Rebuild Foundation is proud to present When Clouds Roll Away: Reflection and Restoration from the Johnson Archive, an exhibition of artwork by Theaster Gates featuring a suite of new works both inspired by and sourced from the Johnson Publishing Company (JPC) archive.

When Clouds Roll Away continues Gates’ ongoing artistic and academic reflections on the Johnson Publishing Company and its legacy as one of the most important Black corporations, a rarity at the time of its founding. Originally housed at the Johnson Publishing Company building on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Gates and Rebuild Foundation have been stewarding the Johnson Publishing Company’s library, ephemera, periodicals, furniture, inventory, and architectural fragments for over a decade. For the first time ever, Gates will exhibit newly restored objects, vintage office furniture, works of art owned by Johnson, along with his workout suite, trophies and memorabilia, making it his most comprehensive celebration of the archive to date.

Founded in Chicago in 1942 by John H. Johnson, the Johnson Publishing Company chronicled the lives of Black Americans for over seven decades, most prominently through the monthly magazine Ebony and its weekly sister outlet Jet, whose publications were initiated in 1945 and 1951, respectively. Along with coverage of important national events and historical milestones, such as the 1963 March on Washington, these publications also emphasized the richness, complexity and specificity of Black life in America: domestic expressions of style and standards of beauty, social and familial customs and, perhaps most significantly, an affirmative representation of Black history and its fundamental importance to American society.

Theaster Gates: When Clouds Roll Away: Reflection and Restoration from the Johnson Archive will host an active bar and lounge program, music series, and writing commissions reflecting on the archive, experimentally extending the empire of Johnson Publishing Company under Gates’s artistic and creative direction. The exhibition will be accompanied by a series of programs that will conclude with an archival convening which will invite specialists from around the world to gather and discuss the decolonization and future of Black archives.

Theaster Gates: When Clouds Roll Away: Reflection and Restoration from the Johnson Archive will host an active bar and lounge program, music series, and writing commissions reflecting on the archive, experimentally extending the empire of Johnson Publishing Company under Gates’s artistic and creative direction. The exhibition will be accompanied by a series of programs that will conclude with an archival convening which will invite specialists from around the world to gather and discuss the decolonization and future of Black archives.

Theaster Gates: When Clouds Roll Away: Reflection and Restoration from the Johnson Archive is part of Art Design Chicago, a citywide collaboration initiated by the Terra Foundation for American Art that highlights the city’s artistic heritage and creative communities. The exhibition is also supported by the Joyce Foundation, Linda Johnson Rice and the Mellon Foundation, whose contributions are assisting Rebuild’s efforts to completely catalog the Johnson Publishing Company Library.

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