The pioneering Black portrait artist Barkley L. Hendricks loved to visit the Frick Collection in New York, where he admired its Old Master European works by artists like Rembrandt and Van Dyck.
It’s not surprising that Hendricks would have loved the Frick, given his admiration for artists like Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Van Eyck, Velásquez and others. What is more unusual is that a museum focusing on the 14th through 19th centuries would devote a show to a contemporary portraitist like Hendricks. The Frick does not collect works made after 1900.
The exhibit is also the last major show to take place at the museum’s temporary digs, Frick Madison, before a return next year to its grand Beaux-Arts setting on Fifth Avenue following a renovation. The exhibit’s accompanying catalog contains testimonials from artists and other luminaries speaking of his influence, including, painter of the famous Barack Obama portrait, who begins simply: “No figurative artist can approach painting without considering Barkley Hendricks.”
“What I love about this room,” says co-curator Sargent, who is a director at the Gagosian gallery, “is that the flesh tones are different in each of these images. It allows us to think about this idea of the person and their individuality.” Similarly, Hendricks added eyeglasses and a tambourine to the portrait “Blood ,” featuring a former student of Hendricks at Connecticut College, dressed in a reddish plaid jacket.
The curators acknowledge there might be some resistance from purists in the Frick community who might not be expecting something quite so contemporary. There have been contemporary works displayed in past shows, but never on this scale.
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