Untitled
Oil on canvas
36 x 18 inches
Now on view: TJC Gallery, Spartanburg, South Carolina
Art of the Athlete Fun Fact:
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.
As exhibited in:
Elevation from Within: The Study of Art at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, 2019–2024, TJC Gallery, Spartanburg, South Carolina, 2019; Richardson Family Art Museum, Wofford College, Spartanburg, South Carolina, 2021; Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee, 2022, Florida A&M University, Tallahassee, Florida, 2023, Morgan State University, Baltimore, Maryland, 2024
Well known in both the professional sports and visual arts worlds, Ernest Eugene Barnes’s experience as an athlete was pivotal to his development as a painter of rhythm and vigor. Born in Durham, North Carolina, during the Jim Crow years, Barnes enrolled at North Carolina College for Negroes, the first state-supported liberal arts institution for African Americans, on a full athletic scholarship in 1956. As he pursued a degree in art, one influential instructor urged Barnes to translate the physical movement of his body on the football field to the canvas.
After playing in the National Football League from 1960 to 1965, Barnes devoted himself to art. His sports and tavern paintings are populated with expressive, elongated figures in motion, most often depicted with their eyes closed. Barnes adopted this practice as an illustration of “how blind we are to one another’s humanity.” “We stop at color quite often,” he explained. “When you cannot visualize the offerings of another human being, you’re obviously not looking at the human being with open eyes.” The artist preferred to present his works in frames made of distressed wood inspired by the ramshackle fence that had encircled his childhood home.
Barnes became the official artist of the NFL and, later, the 1984 Olympics. He detailed his transition from athlete to artist in a 1995 autobiography, From Pads to Palette. His best-known work, Sugar Shack (circa 1970), was featured on the popular television show Good Times and, following some alterations, became the cover design for Marvin Gaye’s 1976 I Want You album.
Other works by this artist