SOLD – Lena by James Denmark

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SOLD  
Lena
by James Denmark
Print Open Edition
Size 18″x 13″ Approx

James Denmark, born in Winter Haven, Florida in 1936, is part of an artistic family. He was exposed to color and form at an early age by his grandmother, a wire sculptor and quilt artist. His grandfather was a bricklayer noted for his unique custom designed molds and his mother was gifted with an intuitive eye for design and detail. This rich beginning is the root of James Denmark’s creative expression.

Denmark earned his Master of Fine Arts Degree at Pratt Institute of Fine Arts in New York. During this period he was heavily influenced by the abstract expressionists Jackson Pollock, Clifford Still, and William deKooning. The African-American masters Norman Lewis, Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence and Ernest Crichlow instilled in him and appreciation of African American artistic heritage.

Denmark’s collages, watercolors, woodcuts and reproductions are consistently and eagerly sought by galleries and collectors worldwide. James Denmark lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
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SOLD – Faces Three by Leon McDuffie

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SOLD
Faces Three
by Leon McDuffie
Original Pencil on Paper
Size 11″ x 14″ Approx

Leon McDuffie resides in Phildelphia.  He has attended Overbrook High School

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SOLD – Its Just The Music Inside Sixteen by Don Stephens

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Price $ SOLD
Its Just The Music Inside Sixteen
by Don Stephens
Original Acrylic on Board
Size 16″ x 20″ 

Donald Stephens resides in Burlington County NJ since 1987.  He has attended Burlington County College obtaining an AAS 90’. Mr. Stephens then furthered his yearning for the arts at Temple University Tyler School of the Arts, where he has achieved his BFA 96’; simultaneously completing a full term in the United States Marine Corps Reserve as a Communicator. Lately, he has displayed his work in various locations in the Delaware Valley area and Northern New Jersey Area. To add, the role of Artist/Instructor/Lecturer  has been carefully added to his list of creative skill; teaching in the area art centers of Southern NJ: Markiem Art Center, Perkins Art Center, Burlington County College Community Enrichment,  Art Teacher at Garfield Park Academy and several other locations throughout the New Jersey , Philadelphia area. Mr. Stephens’s unique expressive quality enables him to create in several modes of material manipulation from wet to dry but has a deep passion for charcoal drawing. Within his observations Donald has formulated his own visual syntax that has been described as expressive, informative and imaginative simply by maneuvering material and experiences to convey a certain moment in time and space.

Offered at SOLD

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SOLD – Its Just The Music Inside Fifteen by Don Stephens

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SOLD
Its Just The Music Inside Fifteen
by Don Stephens
Original Acrylic on Board
Size 16″ x 20″ 

Donald Stephens resides in Burlington County NJ since 1987.  He has attended Burlington County College obtaining an AAS 90’. Mr. Stephens then furthered his yearning for the arts at Temple University Tyler School of the Arts, where he has achieved his BFA 96’; simultaneously completing a full term in the United States Marine Corps Reserve as a Communicator. Lately, he has displayed his work in various locations in the Delaware Valley area and Northern New Jersey Area. To add, the role of Artist/Instructor/Lecturer  has been carefully added to his list of creative skill; teaching in the area art centers of Southern NJ: Markiem Art Center, Perkins Art Center, Burlington County College Community Enrichment,  Art Teacher at Garfield Park Academy and several other locations throughout the New Jersey , Philadelphia area. Mr. Stephens’s unique expressive quality enables him to create in several modes of material manipulation from wet to dry but has a deep passion for charcoal drawing. Within his observations Donald has formulated his own visual syntax that has been described as expressive, informative and imaginative simply by maneuvering material and experiences to convey a certain moment in time and space.
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12 Free Postcards Bearden and Other Artists

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OUT STOCK
(Set of 12 different postcards – a mix)
October Gallery 30 Year Postcards and other postcards
Art By Romare Bearden, Don Stephens, Laurie Cooper & more
Size 7″ x 5″ Approx

The complex and colorful art of Romare Bearden (1911-1988) is autobiographical and metaphorical. Rooted in the history of western, African, and Asian art, as well as in literature and music, Bearden found his primary motifs in personal experiences and the life of his community. Born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Bearden moved as a toddler to New York City, participating with his parents in the Great Migration of African Americans to states both north and west. The Bearden home became a meeting place for Harlem Renaissance luminaries including writer Langston Hughes, painter Aaron Douglas, and musician Duke Ellington, all of whom undoubtedly would have stimulated the young artist’s imagination.

