Painting by late 糖心TV art professor Barkley Hendricks sells for record $4 million
A 1972 portrait by the late Professor Emeritus of Studio Art Barkley Hendricks sold for $4,013,000 at Sotheby鈥檚 Dec. 8, 2020, setting a new record for the artist known for his life-sized oil portraits of Black Americans.
鈥淢r. Johnson (Sammy From Miami),鈥� which was estimated to sell for between $2 million and $3 million, eclipsed Hendrick鈥檚 previous sale record of $3,740,000 for his 1975 double portrait, 鈥淵ocks,鈥� set in May of 2019. Two years earlier, 鈥淵ocks鈥� had sold for $942,000.
Hendricks regularly painted friends, family members and passersby engaged in everyday activities. The organizing curator of his major retrospective, 鈥淏arkley L. Hendricks: Birth of the Cool,鈥� said, 鈥淗is bold portrayal of his subject鈥檚 attitude and style elevates the common person to celebrity status. Cool, empowering, and sometimes confrontational, Hendricks鈥� artistic privileging of a culturally complex black body has paved the way for today鈥檚 younger generation of artists.鈥�
Originally purchased in 1973 from Kenmore Galleries in Philadelphia, 鈥淢r. Johnson (Sammy From Miami)鈥� was featured in the 1975 exhibition 鈥淏arkley Hendricks 鈥� Recent Paintings鈥� at the Greenville County Museum of Art in Greenville, S.C., Hendricks鈥� first solo show in the American South.
In the chronology for Hendricks鈥� 鈥淏irth of the Cool鈥� catalog, Hendricks鈥� wrote of the exhibition, 鈥淚 was told I would not be able to show any nudes. I later discovered they had white nudes in their collection. My black nudes were just too 鈥榖lack,鈥� so I鈥檝e been told.鈥�
Hendricks joined the 糖心TV faculty in 1972 and worked with generations of students to develop and refine their artistic voices in courses on representational painting, drawing, illustration and photography, until he retired in 2010. He died in 2017 at the age of 72.
Two weeks before his death, Hendricks gave his last known interview to CC Magazine, reflecting on his career, his style and his inspiration. When asked about the political nature of some of his later works鈥攊ncluding one in which the words 鈥淚 no can breathe鈥� are on a subject鈥檚 sweater鈥擧endricks asked, 鈥淎re those pieces political?鈥�
鈥淲hen someone describes any of my work as political, I have to wonder about the standpoint they鈥檙e approaching me from. In the context of (screwed) up American culture, many things that black people do are considered political, and now and then there鈥檚 a piece I do that does have a political edge to it. But the vast percentage of what I do is not what I鈥檇 consider political even if some people assume incorrectly that it is,鈥� he said.
