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Holt: He calls his collection of human portraits “Birth of the Cool.” One look at his paintings and you will understand exactly why. They are on display at the Nasher Museum of Art in Durham before he travels to Harlem. And we’ll be talking to the artist, Barkley Hendricks, next on Black Issues Forum.
VO: Quality public television is made possible through the financial contributions of viewers like you who invite you to join them in supporting UNC-TV.
Holt: Welcome to Black Issues Forum. I am Deborah Holt in for Mitchell Lewis and Natalie Bullock-Brown. We have a very special guest today whose paintings have long impressed the art world but are just gaining popularity among the general public. He is traveling nationwide with his first career painting retrospective and he started at the Nasher Museum of Art in Durham. Over the next half hour we will look at some of the work that has granted him such esteem in the art world and why his paintings are gaining more attention now.
I would like to introduce renowned American artist Barkley Hendricks. And I am so happy that I had an opportunity to visit the Nasher Museum and see your exhibit. It’s just incredible and I would like to just suggest that people go and actually see these works of art that you have.
I think one of the best ways to maybe introduce our audience to you and your work is to just talk about some of the portraits that you have done. And, again, it is called “Birth of the Cool.” First tell us why the title. Where did you get the title from?
Hendricks: It was a collaborative, oh, how can I say? Collaborative command decision by Schoonmaker and it kind of resonated in a way that I said, “Yeah, I like that.” I had another idea, another concept but when they brought it up, it is hard to, how can one say, reject anything that relates to cool especially when there is an association with a man of Miles Davis stature. Not that that was the only reason but he knows that I am very much involved in photographing jazz musicians and Miles was one of them.
Holt: And also because a number of the portraits, the images are of people who are wearing things that are very, I would say cool, for the times.
Hendricks: I was going to say that but I didn’t want people to say that it was an ego thing. But many of the people were cool and they were certainly willing and attractive fashion stylists so to speak. And they caught my eye. And they were friends and so it made it easy to have the title associated with those images.
Holt: I’d like to go back to your very first portrait. It’s called “My Black Nun.” Now you actually began painting before you were 19. How old were you when you began painting?
Hendricks: Well, painting started when I was in elementary school. But the medium then was water, what they call showcard watercolor. But I started to actually work with the medium oil when I got to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. So let’s say I have been painting for a long time. But the working with oil and acrylic happened at the later stage.
Holt: And growing up in Philly, who introduced you to paints and so forth?
Hendricks: Well, as I said, when you say paints I assume you mean all paints or specific paints. As I say, paint happened when you were in elementary school. They hand you some paint and say go do something.
Holt: So you just sort of took off with it.
Hendricks: And so it was the introduction to the wet medium. And later—well, at one point I would say that I was pre-aerosol.
Holt: Pre-aerosol.
Hendricks: Right, you know.
Holt: A spray can. [LAUGHTER]
Hendricks: Exactly. So there was that area of graffiti that was a part of Philadelphia which you certainly know of and in New York. But I was a part of the chalk generation. So when it rained everything got washed away. Then later on the aerosol was introduced and I wasn’t a part of that.
Holt: Well, let’s go back to an oil. I believe the “My Black Nun” is an oil?
Hendricks: Yeah.
Holt: Tell me, you had mentioned that a lot of your paintings, your portraits are of people who are from your immediate environment, your community, just regular everyday people. Was the nun someone who you knew or how did that come to be?
Hendricks: No, that was a composite piece. As I was growing up there was a Catholic school in the neighborhood and on the way to school I would see nuns. But there were no nuns of color. And so when I got to the academy I decided to do my own painting of a nun. And that was the first one.
Holt: Well one of the things I found pretty interesting about that, that portrait of the nun, there are so many different features that are unusual, things you wouldn’t expect to see in a portrait of a nun, just the expression on the face and even the stance and the posture. Was there a message that you were trying to send or convey in that?
Hendricks: Well I’d say the white nuns had a, how can I say, attitude, a stance and a posture which I mimicked. There were times when I would see the nuns through the window and they were rather stern and straightforward, so I adopted it to that. And there was an area of confrontational attitude with that. But as I said, it was basically a composite made-up base so to speak.
Holt: Very interesting. After of course that first one I am sure you did many, many others. But then you had an opportunity to go to Europe, travel to Europe, and I imagine see some of the works of the classical artists and so forth, masters. Were there any in particular that struck you or that particularly influenced your future work?
Hendricks: Just to make the conversation step back just a moment, when I did get to Europe I did get a chance to see nuns of color for the first time.
Holt: And what did you think of that? Were you surprised?
Hendricks: Well, given what I had learned about the religion, I knew there were some on the planet but there were none in Philadelphia that I saw. But then to address your other question about influences, yes, there were a number of artists that immediately caught my attention that became very much a part of my educational involvement with how to deal with the mechanics of painting and the contents of certain areas of painting. But there were in essence very little, if not no images that dealt with black people that was part of the nobility status or the area of barons that had money, the portraits that were part of the commissioned situation. So that was an interesting education.
