Theaster Gates, the Artist as Collector: Historic Glass Lantern Slides, the Edward J. Williams Collection of “Negrobilia,” and the Johnson Publishing Company Library Installed in the Stony Island Arts Bank in Chicago

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes how Chicago-based artist Theaster Gates acquired three collections of disused objects and a former Southside Chicago bank building, transforming them into works of art. Each chapter of the dissertation provides an in-depth examination of the various functions and content of the three collections that include the Glass Lantern Slide Collection, Edward J. Williams Collection, and Johnson Library. I also describe their installation in the Stony Island Arts Bank, one of Gates’s numerous properties he has transformed into an art space. Using visual analysis, social art history, African American art history, critical spatial theory, urban studies, Black labor studies, histories of collecting, and the history of collecting Black memorabilia and collectibles, I argue that Gates transformed these three collections into site-specific installations in the Stony Island Arts Bank. In the process, he critiques the institutions that they represent from a Black historical and cultural perspective, making powerful anti-racist statements that ultimately change the framework and scope of his own artistic practice.