Bearden maintained a lifelong interest in science and mathematics, but his formal education was mainly in art, at Boston University and New York University, from which he graduated in 1935 with a degree in education. He also studied at New York’s Art Students League with the German immigrant painter George Grosz, who reinforced Bearden’s interest in art as a conveyor of humanistic and political concerns. In the mid-1930s Bearden published dozens of political cartoons in journals and newspapers, including the Baltimore based Afro-American, but by the end of the decade he had shifted the emphasis of his work to painting.

During a career lasting almost half a century Bearden produced approximately two thousand works. Best known for his collages, he also completed paintings, drawings, monotypes, and edition prints; murals for public spaces, record album jackets, magazine and book illustrations, and costume and set designs for theater and ballet.

October Gallery is Celebrating 30 Years in the African American Art Industry and has operated a physical art gallery in Philadelphia, PA since 1985. They our one of the oldest African American art galleries in the nation. They have been connecting people with art for since 1985. They deliver magic and romance to the art experience.
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SOLD – Lady Seven by Frank Frazier

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SOLD
Lady Seven
by Frank Frazier
Original Ink on paper
Size 7″ x 8″ 

Frank Frazier began his work as a fine artist early, at the age of seven. He was creating paintings in his family’s Harlem, New York City home. A husband and father of five, he recalls growing up, “we were not poor, but my family was a little different.” At the age of 15, his family moved to downtown New York City, which precipitated his “getting into a lot of trouble” as a youngster. A move to Queens, New York, brought with it a stint at a boys’ institution in upstate New York, but it also marked the point where Frazier turned his life around. While at the school, he was responsible for creating art for the “different bunks.” Teachers noticed his talent and later as a Sergeant in the Army during Vietnam, officers gave him the responsibility of painting art and shirts for the platoons. Frazier’s designs included a mixture of different scenes which he completed for free; he and his fellow soldiers weren’t thinking about money when they did their work. Amazingly, after his stint in the service, “I recall my family throwing lots of my art away.” Ironically, today it is the love and support of his immediate and “great extended family” that inspires him.

This sculptor, painter, and collagist cites the Creator as his biggest influence. “The Creator inspires me. He puts whatever I need in me. He also admits that he “loves black women and likes to use them in his art.” Frazier also credits Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, and Elizabeth Cattlett as his biggest artistic inspirations. Speaking on how the Diaspora influences his art, Frank muses, “I go to Senegal, West Africa a lot. Many of my collages are influenced from there.” As far as the media he works with, the sky is the limit. “I paint with oils, watercolors, and charcoal, anything that’s available,” says Frazier.

“When I see young people look with respect and appreciation for the art of today, I think of Sankofa, and how we must go back to the past to understand the present,” he observes. “Take Grant Hill, the famous basketball player. Young people heard Hill is exhibiting his art collection around the United States, and they want to be a part of it because of him, although it’s really the art he has collected they are coming to see! He is holding our heritage for our children.”

Although the artistic creations of many blacks were not embraced by “mainstream” art dealers, always positive, Frank admits, “My experience as a black artist has always been good. I like working with black- owned galleries because they also expose us artists to other people’s creativity, old artists and new. Shows like this[BHAS] allow us to make a living off of our creativity, with our people supporting us. Charles Bibbs and Poncho [Brown] have come under criticism for mass-producing their work, but I think it’s great to bring an artist’s work into many homes.”

Now living in Texas, Frazier is working on a series of paintings on the civil rights movement. He recently completed a road trip to various Southern cities that were pivotal to the struggle for equal rights; Jackson, Mississippi to Birmingham, Alabama, to Selma, to Tuskegee. This statesmen of art was “never motivated by money” when producing his art; the love of black history and culture and creation are his driving force. Frank Frazier serves up life’s wisdom as well as beautiful art; he offers this, “when life gets you down and you feel no one is helping you achieve your goals, remember this, even when somebody has their foot up your behind, you are still in front; You can still make it!”

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SOLD – Music Five by Frank Frazier

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SOLD
Music Five
by Frank Frazier
Original Ink on paper
Size 7″ x 8″ 

Frank Frazier began his work as a fine artist early, at the age of seven. He was creating paintings in his family’s Harlem, New York City home. A husband and father of five, he recalls growing up, “we were not poor, but my family was a little different.” At the age of 15, his family moved to downtown New York City, which precipitated his “getting into a lot of trouble” as a youngster. A move to Queens, New York, brought with it a stint at a boys’ institution in upstate New York, but it also marked the point where Frazier turned his life around. While at the school, he was responsible for creating art for the “different bunks.” Teachers noticed his talent and later as a Sergeant in the Army during Vietnam, officers gave him the responsibility of painting art and shirts for the platoons. Frazier’s designs included a mixture of different scenes which he completed for free; he and his fellow soldiers weren’t thinking about money when they did their work. Amazingly, after his stint in the service, “I recall my family throwing lots of my art away.” Ironically, today it is the love and support of his immediate and “great extended family” that inspires him.

