Mar 10, 2011 - Sale 2239

Sale 2239 - Lot 453

Price Realized: $ 10,800
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 6,000 - $ 9,000
"60% AFRICA, 40% AFRICAN-AMERICAN--ALL BLACK" (PHOTOGRAPHY.) CHEERS, DR. D. MICHAEL. An extensive and historical archive. Tens of thousands of prints, slides, negatives, tapes and files; manuscripts, correspondence and ephemera, contained in 38 archival boxes (Approximately 16 linear feet), various sizes. All in fine condition. should be seen Vp, 1980s - 1990s
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D. Michael Cheers, a graduate of Howard University, is a highly respected protégé of Gordon Parks, and has various degrees in African studies. He began his professional career in 1975 on the Boston Globe and for many years was a staff reporter for the magazine giant, Johnson Publications (Ebony, Jet, etc.) While working for Johnson, he covered many important events, including the Jesse Jackson run for the presidency--the Rainbow Coalition Campaigns of 1984 and 1988. Cheers was on the road with Jackson for eighteen months. His films have appeared on Public Television and the National Geographic channel. Cheers was chosen by the late Robert Johnson to head up his new publication "Ebony South Africa," whose motto was "60% Africa, 40% African American--All Black." The latter was directed at the population of post-apartheid South Africa, and covered politics and the recently freed Nelson Mandela, as well as the art, fashion, literature and general culture of the emerging nation. All of the various projects are carefully arranged.
Michael Cheers is probably best known for his leadership and artistic contribution to the groundbreaking publication "Songs of My People: African Americans, a Self Portrait," published in 1992, and originally exhibited at the Corcoran Museum in Washington D.C. An important and rich graphic archive documenting African, and African-Americans in the latter part of the 20th century.