Saturday Night Durham, North Carolina
Oil on canvas
36 x 48 1/8 inches
As exhibited in: Beyond the Illustration, TJC Gallery, Spartanburg, South Carolina, 2024
Barnes described his work as “a pictorial background for an understanding into the aesthetics of black America.” After playing in the National Football League from 1960 to 1965, Barnes devoted himself to art, becoming the official artist of the NFL and, later, of the 1984 Olympics. His signature expressive, exaggerated, and elongated figures are shown here in Saturday Night Durham. This style garnered additional acclaim when his Sugar Shack (c.1970) was featured on the popular television show Good Times and later became the cover design for Marvin Gaye’s album I Want You (1976) as well as a background for a special performance on Motown 25, where the “painting came alive” through an interpretive dance.
Other works by this artist