This sculptor, painter, and collagist cites the Creator as his biggest influence. “The Creator inspires me. He puts whatever I need in me. He also admits that he “loves black women and likes to use them in his art.” Frazier also credits Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, and Elizabeth Cattlett as his biggest artistic inspirations. Speaking on how the Diaspora influences his art, Frank muses, “I go to Senegal, West Africa a lot. Many of my collages are influenced from there.” As far as the media he works with, the sky is the limit. “I paint with oils, watercolors, and charcoal, anything that’s available,” says Frazier.

“When I see young people look with respect and appreciation for the art of today, I think of Sankofa, and how we must go back to the past to understand the present,” he observes. “Take Grant Hill, the famous basketball player. Young people heard Hill is exhibiting his art collection around the United States, and they want to be a part of it because of him, although it’s really the art he has collected they are coming to see! He is holding our heritage for our children.”

Although the artistic creations of many blacks were not embraced by “mainstream” art dealers, always positive, Frank admits, “My experience as a black artist has always been good. I like working with black- owned galleries because they also expose us artists to other people’s creativity, old artists and new. Shows like this[BHAS] allow us to make a living off of our creativity, with our people supporting us. Charles Bibbs and Poncho [Brown] have come under criticism for mass-producing their work, but I think it’s great to bring an artist’s work into many homes.”

Now living in Texas, Frazier is working on a series of paintings on the civil rights movement. He recently completed a road trip to various Southern cities that were pivotal to the struggle for equal rights; Jackson, Mississippi to Birmingham, Alabama, to Selma, to Tuskegee. This statesmen of art was “never motivated by money” when producing his art; the love of black history and culture and creation are his driving force. Frank Frazier serves up life’s wisdom as well as beautiful art; he offers this, “when life gets you down and you feel no one is helping you achieve your goals, remember this, even when somebody has their foot up your behind, you are still in front; You can still make it!”
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SOLD – Music Two by Frank Frazier

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SOLD
Music Two
by Frank Frazier
Original Ink on paper
Size 7″ x 8″ 

Frank Frazier began his work as a fine artist early, at the age of seven. He was creating paintings in his family’s Harlem, New York City home. A husband and father of five, he recalls growing up, “we were not poor, but my family was a little different.” At the age of 15, his family moved to downtown New York City, which precipitated his “getting into a lot of trouble” as a youngster. A move to Queens, New York, brought with it a stint at a boys’ institution in upstate New York, but it also marked the point where Frazier turned his life around. While at the school, he was responsible for creating art for the “different bunks.” Teachers noticed his talent and later as a Sergeant in the Army during Vietnam, officers gave him the responsibility of painting art and shirts for the platoons. Frazier’s designs included a mixture of different scenes which he completed for free; he and his fellow soldiers weren’t thinking about money when they did their work. Amazingly, after his stint in the service, “I recall my family throwing lots of my art away.” Ironically, today it is the love and support of his immediate and “great extended family” that inspires him.

This sculptor, painter, and collagist cites the Creator as his biggest influence. “The Creator inspires me. He puts whatever I need in me. He also admits that he “loves black women and likes to use them in his art.” Frazier also credits Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, and Elizabeth Cattlett as his biggest artistic inspirations. Speaking on how the Diaspora influences his art, Frank muses, “I go to Senegal, West Africa a lot. Many of my collages are influenced from there.” As far as the media he works with, the sky is the limit. “I paint with oils, watercolors, and charcoal, anything that’s available,” says Frazier.

“When I see young people look with respect and appreciation for the art of today, I think of Sankofa, and how we must go back to the past to understand the present,” he observes. “Take Grant Hill, the famous basketball player. Young people heard Hill is exhibiting his art collection around the United States, and they want to be a part of it because of him, although it’s really the art he has collected they are coming to see! He is holding our heritage for our children.”

Although the artistic creations of many blacks were not embraced by “mainstream” art dealers, always positive, Frank admits, “My experience as a black artist has always been good. I like working with black- owned galleries because they also expose us artists to other people’s creativity, old artists and new. Shows like this[BHAS] allow us to make a living off of our creativity, with our people supporting us. Charles Bibbs and Poncho [Brown] have come under criticism for mass-producing their work, but I think it’s great to bring an artist’s work into many homes.”

Now living in Texas, Frazier is working on a series of paintings on the civil rights movement. He recently completed a road trip to various Southern cities that were pivotal to the struggle for equal rights; Jackson, Mississippi to Birmingham, Alabama, to Selma, to Tuskegee. This statesmen of art was “never motivated by money” when producing his art; the love of black history and culture and creation are his driving force. Frank Frazier serves up life’s wisdom as well as beautiful art; he offers this, “when life gets you down and you feel no one is helping you achieve your goals, remember this, even when somebody has their foot up your behind, you are still in front; You can still make it!”

