Reserved
Choreographer/Director ("A Chorus Line") Michael Bennett – 1966
Photograph © Jack Mitchell • All Rights Reserved
Opera conductor Sarah Caldwell photographed in October 1975
Photograph © Jack Mitchell • All Rights Reserved
Country music singer Glen Campbell photographed in 1973
Photograph © Jack Mitchell • All Rights Reserved
Husband-and-wife dance team Marge and Gower Champion – 1958
Photograph © Jack Mitchell • All Rights Reserved
Alvin Ailey dancer and Associate Artistic Director Masazumi Chaya – 1979
Photograph © Jack Mitchell • All Rights Reserved
Composer John Corigliano – 1991
Photograph © Jack Mitchell • All Rights Reserved
Singer-songwriter Neil Diamond – 1972
Photograph © Jack Mitchell • All Rights Reserved
American jazz baritone saxophonist and composer Fred Ho, 1995
Photograph © Jack Mitchell • All Rights Reserved
Dancer, teacher, producer, choreographer, and co-founder of the Joffrey Ballet Robert Joffrey - 1964
Photograph © Jack Mitchell • All Rights Reserved
Actress Angela Lansbury as "Mame" – 1966
Photograph © Jack Mitchell • All Rights Reserved
Metropolitan Opera conductor James Levine - 1982
Photograph © Jack Mitchell • All Rights Reserved
Pulitzer prize-winning playwright David Mamet, on the set of "American Buffalo" on Broadway in January 1977
Photograph © Jack Mitchell • All Rights Reserved
Musicians and friends Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman photographed at Perlman's apartment in 1978
Photograph © Jack Mitchell • All Rights Reserved
Cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, 1979
Photograph © Jack Mitchell • All Rights Reserved
Dancer/choreographer Paul Taylor photographed April 3, 1964
Photograph © Jack Mitchell • All Rights Reserved
In 2015 the National Portrait Gallery acquired ten Jack Mitchell portraits of prominent American visual artists
including Robert Rauschenberg, Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Indiana, Ray Johnson, Eric Fischl, Richard Estes,
Alex Katz, Duane Hanson, Philip Pearlstein and Ian Hornak.
Dr. Andrew R. La Barbera attended the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture’s
Collection Donor Preview and Reception in Washington D.C. (Below)
introduces the curators to the donors and guests in attendance, Saturday September 17, 2016 (Below)
artists and performers, a number of which were donations. But there is a previous acquisition that is also
an important part of the museum. In August 2012 the Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation, Inc. purchased the Alvin Ailey
American Dance Theater Jack Mitchell Collection.
until Mitchell’s retirement in 1995. Craig B. Highberger put together the collection acquisition in 2012
with (then) Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation Executive Director Sharon Gersten Luckman.
the Jack Mitchell Alvin Ailey Collection to the Ailey, as Alvin Ailey Artistic Director Robert Battle,
Associate Artistic Director Masazumi Chaya, and Ailey II Artistic Director Emeria Sylvia Waters watch.
Photo © Claudia Schreier.
Ailey II Artistic Director Emeria Sylvia Waters, Executive Director Sharon Gersten Luckman, and Jack Mitchell
Archives Executive Director Craig B. Highberger, August 8, 2012. Photo © Caludia Schreier
where a wall of vintage Jack Mitchell Alvin Ailey Company photographs are part of the museum's
permanent exhibition. The museum opens to the public Saturday September 24
Twenty-five Jack Mitchell photographs of important African American artists and performers are now a part of the permanent collection of the new Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. The acquisition includes lifetime vintage silver gelatin and color photographs made by Jack Mitchell over a career spanning five decades. Mitchell died in 2013 at age 88. His first ever cover photograph for a major magazine was of Haitian dancers for the May 1951 issue of Color Magazine.
The subjects include singer-songwriter Harry Belafonte, the Katherine Dunham Dance Company, actress Gloria Foster, singer Whitney Houston (in her first photo session with a professional photographer), dance company founders Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane, dancer/actress Carmen de Lavallade, writers Audre Lorde and Toni Morrison, singer Odetta, actor Melvin Van Peebles, opera singer Leontyne Price, hip hop group Public Enemy, designer Willi Smith, La MaMa theatre founder Ellen Stewart, singer Donna Summer, actress Cicely Tyson, actor Ben Vereen, and dancer George White.
The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture opens September 24, 2016, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and will reflect the richness and diversity of the African American experience. Jack Mitchell’s photographs are also in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, the Andy Warhol Museum, the John Lennon Museum, Harvard University, the Metropolitan Opera Portrait Gallery, and many others.
The Photographs:
October 30, 2015
Acquisition of Jack Mitchell Photographs
permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery.
American visual artists including Robert Rauschenberg, Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Indiana, Ray Johnson,
Eric Fischl, Richard Estes, Alex Katz, Duane Hanson, Philip Pearlstein and Ian Hornak.
Robert Rauschenberg, 1977
Richard Estes, 1971
Photographs © 2015 Jack Mitchell • All Rights Reserved
