Portrait artist Barkley L. Hendricks, who passed away in 2017, considers the Frick Collection to be one of his favorite museums. Now, in celebration of Hendricks, large-format paintings of black Americans will hang in that institute, long the home of Rembrandt, Bronzino and Van Dyck, as the first black artist to have a performance. solo performance at 87-year-old Frick.
In the fall of 2023, the museum will intersperse about a dozen portraits of Hendricks among its own properties in an exhibit at its temporary home, Frick Madison. Hendricks has made life-size portraits of friends, relatives and strangers he meets on the street – paintings that have only recently gained wide recognition in museums and the art market. widespread but helped set an assertive tone for the image and opened the door for more young artists.
Aimee Ng, curator at Frick, said: “He drew in the traditions of the old master – the quality is superb, their visual impact is there. “We wanted to foreground his paintings the same way we would treat any historical artist.”
Ng is hosting the show with Antwaun Sargent, director at Gagosian, who will act as curator and pitch the idea initially. While Frick has worked on exhibitions with outside scholars, this is the first time the museum has partnered with a curator who also holds a spot with a commercial gallery.
“You have a very traditional painter of the old masters, and who was hardly revered in his day,” says Sargent. “He’s thinking about contemporary culture, but he’s also thinking deeply about our history, about artists like Whistler.”
Hendricks portraits of Black men and women will be hung throughout the museum. A painting of his cousin in Afro,”Lawdy Mama” (1969), for example, uses the gilding technique used in religious depictions, and is illustrated by a group of early Italian Renaissance panels in Frick’s collection.
Curators point to his limited palette painting.”Steve”(1976), note that it is reminiscent of Northern Renaissance artists such as Jan van Eyck, whose “Virgin and Child with Saint Barbara, Saint Elizabeth and Jan Vos“Located in the Nordic galleries of Frick Madison.
“We’re not cornering him – we’re adding the piece to the collection and saying, he’s as important as anything else on any other wall in the museum,” says Sargent. treasure. “I’m interested in what the reaction will be and what connection any of our visitors will make between Barkley’s work and the work of these old European masters.”
A portfolio exploring the impact of Hendricks will include contributions from artists such as Derrick Adams, Nick Cave and Toyin Ojih Odutola, noting Hendricks’ widespread influence.
“For the generation of portrait painters after him – Kehinde Wiley, Amy Sherald, even Rashid Johnson – he was an important forerunner,” says Sargent. “I would even argue that, without Barkley’s work, you wouldn’t have this figurative moment that you see today.”
Hendricks’ interest in Black iconography in the 1960s and 1970s set him outside the mainstream of Black artists of the period, many of whom were largely preoccupied with civil rights and the Rights movement. Black force.
His work went largely unrecognized until recently, when the art world began to correct its irregularities, and when Black portraits became popular.
While the timing may seem long overdue for Frick to focus on a contemporary Black artist, the museum – whose mission is to collect and present European art from the 14th to 19th centuries – acknowledges that there is bound to be some opposition from the purists.
Frick was tentatively experimenting with more progressive programs. Its current project, “Living History: Perspectives of Stickmen and Old Masters,” features the work of four artists – Doron Langberg, Salman Toor, Jenna Gribbon and Toyin Ojih Odutola – exploring issues of strange gender and identity are often excluded from the narratives of early European modern art.
“There are traditionalists who don’t think there’s a place for artists of color because that’s not what Frick has traditionally done, and there are people who are actually dying for this kind of thing.” Ng said. “Our group of young researchers is bigger than ever. That tells me we’re on the right track. I don’t want to alienate people who have been with Frick for 40, 50, 60 years. I wanted to act as a bridge between the historical collection and other works of art.”