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SOLD – Lady One by Frank Frazier

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SOLD
Lady One
by Frank Frazier
Original Ink on paper
Size 7″ x 8″ 

Frank Frazier began his work as a fine artist early, at the age of seven. He was creating paintings in his family’s Harlem, New York City home. A husband and father of five, he recalls growing up, “we were not poor, but my family was a little different.” At the age of 15, his family moved to downtown New York City, which precipitated his “getting into a lot of trouble” as a youngster. A move to Queens, New York, brought with it a stint at a boys’ institution in upstate New York, but it also marked the point where Frazier turned his life around. While at the school, he was responsible for creating art for the “different bunks.” Teachers noticed his talent and later as a Sergeant in the Army during Vietnam, officers gave him the responsibility of painting art and shirts for the platoons. Frazier’s designs included a mixture of different scenes which he completed for free; he and his fellow soldiers weren’t thinking about money when they did their work. Amazingly, after his stint in the service, “I recall my family throwing lots of my art away.” Ironically, today it is the love and support of his immediate and “great extended family” that inspires him.

This sculptor, painter, and collagist cites the Creator as his biggest influence. “The Creator inspires me. He puts whatever I need in me. He also admits that he “loves black women and likes to use them in his art.” Frazier also credits Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, and Elizabeth Cattlett as his biggest artistic inspirations. Speaking on how the Diaspora influences his art, Frank muses, “I go to Senegal, West Africa a lot. Many of my collages are influenced from there.” As far as the media he works with, the sky is the limit. “I paint with oils, watercolors, and charcoal, anything that’s available,” says Frazier.

“When I see young people look with respect and appreciation for the art of today, I think of Sankofa, and how we must go back to the past to understand the present,” he observes. “Take Grant Hill, the famous basketball player. Young people heard Hill is exhibiting his art collection around the United States, and they want to be a part of it because of him, although it’s really the art he has collected they are coming to see! He is holding our heritage for our children.”

Although the artistic creations of many blacks were not embraced by “mainstream” art dealers, always positive, Frank admits, “My experience as a black artist has always been good. I like working with black- owned galleries because they also expose us artists to other people’s creativity, old artists and new. Shows like this[BHAS] allow us to make a living off of our creativity, with our people supporting us. Charles Bibbs and Poncho [Brown] have come under criticism for mass-producing their work, but I think it’s great to bring an artist’s work into many homes.”

Now living in Texas, Frazier is working on a series of paintings on the civil rights movement. He recently completed a road trip to various Southern cities that were pivotal to the struggle for equal rights; Jackson, Mississippi to Birmingham, Alabama, to Selma, to Tuskegee. This statesmen of art was “never motivated by money” when producing his art; the love of black history and culture and creation are his driving force. Frank Frazier serves up life’s wisdom as well as beautiful art; he offers this, “when life gets you down and you feel no one is helping you achieve your goals, remember this, even when somebody has their foot up your behind, you are still in front; You can still make it!”

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SOLD – Fastbreak by Ernie Barnes

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SOLD
Fastbreak
by Ernie Barnes
Limited Edition Signed and Numbered 
Serigraph /Hand Signed
Edition 475
Size 21.75″ x 36.75″ Approx

Ernest “Ernie” Eugene Barnes, Jr. (July 15, 1938 – April 27, 2009) was an African-American painter, well known for his unique style of elongation and movement. He was also a professional football player, actor and author.

Ernie Barnes’ involvement with art began at an early age, like most gifted adult artists. However, when he reached high school his creative endeavors were temporarily detoured in his determination to become a successful athlete. In part this was a response to the demands of peer pressure which can be so strong at that age. He graduated from his high school a hero and star football player, and with 26 full athletic scholarships to choose from. He chose North Carolina Central University and a major in art. After college he continued in an illustrious professional athletic career, but never let his love for football overshadow his love for art. Football gave him an enormous satisfaction of achievement, of being able to do something extremely difficult, and do it well. Art, however, allowed him the privilege to interpret for the public his concepts of the relationship between art and life.

In 1966 Ernie Barnes retired from football to commit himself to his art. His athletic career made a special contribution to his sensibility and his art, and he often weds physical with artistic expression. Many of his subjects are satirical and he uses exaggeration, and even caricature, to enhance their mood, humor and physical vitality. Seen through Barnes’ dramatic-comic vision, human figures play out their roles in a contemporary scenario in a manner that is both entertaining and finely executed. It can easily be said that Barnes has more than established himself as one among America’s leading contemporary painters.

