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A man with dark brown skin, a black afro, mustache, and goatee, and wearing a cardinal-red coat over a black suit, is shown three times in this vertical portrait painting. The version at the center stands with his back to us and those to each side face the left and right edges of the canvas, respectively. They stand close enough for their shoulders to touch, and all three views of the man float against a paper-white background. The man has a deep-set eyes under black brows and high cheekbones. His thin mustache frames full lips, which are closed in all three views, and a line of black hair grows down his pointed chin. He wears a jet-black suit over a bright-white turtleneck shirt, and honey-brown and ivory-white wingtip dress shoes. The collar of his shin-length, red coat is popped up, and the belt hangs loose. In the version to our left, he faces that direction in profile with his eyes closed as he pulls the coat back to tuck his left hand, closer to us, into the pocket of his suit jacket. At the center of the canvas, the man turns his face to our left so we see the side of his cheekbone, the tip of his nose, and his eyelashes outlined against the white background. In the view to our right, his body faces that direction with the hand closer to us tucked into the coat pocket. He turns his head to look toward or at us with shadowed eyes. The artist signed and dated the painting in the upper right corner: “B. Hendricks 72.”

Barkley Leonnard Hendricks

Sir Charles, Alias Willie Harris, 1972

Not on View

Medium

oil and acrylic on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 213.04 × 183.52 × 6.35 cm (83 7/8 × 72 1/4 × 2 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

William C. Whitney Foundation

Accession Number

1973.19.1

Artists / Makers

Barkley L. Hendricks (artist) American, American, 1945 - 2017

Image Use

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Inscription

upper right: B. Hendricks 72

Provenance

The artist; purchased May 1973 through (Kenmore Galleries, Inc., Philadelphia) by NGA.

Associated Names

Hendricks, Barkley Leonnard
Kenmore Galleries, Inc.

Exhibition History

1975: Barkley Hendricks - Recent Paintings, Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville South Carolina; Columbia Museum of Art & Science, Columbia, South Carolina, 1975, not in catalogue.

2005: Back to Black: Art, Cinema and the Racial Imaginary, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London; New Art Gallery Walsall, 2005, unnumbered catalogue.

2008: Barkley L. Hendricks: Birth of the Cool, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina; The Studio Museum of Harlem, New York; Santa Monica Museum of Art; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia; Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, 2008-2010, no. 17 (not shown in Santa Monica).

2014: Face Value: Portraiture in the Age of Abstraction, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, 2014-2015, no. 42, repro.

Bibliography

1980: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 173, repro.

1992: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 198, repro.