“I paint and make art because I like doing it,” the late Barkley L. Hendricks informed this journal in 2016, occasionally of his second solo present at Jack Shainman Gallery. “The subject matter I’m involved with, though, has always been seen as suspect, given the screwed-up culture we live in…. How many white artists get asked about how their whiteness plays into their work?” Hendricks’s artwork has at all times bristled towards the boundaries of categorization, and it does so notably on this exhibition. House is the Place calls it Afrofuturist — a motion outlined by students that facilities up to date considerations for folks of African descent and engages with historical past, expertise, and destabilizing racial energy constructions to create a greater future for Black folks and humanity at massive — however the work itself makes a extra compelling case that Hendricks was a distinctly iconoclastic visionary.
The exhibition options works on paper, work, and images Hendricks created between 1968 and 2016, and its title references the 1972 movie of the identical title by Afrofuturist jazz composer Solar Ra. Within the movie, the musician returns to Earth after discovering a brand new planet, inviting Black folks in Oakland, California to resettle in his new utopia, however faces challenges from fellow Black folks and White NASA scientists.
A few of these works do flirt with Afrofuturism. Motifs of sneakers, the moon, and pyramids are prevalent all through the present, highlighting a contemplative biking between the earth-bound mortal and the limitlessness of the cosmos, with the pyramids appearing because the agent shuttling between the 2 realms. That is notably evident in lots of the works on paper together with “No Moon at all for Phineas” (1981–84) and “Somewhere Over the Pyramids” (1979). Within the former, a pair of legs in excessive heels stand contained in a semicircle beneath a ribbon of colours and a crescent moon that resembles an upside-down pyramid. Within the latter, a airplane glides over a pyramid in direction of cushiony clouds that break to disclose a patch of blue sky. The title and work are a transparent homage to the track “Over the Rainbow,” sung by Judy Garland within the escapist 1939 fantasy epic The Wizard of Oz.
Barkley L. Hendricks, “No Moon at all for Phineas” (1981–84), graphite, ink stamps, coloured inks, and photograph switch on paper
A extra compelling referent for even these space-related works, nonetheless, is the Previous Masters, notably work equivalent to “Lunar Halo for Dad and Lou” (1997) and “Untitled” (1971) which underline Hendricks’s exceptional prowess as a painter. In “Lunar,” an roughly 16-by-16-inch round panorama portray, streaks of dashing mild converge onto the darkish shadows of the earth whereas a full moon radiates a halo round a canvas. Its density of element recollects that of the spherical mirror in Jan van Eyck’s “The Arnolfini Portrait,” however the outside setting spotlights Hendricks’s unwavering means to seize the ever-changing night time sky. Along side “Untitled” (1971), an eight-by-five-foot portray of planetary cycles in hues of brown on a moss-colored background with strips of gold and silver, viewers get to expertise each the immensity and intimacy of Hendricks’s excellent command of the canvas.
There are few portraits on this present, and the place they exist, figures’ eyes are obscured with glasses or gold bands. Three photographic self-portraits — “Untitled (Self-Portrait)” (1975), “Untitled (Self-Portrait)” (n.d.), and “Untitled (Self-Portrait)” (c. 1968) — are the one time viewers are confronted with a pair of eyes, and they’re Hendricks’s personal. On this trio of works, the artist captures himself solely by way of mirror or window reflections, denying the viewer a direct or shared imaginative and prescient of Hendricks’s perspective. Not like Solar Ra’s cosmic group, and even the Afrofuturist inclination of a shared preferrred for a greater future, Barkley’s imaginative and prescient was fully his personal.
House is the Place is a well-curated present, underscoring Hendricks’s proficiency of a number of mediums, however its title, and its Afrofuturist connection, is a misnomer. As along with his 2016 quote, this present is much less a few declaration of a “subject matter” or specific cultural motion, and moreso a showcase of his ingenuity throughout mediums and time. As Hendricks stated, he made artwork as a result of he favored doing it — that dogged dedication to his craft eclipses its curatorial container on this exhibition.
Set up view of Barkley L. Hendrick’s self-portraits
Barkley L. Hendricks, “Lunar Halo for Dad and Lou” (1997), oil on linen canvas
Set up view of Barkley L. Hendricks, “Untitled” (1971), oil and acrylic on canvas
Barkley L. Hendricks: House is the Place continues at Jack Shainman Gallery (513 West twentieth Road, Chelsea, Manhattan) by means of February 22. The exhibition was organized by the gallery.