Barnes credits his college art instructor Ed Wilson for laying the foundation for his development as an artist. Wilson was a sculptor who instructed Barnes to paint from his own life experiences. “He made me conscious of the fact that the artist who is useful to America is one who studies his own life and records it through the medium of art, manners and customs of his own experiences.”
All his life, Barnes was ambivalent about his football experience. In interviews and in personal appearances, Barnes said he hated the violence and the physical torment of the sport. However, his years as an athlete gave him unique, in-depth observations. “(Wilson) told me to pay attention to what my body felt like in movement. Within that elongation, there’s a feeling. And attitude and expression. I hate to think had I not played sports what my work would look like.”
Barnes’ first painting sale was in 1959 for $90 to Boston Celtic Sam Jones for a painting called Slow Dance. It was subsequently lost in a fire at Jones’ home.
Critics have defined Barnes’ work as neo-mannerist. Based on his signature use of serpentine lines, elongation of the human figure, clarity of line, unusual spatial relationships, painted frames, and distinctive color palettes, art critic Frank Getlein credited Barnes as the founder of the neo-Mannerism movement – because of the similarity of technique and composition prevalent during the 16th century, as practiced by such masters as Michelangelo and Raphael.

Numerous artists have been influenced by Barnes’ art and unique style. Accordingly, several copyright infringement lawsuits have been settled and are currently pending.

Barnes created the painting Sugar Shack in the early 1970s. It gained international exposure when it was used on the Good Times television series and on a 1976 Marvin Gaye album.

Sports Art

In 1984 Barnes was appointed the Official Sports Artist for the Games of the XXIII Olympiad. Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee President Peter V. Ueberroth said Barnes “captured the essence of the Olympics” and “portray the city’s ethnic diversity, the power and emotion of sports competition, the singleness of purpose and hopes that go into the making of athletes the world over.” Barnes was commissioned to create five Olympic-themed paintings and serve as an official Olympic spokesman to encourage inner city youth.

In 1985 Barnes was named the first Sports Artist of the Year by the United States Sports Academy.

In 1987 Barnes created Fastbreak, a commissioned painting of the World Champion Los Angeles Lakers basketball team that included Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, Kurt Rambis and Michael Cooper.

In 1996 Carolina Panthers football team owners Rosalind and Jerry Richardson (Barnes’ former Colts teammate) commissioned Barnes to create the large painting Victory in Overtime (approximately 7 ft. x 14 ft.). It was unveiled before the team’s inaugural season and hangs permanently in the stadium owner’s suite.

To commemorate their 50th anniversary in 1996, the National Basketball Association commissioned Barnes to create a painting with the theme, “Where we were, where we are, and where we are going.” The painting, The Dream Unfolds hangs in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. A limited edition of lithographs were made, with the first 50 prints going to each of the NBA’s 50th Anniversary All-Time Team.

In 2004 Barnes was named America’s Best Painter of Sports by the American Sport Art Museum & Archives.

Other notable sports commissions include paintings for the New Orleans Saints, Oakland Raiders and Boston Patriots football team owners.

Sugar Shack

According to Barnes, he created the original version of Sugar Shack after reflecting upon his childhood, during which he was not “able to go to a dance.” In a 2008 interview, Barnes said, “Sugar Shack is a recall of a childhood experience. It was the first time my innocence met with the sins of dance. The painting transmits rhythm so the experience is re-created in the person viewing it. To show that African-Americans utilize rhythm as a way of resolving physical tension.”[27] The Sugar Shack has been known to art critics for embodying the style of art composition known as “Black Romantic,” which, according to Natalie Hopkinson of The Washington Post, is the “visual-art equivalent of the Chitlin’ circuit.”

On the original Sugar Shack, Barnes included his hometown Durham, North Carolina radio station WSRC on a banner. He incorrectly listed the frequency at 620. It was actually 1410. Barnes confused what he used to hear WSRC’s on-air personality Norfley Whitted saying “620 on your dial” when Whitted was at his former station WDNC in the early 1950s.

After Marvin Gaye asked him for permission to use the painting as an album cover, Barnes then augmented the painting by adding references that allude to Gaye’s album, including banners hanging from the ceiling to promote the album’s singles.

During the Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever anniversary television special on March 25, 1983, tribute was paid to Sugar Shack with a dance interpretation of the painting.
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In The Beginning by Ernie Barnes

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PRICE ON REQUEST
In The Beginning
by Ernie Barnes
Hand Signed – Offset Lithograph
Signed and Numbered
Edition 663/750
Size 24″ x 20″ Approx

Ernest “Ernie” Eugene Barnes, Jr. (July 15, 1938 – April 27, 2009) was an African-American painter, well known for his unique style of elongation and movement. He was also a professional football player, actor and author.

