Photocollect, New York, 1993 Page Imageworks, San Francisco, as agent
Exhibited
Object Lessons: Masterworks of Modernist Photography from Three Bay Area Collections, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 7 December 1995 - 10 March 1996 Collected, Pier 24 Photography, San Francisco, 2 May 2016 - 31 January 2017
Literature
Pier 24 Photography, Collected, p. 102 (this print) Millstein and Lowe, Consuelo Kanaga: An American Photographer, p. 110
Catalogue Essay
Consuelo Kanaga photographed the singer and actor Kenneth Spencer in 1933 at the beginning of his career. Classically trained at the Eastman School of Music, Spencer struggled to get concert bookings because of his race. In addition to his concert performances, he appeared in the historic film Cabin in the Sky, the first Hollywood film to feature an all-African-American cast, alongside Lena Horne, Ethel Waters, and Louis Armstrong. In 1950, Spencer relocated to Germany where he found steady employment as a performer and recording artist.