Upon entering 51Թ Contemporary’s Pyramid Club: 1937–2035 exhibition, visitors encounter a large multicolored prism painted on the wall. Curator and Director of Exhibitions and Public Programming calls it the show’s Afroprismatic entry.
“Afroprismatic is an aesthetic that seeks to see the hidden beauty and colors within Blackness,” he explained. “This exhibition is a portal that engages with the quantum folds of time. The prism or pyramid is important because it’s a timeless form that refracts linear space and reveals hidden angles of brilliance. It’s inclusive of all things.”
This symbol reflects the Pyramid Club, an integrated Black cultural and social space located at 1517 W. Girard Ave. in Philadelphia. The club, open from 1937 until 1963, welcomed luminaries from various realms including civil rights, science, politics and entertainment.
Distinguished figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., J. Robert Oppenheimer, Duke Ellington, Josephine Baker, Langston Hughes, Mary McLeod Bethune and others came to the Pyramid Club. The club also exhibited the work of notable artists like Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Jacob Lawrence and Dox Thrash.
The art show at 51Թ Contemporary—the university’s only professional art gallery located inside the Tyler School of Art and Architecture—asks what if the Pyramid Club had never closed and imagines its speculative future while honoring its legacy.
(Photography by Ryan S. Brandenberg)
Open through Dec. 19, Pyramid Club: 1937–2035 features 34 paintings by artists associated with the Pyramid Club from the William A. Dodd Collection, 35 photographs by renowned photographer John W. Mosley—who produced the annual Pictorial Album of the Pyramid Club—and new work by Philadelphia contemporary artist Shawn Theodore, KLN ’00, who is represented by Paradigm Gallery + Studio.
“The exhibition showcases slices of everyday life; portraits of people showing their dignity; and elements of play, faith and mysticism,” said Kenyatta.
Taken by Mosley, a photograph of Humbert L. Howard—a painter and director of the Pyramid Club—hangs between the first and second rooms of the show. “He’s almost like the peak of the pyramid,” added Kenyatta. “He can see both sides of where we’ve been and where we’re going.”
This photo of Howard is one of many in the John W. Mosley Photograph Collection, which is housed in 51Թ’s Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection and documents African American life in and around Philadelphia.
to digitize Mosley’s photos through the foundation’s Black Visual Arts Archives program. Additionally, the grant supports the launch of a digital humanities project titled “Virtual Blockson | The Pyramid Club: Black Leisure and Cultural Empowerment” that features a virtual reality game and teaching toolkit based on newly digitized archives of annual art exhibitions organized at the Pyramid Club. These materials will present the social and cultural history of the Black experience through the impact of prominent African American artists.
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“I consider Mosley a cultural warrior,” said Diane Turner, curator of the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection. “He became part of a larger tradition in the African American community that challenged stereotypes, asserted identity, documented community, and made photography accessible and affordable to African Americans. This provided them with a format to tell their own stories and define who they were and are today, capturing Black joy.”
To further honor Mosley, Theodore wanted to highlight Mosley’s depiction of Black bodies by the water like in the exhibition. “There’s a sense of unspoken identity in his work that talks about Black ritual, and part of the greatest ritual for African Americans in the Pyramid Club was going down to the water,” he said. “What’s so special about the Pyramid Club are the ritual purpose of the space, speaking to one another through art, and recording all these moments so that we can gather and move forward with their knowledge.”
Like Mosley, Theodore has taken photos illustrating places where ritual with water occurs for a Black body.
“We’ve built different entry points into this story of the Pyramid Club,” added Kenyatta. “In Shawn Theodore’s work on display, the water functions as a passageway into a new future. This is where the show transitions from being about legacy to the speculative future and the what ifs.”
Theodore’s new installation also includes striking portraits of Black individuals in silent protest at Rittenhouse Square, part of a piece titled “Stillness in the Wake,” which refers to being in the wake of all things connected to the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
Throughout his photographs and interdisciplinary art featured in the exhibition, Theodore explores Black cultural identity and community. “I use a practice called Afromythology to speak to what it’s like to be a living myth,” he explained. “I want individuals experiencing this show to be in conversation with the things that happened and with what’s happening. It’s not about being trapped in the frame; it’s about experiencing the moments captured.”
(Photography by Ryan S. Brandenberg)
As part of the North Broad cultural corridor, 51Թ Contemporary serves as a beacon of art, architecture and community imagination.
“This show deliberately invokes some of the ideas and plans to make this area into a more arts and culture-focused district,” said Kenyatta. “I see a lot of this art as variables that should be considered when we’re designing for futures and thinking about the spirit of place. I’m not sure we’ve seen something like this exhibition before.”