Ernie Barnes’ involvement with art began at an early age, like most gifted adult artists. However, when he reached high school his creative endeavors were temporarily detoured in his determination to become a successful athlete. In part this was a response to the demands of peer pressure which can be so strong at that age. He graduated from his high school a hero and star football player, and with 26 full athletic scholarships to choose from. He chose North Carolina Central University and a major in art. After college he continued in an illustrious professional athletic career, but never let his love for football overshadow his love for art. Football gave him an enormous satisfaction of achievement, of being able to do something extremely difficult, and do it well. Art, however, allowed him the privilege to interpret for the public his concepts of the relationship between art and life.

In 1966 Ernie Barnes retired from football to commit himself to his art. His athletic career made a special contribution to his sensibility and his art, and he often weds physical with artistic expression. Many of his subjects are satirical and he uses exaggeration, and even caricature, to enhance their mood, humor and physical vitality. Seen through Barnes’ dramatic-comic vision, human figures play out their roles in a contemporary scenario in a manner that is both entertaining and finely executed. It can easily be said that Barnes has more than established himself as one among America’s leading contemporary painters.

Barnes credits his college art instructor Ed Wilson for laying the foundation for his development as an artist. Wilson was a sculptor who instructed Barnes to paint from his own life experiences. “He made me conscious of the fact that the artist who is useful to America is one who studies his own life and records it through the medium of art, manners and customs of his own experiences.”
All his life, Barnes was ambivalent about his football experience. In interviews and in personal appearances, Barnes said he hated the violence and the physical torment of the sport. However, his years as an athlete gave him unique, in-depth observations. “(Wilson) told me to pay attention to what my body felt like in movement. Within that elongation, there’s a feeling. And attitude and expression. I hate to think had I not played sports what my work would look like.”
Barnes’ first painting sale was in 1959 for $90 to Boston Celtic Sam Jones for a painting called Slow Dance. It was subsequently lost in a fire at Jones’ home.
Critics have defined Barnes’ work as neo-mannerist. Based on his signature use of serpentine lines, elongation of the human figure, clarity of line, unusual spatial relationships, painted frames, and distinctive color palettes, art critic Frank Getlein credited Barnes as the founder of the neo-Mannerism movement – because of the similarity of technique and composition prevalent during the 16th century, as practiced by such masters as Michelangelo and Raphael.

Numerous artists have been influenced by Barnes’ art and unique style. Accordingly, several copyright infringement lawsuits have been settled and are currently pending.

Barnes created the painting Sugar Shack in the early 1970s. It gained international exposure when it was used on the Good Times television series and on a 1976 Marvin Gaye album.

Sports Art

In 1984 Barnes was appointed the Official Sports Artist for the Games of the XXIII Olympiad. Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee President Peter V. Ueberroth said Barnes “captured the essence of the Olympics” and “portray the city’s ethnic diversity, the power and emotion of sports competition, the singleness of purpose and hopes that go into the making of athletes the world over.” Barnes was commissioned to create five Olympic-themed paintings and serve as an official Olympic spokesman to encourage inner city youth.

In 1985 Barnes was named the first Sports Artist of the Year by the United States Sports Academy.

In 1987 Barnes created Fastbreak, a commissioned painting of the World Champion Los Angeles Lakers basketball team that included Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, Kurt Rambis and Michael Cooper.

In 1996 Carolina Panthers football team owners Rosalind and Jerry Richardson (Barnes’ former Colts teammate) commissioned Barnes to create the large painting Victory in Overtime (approximately 7 ft. x 14 ft.). It was unveiled before the team’s inaugural season and hangs permanently in the stadium owner’s suite.

To commemorate their 50th anniversary in 1996, the National Basketball Association commissioned Barnes to create a painting with the theme, “Where we were, where we are, and where we are going.” The painting, The Dream Unfolds hangs in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. A limited edition of lithographs were made, with the first 50 prints going to each of the NBA’s 50th Anniversary All-Time Team.

In 2004 Barnes was named America’s Best Painter of Sports by the American Sport Art Museum & Archives.

Other notable sports commissions include paintings for the New Orleans Saints, Oakland Raiders and Boston Patriots football team owners.

Sugar Shack

According to Barnes, he created the original version of Sugar Shack after reflecting upon his childhood, during which he was not “able to go to a dance.” In a 2008 interview, Barnes said, “Sugar Shack is a recall of a childhood experience. It was the first time my innocence met with the sins of dance. The painting transmits rhythm so the experience is re-created in the person viewing it. To show that African-Americans utilize rhythm as a way of resolving physical tension.”[27] The Sugar Shack has been known to art critics for embodying the style of art composition known as “Black Romantic,” which, according to Natalie Hopkinson of The Washington Post, is the “visual-art equivalent of the Chitlin’ circuit.”

