The documentary titled, “Walls of Respect: Norman Parish and the Parish Art Gallery,” honors the life, work and legacy of the Chicago artist and art dealer Norman Parish. Parish was a pioneering Black gallerist in Georgetown, DC, where he showcased African American artists in the 1990s and through the 2010s. Norman Parish III, the artists’ son and the film’s Associate Producer, spent much of his career as a journalist in St. Louis. He spoke at a screening of the film at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville on February 21, 2023.
“My hope is that the audience will not only appreciate my father’s work but the work of artists during a critical time in history,” Norman Parish III, now deputy managing editor of The Chicago Sun Times, told The Washington Informer before a preview of the film last year.
Three decades ago, African American artist Norman Parish Jr. created a space in Georgetown for his peers to showcase the Nubian images of his people who have come so far. The Parish Art Gallery closed after his death in 2013.
“My father was involved in a movement that helped artists to showcase their work in high-profile venues,” Parish told The Informer.
Norman Parish Jr. was one of six children of Norman Sr., who was a laborer in New Orleans. Their mother was a homemaker. The family moved to Chicago in the late-1940s during the Great Migration.
Even though Parish graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1960, things were initially slow for him.
“It was hard to get jobs in the art world, but he continued to paint,” his son said. “He would come home and paint until midnight.”
Parish III worked with Chicago-area director Susan Ericsson on “Walls of Respect,” which features many artists who now live in the D.C. area, including Richard Hunt, who speaks in front of his sculpture in Chicago, and Africobra artist Wadsworth Jarrell.
In the film, Cynthia Farrell Johnson connects her multimedia depictions of people she encountered as a diplomat, while photographer Oggie Ogburn holds up images of the many famed musicians and dignitaries he photographed during his career.
“Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, I have been blessed,” Ogburn said. “I didn’t discover the photography, photography found me.”
When Chicago was a racial powder keg, the Wall of Respect was completed in Chicago in 1967 to showcase Black heroes in sports, politics, religion and entertainment.
“The Wall of Respect was a great moment in time,” said veteran photographer Roy Lewis. He and photojournalist Darryl Cowherd were also part of the wall project resulting from months of planning.
“We voted on the artist who would be on the wall before no paint went on it,” said Lewis, a longtime Informer photographer. “It was done at the corner of 43rd and Langley and completed in 1967.”
But later that year, one of the artists destroyed the section that Parish painted and, according to his son, he “moved on to other things.”
“It was tragic having his part painted over it,” Lewis said. “But ‘The Wall’ movement spread like wildfire around the city. All of these murals had themes. It was the beginning of public art in our communities.”
Norman Parish moved to D.C. in the 1980s and 1991 he opened the gallery in the 3100 block of M Street while still maintaining a day job.
But as he got older, failing health thwarted his ability to paint. After his death on July 8, 2013, the Georgetown Gallery closed later that year and records were given to the Smithsonian Institution.
While there is no structure in D.C. that houses Parish’s art, his work has been purchased by people from around the world that walked into his gallery.
“He was continually painting toward the end of his life,” said Parish III and explained, “He used the wrist of his left hand to hold his right hand to paint, but his mind was still sharp until the end.”
“Walls of Respect: Norman Parish and the Parish Art Gallery” was produced by SME Media, LLC and directed & produced by Susan Ericsson.
This article was edited for The St. Louis American. The original article can be found here.