But it was cool. There were great painters and I respect them for that. I learned a great deal from the area of painting outside of the areas of absence of people that looked like me.
Holt: In each of your portraits not only has a connection and story because you have a story behind the picture, but there is also the ability for those who are looking at and admiring the work to form a connection. Was that something that you were trying to obtain or was there a void that you were trying to fill as you were creating your collection, beginning as a painter?
Hendricks: When I was growing up there was an expression in terms of the checker players. “You only play what you know and after that you can’t play no more.” And I felt that there is an area of working with what you knew, what was around you. It wasn’t that it was a situation where I was excluding white folk at all, because I learned to paint all kinds of people. But there was that area of associations and friends that made it logical, and family, to use them as models. As I said just moments ago, when I was in art school most of the models there were white. So learning to paint skin color that wasn’t dark was an assignment that didn’t necessarily take on any racial connotations. You just had to learn how to pain whatever. I think I did well with that. But there was an association of friends and family that made it logical to do what you know.
Holt: And one of the portraits that came I think after your visit to Europe and additional training and so forth was one called “Sweet Thing.” It is a portrait of a young woman. Tell us a little bit about how that picture came to be.
Hendricks: Well, Linda was a very beautiful young woman and she was a student at ____ College where I taught and one of several students, by the way, that I painted. This one sounded unique because of the area of patterning that was a part of the piece. If you see the piece across the back is a mosaic pattern that I photographed when I was in Morocco and the floor patterning, the rug came from a rug that was at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and of course she had a patterned dress on. So that was a different approach that I used in relationship to that particular piece.
Then there was the attitude. We were talking and she was having a tough time and the conversation was not a happy one. And all of a sudden she blew this bubble and it just changed the whole complexion of the conversation and we started to laugh, where just moments before we were almost in tears. I said, “I’ve got to do that,” so I put the bubble in. That was I think a part of situation in working with live models.
As you know I’ve been photographing you and a number of people around here and the camera is—
Holt: Right there on the set.
Hendricks: Yeah, it is a tool. See I could think I’m fast and good but I’m not that fast. So it is—
Holt: So you use the photographs as your model?
Hendricks: Yeah, yeah, it is like a pencil, it is like a brush. It is a tool. And under the circumstances, you know, if I wanted to paint you, you don’t have the time to sit. There are a number of other people that are like that. So I’ve learned to incorporate the use of a camera as far as what I want to do. But if I have a situation where there is a—I get the luxury of having someone pose for a period of time I’ll take it. But I’ve adjusted to that now.
Holt: Like yourself, talk about people having, being patient. But you are not impatient so your collection actually includes a number of self-portraits, including one that is called “Brilliantly Endowed” and I’ll note that if you go to the Nasher to see this, that is a nude, but talk a little bit about why that is called “Brilliantly Endowed”?
Hendricks: Let me ask you a question. Are you familiar with Hilton Kramer?
Holt: No.
Hendricks: Well the reason I’m asking is you are out of Philadelphia and there is that close proximity to New York, anyway he was the art critic for the New York Times and he made reference to Barkley Hendricks is a brilliantly endowed painter. There was a situation where I was in a lover’s clench and my partner said, “How does Hilton know that you are brilliantly endowed?” [LAUGHTER]. At the time I was working on two self-portraits and one I’m fully clothed and that one was nude, so the other one was called “Slick,” which is the white-on-white piece which is named for my sister who made a reference to that. And of course “Brilliantly Endowed” was a kind of a natural. I mean many of the portraits I do have I think a tinge of humor. I am serious about it but there is an area of humor that one can relate to the world and to oneself. So—
Holt: I am thinking of one called “Tyrone.” Once again we are seeing the fashion statement by Tyrone. I believe it is the one—is that the one with the man purse?
Hendricks: Yeah, yeah. It is great, uh—
Holt: Is there a story behind him?
Hendricks: Yeah, yeah, well, when you come to see the exhibition, one of the beautiful things that the Nasher did was gigantic images of Ms. Tyrone around the museum. So you can get a little glimpse of him on the way to the museum. But the meeting was a situation where I was on the streets of Philadelphia and I saw this man with his glistening head and the bib, jean overalls and I asked could I take a photograph of him. So he said, “Sure.” And this is downtown Philly. As you know Philly downtown is pretty populated.
So we square off on the sidewalk and I am shooting through a number of different shots and a crowd kind of built up around us. And they were respectful enough not to walk in front of me. So they were walking around behind. And Tyrone was going through a number of different poses. When we got done, and we shook hands, the crowd applauded us.
Holt: Fashion show.
Hendricks: Then Tyrone walked on. I mean he had such an air, such a flair. And I like folks who are not afraid of the camera and at times play to it and that makes my job much easier.
