Gordon Parks: career timeline

1912–2006 · Works grouped by the decade they were made (the cataloged date, or a date in the signature or title), not by sale date. 19 of 25 lots (76% of works) have a usable creation date; the others are listed at the end by the decade they were sold. Each work is shown once, even when it sold more than once.

Gordon Parks: works at auction by decade the work was made. Each work counted once; medians use sold works only, in US dollars.

Decade made	Works	Sold	Median sold price	Main medium
1940s	4	4	$6kSign up	Photograph
1950s	9	8	$10.1kSign up	Photograph
1960s	6	4	$19.9kSign up	Photograph

Where does mine fit?

Enter what you know about a work by Gordon Parks to see the closest recorded works from the same period, with their auction results. These are past records only, not a valuation: condition, authenticity, provenance and the market all change what a work brings. For an auction estimate of your work, get a free auction estimate.

Year madeHeight (in)Width (in)MediumSubject

1940s 4 works

Sold: 4 of 4
Median: $6kSign up
Average: $9kSign up
Typical size: 4.5 × 4 in (12 × 10 cm)
Mediums: Photograph (4)
Subjects: Figures & portraits (2)

c. 1940 Untitled (boy in backyard)$3.2kSign up
1942 Washington (Southwest Section), D.C. Negro Woman in Her Bedroom, November 1942$2.5kSign up
1942 Mrs. Ella Watson with three grandchildren and her adopted daughter, July$8.8kSign up
1942 American Gothic, Washington D.C.$21.4kSign up

1950s 9 works

Sold: 8 of 9
Median: $10.1kSign up
Average: $21.6kSign up
Typical size: 10.5 × 12 in (27 × 31 cm)
Mediums: Photograph (9)
Subjects: Figures & portraits (1), Landscapes (1)

1951 UntitledUnsold
1951 Alberto Giacometti, Paris, France$8.8kSign up
1952 Emerging Man, Harlem, New York$16.5kSign up
1955 Louis Armstrong, Castle Hill, Ipswich, Massachusetts$4.1kSign up
1956 Untitled, Alabama$5.7kSign up
1956 Segregation Story$114kSign up
1956 Shady Grove, Alabama$500Sign up
1956 Airline Terminal, Atlanta, Georgia$11.4kSign up
1956 Untitled, Nashville, Tennessee$11.4kSign up

1960s 6 works

Sold: 4 of 6
Median: $19.9kSign up
Average: $22.5kSign up
Typical size: 13 × 17.5 in (32 × 45 cm)
Mediums: Photograph (6)
Subjects: —

1961 James Galanos Fashion, Hollywood, CaliforniaUnsold
1963 Untitled, Washington, D.C.$3.9kSign up
1963 Untitled, Washington, D.C.Unsold
1966 Muhammad Ali, London, England$46.1kSign up
c. 1966 American Champion$22.9kSign up
1966 Muhammad Ali$17kSign up

Creation date not recorded

6 works have no cataloged or signed date. They are grouped here by the decade they were last sold, which says nothing about when they were made.

Undated, sold in the 2020s 6 works

Sold: 5 of 6
Median: $5.7kSign up
Average: $5.1kSign up
Typical size: 17 × 12 in (44 × 30 cm)
Mediums: Photograph (6)
Subjects: —

sold 2024 Ethel Sharrieff, Chicago, IL$5.7kSign up
sold 2025 American Gothic, Washington D.C.$12.7kSign up
sold 2025 Drug store "Cowboys." Black Diamond$600Sign up
sold 2025 Mother and Child$600Sign up
sold 2025 Drug store "Cowboys." Black DiamondUnsold
sold 2025 Ella Watson, American Gothic, Washington, DC (from the Mother Jones International Fund for Documentary Photography: Civil Rights portfolio)$6.1kSign up

Medians and averages count sold works only (each work's most recent sale), in US dollars at the sale-date rate. Works cataloged as “attributed to”, “circle of” or similar are left out. All Gordon Parks auction results →