On the original Sugar Shack, Barnes included his hometown Durham, North Carolina radio station WSRC on a banner. He incorrectly listed the frequency at 620. It was actually 1410. Barnes confused what he used to hear WSRC’s on-air personality Norfley Whitted saying “620 on your dial” when Whitted was at his former station WDNC in the early 1950s.

After Marvin Gaye asked him for permission to use the painting as an album cover, Barnes then augmented the painting by adding references that allude to Gaye’s album, including banners hanging from the ceiling to promote the album’s singles.

During the Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever anniversary television special on March 25, 1983, tribute was paid to Sugar Shack with a dance interpretation of the painting.

Offered at ON REQUEST

 

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    Piano Player 1994 by William Tolliver

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    SOLD
    Piano Player 1994
    by William Tolliver
    Hand Pulled Serigraph
    Signed by the Artist
    Size 24″ x 32″ Approx

    Artist Bio: 1951-2000 – Tolliver spent more than 30 of his 48 years perfecting his skill as a painter. Today, William Tolliver’s art is collected worldwide. Tolliver’s style freely combines the color of Chagall with the solid compositional principles of Cezanne and the mood and forms of Modigliani and Picasso. Tolliver’s words of wisdom for the young artist were, “I would urge an art student to go to school and learn the fundamentals, because to know the fundamentals is to know the technical aspects of blending colors.”

    In an age when the rules of art had either been abandoned in favor of an anti-formalist attitude or had been institutionalized in academic study, William Tolliver emerged as a brilliant self-taught artist -a Mississippi-born Renaissance man whose creative intelligence combines the study of formal structure with an innate sense of human observation. Far from the marketplace of the New York City art world, Tolliver arose during the mid-1980’s a brilliant regional talent, an individual impelled by a desire to capture the landscapes and peoples of his native deep South. Whether dealing with everyday workers or back-alley jazzmen, he conveys a universal message through sconces of the common human experience. While plaintive in mood, Tolliver’s works evoke compassion with an underlying sense of expressive emotion. “I could draw on a lot of sad and depressing things from my life, but I’d rather emphasize the positive.” An artist of insight and natural ability, Tolliver is a deliverer of an artist message imbued with unique expressions and spiritual enlistment. Tolliver was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Although his mother worked in the cotton fields by day, she found time to rear and help educate 14 children. To stimulate their interest in learning, she often challenged William and his older brother to drawing contests. Discovering William’s talent, she borrowed art books from the library that exposed her son to the works of the European masters. His astute observation led him to study subjects from books, black-and-white photographs, nature, comics, and family members who posed as models. Since the local public schools did not have an art curriculum, Tolliver continued his course of self-study. From inexpensive dime-store watercolor sets purchased with money earned by mowing lawns, Tolliver learned to mix and blend colors by using a paint-by-number kit. Using this system he experimented with mixing color and skin tones and by the age eight was able to create academically correct paintings.
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    SOLD – Barber Shop by Andrew Turner

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    SOLD
    Barber Shop
    by Andrew Turner
    Size 17″ x 38″ Approx

    Andrew Turner was born in l944 in Chester, Pennsylvania. He was a graduate of Temple University’s Tyler School of Art. Andrew’s work has been widely acclaimed, with many solo exhibitions and participation in group exhibitions. He has taught art in grades K-1 2 in the Chester, Pennsylvania Public Schools and in correctional centers. His appointments include Artist-in-Residence and Curator, Deshong Museum, Chester, PA; Lecturer, Widener University; Lecturer, Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA; and, he toured and lectured in The People’s Republic of China. Collections which hold Andrew’s paintings include Woody Allen, Dr. Maya Angelou, ARCO Chemical Company, Bell Telephone Company, Dr. Constance Clayton, Mr. and Mrs. Bill Cosby, Edie Huggins, Eric Lindros, Mr. and Mrs Louis Madonni, Moses Malone, Penn State University, the artist formerly known as Prince, Mr. and Mrs. Harold Sorgenti, Swarthmore College, Mrs. Marilyn Wheaton, and Widener University Deshong Museum, just to name a few. He has been featured in numerous solo exhibitions and group exhibitions in the United States and abroad. His Philadelphia commissions include: WDAS FM (1996); Marco Solo, (published by J. Schwinn and G. Harlow, illustrated by Andrew Turner) Reverse Angle Productions, Inc. (I 995); and Robin Hood Dell, Fairmount Park (1985).