Holt: I think it is interesting that you call the collection by the name “Cool.” I am sure the expression cool came out before my time, but and at the same time your portraits keep it real, which is an expression that came out within recent years I would say. But these portraits were created back in the ‘60s and ‘70s before “keeping it real” came to be. So were they indeed as some writers have said not controversial but provocative, confrontational? Do you see how?
Hendricks: Those are words that have been used as far as my work is concerned.
Holt: Why would that be and particularly for that answer?
Hendricks: To a certain extent I did want them to be confrontational. That is one of the reason I kept many of the works life-scale. And the flat-on-flat, wet-on-wet kind of limited palate situation was a part of the illusion to have a work that looks as though it is entering into the space that we as spectators use was another stylistic approach that I felt would be a part of making the works a bit more unforgettable.
That relationship, that respect I mention to my students. I say, “When you go to a museum or gallery, if it is a group show, how many works do you really remember? And what do you remember?” And my point was that there are sometimes works that you immediately forget and sometimes there are works that you carry with you when you leave and there are various reasons for that to happen. You may like the color, you may like the individuals, it may piss you off, it may do something to get your attention. And in this particular culture, if you don’t get people’s attention you can’t get your message across. I mean—
Holt: Well that explains reality TV doesn’t it?
Hendricks: Yeah, well yeah, really, I mean. So if for instance you don’t get people’s attention you can’t work with them. They’re going elsewhere.
Holt: Well who in the art world is getting your attention? Who, who are your I guess the folks who you admire, the artists?
Hendricks: Well, I am probably going to a show that opened, that is opening in Philadelphia of academy alumni that I spoke to one of the curators the other day and he mentioned that a couple of my old professors would be showing there and one is no longer with us, his name was Ben Kahmahara [ph]. Then there is another man named Lewis Sloan and I think Lou Sloan is, well I think both of them are some of the best painters on the planet.
Then I went to Yale, there is a professor that is still alive now. My work doesn’t look anything like his. But I respect what he has done and his name is Lester Johnson. He is a good friend. So there are a few that—
Holt: Now are these African-American artists or a combination?
Hendricks: Lou Sloan is, Kahmahara was a Japanese-American. And Lester Johnson is Anglo Saxon.
Holt: There is another portrait that I’d like for you to share with us, a little bit of the story on and that one is called “Fela.” An artist from I believe the Virgin Islands or Nigeria? We are going to have a picture of that but tell us why you chose to paint Fela.
Hendricks: You don’t know Fela? Oh you come from fairly—
Holt: I am not from Philly.
Hendricks: Well you said you spent some time there.
Holt: I said I worked at WDAS.
Hendricks: Well anyway, that connotes a degree of hipness so I confer a little bit of hipness on you. But I want to sort of confer it all on you and say, well we’ll talk a little bit about Fela but you’re going to have to do some homework to learn about Fela, really. The piece that is in the show, Trevor Schoonmaker now who is the curator for the Nasher show was a curator for a show called “The Black President.” And fellow, or as people say ___, I call it my fellow ____ was a major Nigerian musician that was a part of the origin of the Afro beat out of Nigeria and one of the best bands on the planet. He had dancers and he had singers and a bevy of other musicians that—I do hope you get turned onto it. He has a sound that is quite provocative and damn good. The piece that is at the museum, I am sure you noticed being a woman with heels, you noticed there were shoes on it—
Holt: Lots of shoes.
Hendricks: In front of it. All right, well when I first did the piece and it was first shown, I didn’t have the component but I had it as a part, a design, so I knew when I had the show here that I would have that as a component. Well ___ had many run-ins with the Nigerian government where they beat him up and in 1977 there was the festival of art and culture which drew together a large number of artists from around the planet. He wasn’t a part of it. So when everybody left, the military went in and beat him up, threw his mother out the window and she died from her injuries and proceeded to rape and pillage the women that were a part of his group and what he did later on was to marry 27 of them and, which was a way of giving a protective umbrella. He divorced them later on, but—
Holt: Okay, but he made a statement at the time.
Hendricks: But he made a statement by marrying them. And I got a chance to meet several of them. They were, you know wonderful, beautiful women. And so I want to acknowledge them and before they went on stage, they would put on makeup and some of the makeup would deal with Yoruba patterning. So I went a step further and some of the shoes have a Yoruba kind of markings and some of them deal with other patterns from around Africa like ___ patterns and Nigerian ____, Abu. And the other patterns that I kind of cross-pollinated on the shoes. So I’d say being a high-heeled woman I am sure you have looked at some of them and saw—
Holt: Of course I did.
Hendricks: They weren’t all the same.
Holt: No, no.
Hendricks: So, no pair is exactly the same. And it kind of reflected the similarity by virtue of painting but the individuality that was a part of the women that were a part of his group.
Holt: Well we have enjoyed, or at least I have enjoyed, hearing about some of your pieces of work and I’d to talk about some more but we are out of time right now. But thank you so much for coming in.
VO: Quality public television is made possible through the financial contributions of viewers like you who invite you to join them in supporting UNC-TV.
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