Barkley L. Hendricks at the Studio Museum
The Studio Museum in Harlem, smaller and cheaper than its more southern brethren, always feels like a revelation. Just a few months after the fascinating Kehinde Wiley show comes another equally interesting display of work by another master of African-American portraiture.
For the past forty or so years, Barkley L. Hendricks has alternately drawn formal inspiration from Renaissance masters and high fashion photographers. Wiley learned a thing or two about re-interpreting tropes from Hendricks, who favors a plain background and often limited palette and whose sitters are very much of their time.
He paints friends, strangers, and himself from photographs. The results --- grouped under the title Birth of the Cool --- reveal a sense of humor, a sense of racial pride, and a desire to widen the scope of what's considered "proper" for a portrait.
For the past forty or so years, Barkley L. Hendricks has alternately drawn formal inspiration from Renaissance masters and high fashion photographers. Wiley learned a thing or two about re-interpreting tropes from Hendricks, who favors a plain background and often limited palette and whose sitters are very much of their time.
He paints friends, strangers, and himself from photographs. The results --- grouped under the title Birth of the Cool --- reveal a sense of humor, a sense of racial pride, and a desire to widen the scope of what's considered "proper" for a portrait.
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