    “My paintings combine the drama inherent in seventeenth century Dutch painting with the brush work and the economy of the Impressionists. However, I look to the jazz idiom more so than to other contemporary visual artists for guidance and inspiration. I tend to measure the success of my pieces by how they stand up technically, emotionally and innovatively to a Coltrane solo or whether I’ve captured the spirit of the occasion, a la Ellington. The subject matter, sometimes nostalgic recollections of my days as a young tough, covers a myriad of common folk activities. The setting usually my native Chester, is a beehive of creative stimulation or a deteriorating ghetto depending on my state of mind. At the very least, hopefully, these vignettes of experience will help to provide insight into some African American lifestyles and serve as an inspiration to my students and others to continue the legacy of African American participation in the arts.”

    Andrew Turner 1944 – 2001

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    The Builders by Jacob Lawrence

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    Lawrence-The_Builders

    SOLD
    The Builders
    by Jacob Lawrence
    Hand Pulled Serigraph
    Edition 99/300
    Signed by the Artist – 1974
    Size 22″ x 30″ Approx

    Jacob Lawrence was born in 1917 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He was thirteen when his family, including his sister and brother, moved to New York City. Lawrence was introduced to art shortly after that, when their mother enrolled him in classes at an arts and crafts settlement house in Harlem, in an effort to keep him busy. The young Lawrence often drew patterns with crayons. In the beginning, he copied patterns of his mother’s carpets; one of his art teachers noted great potential in Lawrence.

    After dropping out of school at sixteen, Lawrence worked in a laundry and a printing plant. He continued with art, attending classes at the Harlem Art Workshop, taught by the noted African-American artist Charles Alston. Alston urged him to attend the Harlem Community Art Center, led by the sculptor Augusta Savage. Savage secured Lawrence a scholarship to the American Artists School and a paid position with the Works Progress Administration, established during the Great Depression by the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Lawrence continued his studies as well, working with Alston and Henry Bannarn, anotherHarlem Renaissance artist, in the Alston-Bannarn workshop.

    On July 24, 1941, Lawrence married the painter Gwendolyn Knight, also a student of Savage. They were married until his death in 2000.

    In October 1943 (during the Second World War), Lawrence enlisted in the United States Coast Guard and served with the first racially integrated crew on the USCGC Sea Cloud, under Carlton Skinner.[3] He continued to paint and sketch while in the Coast Guard.

    After years in New York, in 1970 Lawrence and Knight moved to the Pacific Northwest, where he had been invited to be an art professor at the University of Washington. They settled in Seattle. Some of his works are displayed in the university’s Meany Hall for the Performing Arts and in the Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering. Lawrence’s painting, Theatre, installed in the main lobby of Meany Hall, was commissioned by the University in 1985 for that space.


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    SOLD – Piano Player II 1999

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    William_Tolliver_Piano_Player_II_1999

    SOLD
    Piano Player II 1999
    by William Tolliver
    Hand Pulled Serigraph
    Signed by the Artist
    Edition 300
    Size 30″ x 40″

    Artist Bio: 1951-2000 – Tolliver spent more than 30 of his 48 years perfecting his skill as a painter. Today, William Tolliver’s art is collected worldwide. Tolliver’s style freely combines the color of Chagall with the solid compositional principles of Cezanne and the mood and forms of Modigliani and Picasso. Tolliver’s words of wisdom for the young artist were, “I would urge an art student to go to school and learn the fundamentals, because to know the fundamentals is to know the technical aspects of blending colors.”

    In an age when the rules of art had either been abandoned in favor of an anti-formalist attitude or had been institutionalized in academic study, William Tolliver emerged as a brilliant self-taught artist -a Mississippi-born Renaissance man whose creative intelligence combines the study of formal structure with an innate sense of human observation. Far from the marketplace of the New York City art world, Tolliver arose during the mid-1980’s a brilliant regional talent, an individual impelled by a desire to capture the landscapes and peoples of his native deep South. Whether dealing with everyday workers or back-alley jazzmen, he conveys a universal message through sconces of the common human experience. While plaintive in mood, Tolliver’s works evoke compassion with an underlying sense of expressive emotion. “I could draw on a lot of sad and depressing things from my life, but I’d rather emphasize the positive.” An artist of insight and natural ability, Tolliver is a deliverer of an artist message imbued with unique expressions and spiritual enlistment. Tolliver was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Although his mother worked in the cotton fields by day, she found time to rear and help educate 14 children. To stimulate their interest in learning, she often challenged William and his older brother to drawing contests. Discovering William’s talent, she borrowed art books from the library that exposed her son to the works of the European masters. His astute observation led him to study subjects from books, black-and-white photographs, nature, comics, and family members who posed as models. Since the local public schools did not have an art curriculum, Tolliver continued his course of self-study. From inexpensive dime-store watercolor sets purchased with money earned by mowing lawns, Tolliver learned to mix and blend colors by using a paint-by-number kit. Using this system he experimented with mixing color and skin tones and by the age eight was able to create academically correct paintings.
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