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Counter, Aleck's Barbecue Heaven. Atlanta, Georgia
Counter, Aleck's Barbecue Heaven. Atlanta, Georgia

Counter, Aleck's Barbecue Heaven. Atlanta, Georgia

Artist Jim Dow (American, born 1942)
Date1998; printed 2021
MediumInkjet print
DimensionsImage: 8 × 10 1/4 inches (20.32 × 26.04 cm)
Sheet: 8 1/2 × 11 inches (21.59 × 27.94 cm)
Credit LineGift of Jim and Jacquie Dow
Object number2021.41.1
SignedSigned on sheet verso, bottom, in black pen.
InscribedOn sheet verso, bottom, in black pen: "COUNTER, ALECK'S BARBECUE HEAVEN. ATLANTA, GEORGIA 1998 [illeg.] 11/21"
Markingsnone
On View
Not on view
Collections
DescriptionInterior image of a restaurant with a bar along the left and tables with red checkered table cloths along the right. A man is seated on a barstool near the center of the bar while another figure, blurred, stands behind the bar. A doorway near the back is flanked by two pig dressed in suits with a sign that reads "Barbecue Heaven".Gallery Label

Dow has photographed well over one hundred BBQ joints across the United States. Aleck’s Barbecue Heaven, owned and operated by Ernest James Alexander, served as a favorite gathering place for the Black, middle-class community and leaders of the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King, Jr., regularly frequented Aleck’s, and the booth set with black chairs was dedicated to him.

 

Dow photographed this legendary establishment just before the city of Atlanta invoked eminent domain to buy the land upon which it stood. They razed it to build a Publix supermarket, which was later replaced by a Walmart.

Provenance
Jim Dow, Boston, MA, 2021;
Given by Jim Dow to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2021.
Copyright© Jim Dow
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