VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston presents the exhibition Barkley L. Hendricks: Birth of the Cool.  Opening reception: Friday, January 29, 2010, 7:00–10:00 p.m.  On view: January 30 – April 18, 2010.

Best known for his life-sized portraits of those living within the urban northeastern communities of Connecticut,  Barkley L. Hendricks’s bold portrayal of his subject’s attitude and style elevated these common and overlooked persons to celebrity status. Organized by Trevor Schoonmaker, curator of contemporary art at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Barkley L. Hendricks: Birth of the Cool is the first career retrospective of this renowned American artist. The exhibition is comprised of 57 paintings, including full-figure portraits and lesser-known early works, as well as the artist’s more recent portal-like paintings of the Jamaican landscape, where he returns annually to do outdoor “en pleine air” painting.

Hendricks’s stylistic renderings connect the art movements of American realism and post-modernism while touching upon many of the art movements of the 1960s and 70s—pop art, photorealism, minimalism, even black aesthetic nationalism. His work occupies a space somewhere between portraitists Chuck Close and Alex Katz and pioneering black conceptualists David Hammons and Adrian Piper. Cool, empowering and sometimes confrontational, Hendricks's artistic privileging of a culturally complex black body has paved the way for today's younger generation of artists.

“Hendricks is a sophisticated practitioner who combines impressive references, forms, and techniques in renderings that seem to cut to the core, to reveal his subjects as vulnerable individuals even as they self-consciously pose in displays of hipness,” says Janet Koplos (as reviewed in Art in America, November 2008).

The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston is the final touring venue for Barkley L. Hendricks: Birth of the Cool after stops in New York at the Studio Museum in Harlem; California at the Santa Monica Museum of Art; and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia.

Barkley L. Hendricks was born in Philadelphia in 1945. He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, and earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in fine arts from Yale University. He is a professor of art at Connecticut College in New London, where he has been teaching since 1972.

Hendricks’s work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions across the United States and Europe, and include venues such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; and Whitechapel Art Gallery, London.

His work is represented in numerous public collections, including the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia; Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio; Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Virginia; Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut; and Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.

PUBLIC PROGRAMS
All events are free and open to the public, and take place at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston unless otherwise noted. For complete listings and current information, please check www.camh.org.

Friday, January 29, 7:00-10:00 p.m.
Opening reception: Barkley L. Hendricks: Birth of the Cool
Join us for the opening reception of the first painting retrospective of this American artist. The exhibition is comprised of over 50 works, including full-figure portraits and lesser-known early works. Organized by the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. CAMH’s presentation also includes the photographic installation, Walkin’ with Walker: Narrative Photography of Barkley L. Hendricks. Soular Grooves presents a special edition of Steel Lounge Underground and curates a talented lineup of DJs to set this exhibition to music. Reception with cash bar.

Saturday, January 30, 2:00 p.m.
Artists/Scholars Talk: Barkley L. Hendricks and Trevor Schoonmaker
Hendricks’s stylistic renderings connect the art movements of American realism and post-modernism while touching upon many of the art movements of the 1960s and 1970s—pop art, photorealism, minimalism, even black aesthetic nationalism. Join Barkley L. Hendricks and organizing curator Trevor Schoonmaker, curator of contemporary art at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, for a discussion of the artist’s work.

Thursday, February 4, 6:30 p.m.
Artists/Scholars Talk: Franklin Sirmans
Franklin Sirmans, curator of contemporary art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and contributing author to the exhibition catalogue Barkley L. Hendricks: Birth of the Cool (available in the Museum Shop) discusses the artist’s work.

Thursday, February 18, 6:30 p.m.
Loft Concert: Musiqa
Musiqa, a contemporary music group that takes a fresh look at the concert experience, presents a selection of compositions inspired by Barkley L. Hendricks: Birth of the Cool.

Sunday, March 7, 1:00-4:00 p.m.
Family Day
The whole family can enjoy hands-on art activities and family tours of Barkley L. Hendricks: Birth of the Cool. All activities are free and art supplies are provided.

Saturday, March 13, 2:00 p.m.
Artists/Scholars Talk: Valerie Cassel Oliver
In conjunction with FotoFest 2010 Biennial, CAMH Curator Valerie Cassel Oliver will discuss Walkin’ with Walker: Narrative Photography of Barkley L. Hendricks. Best known for his iconic painted portraits of ordinary people, Barkley L. Hendricks proves himself to be an equally masterful photographer. Heavily influenced by the work of legendary American photographer Walker Evans, Hendricks has used his 4x5 format camera as a “mechanical sketchbook” to skillfully record the landscapes and people he has encountered in daily life, weaving a narrative reflective of life’s fleeting moments, frozen in time.

The exhibition and related programs are sponsored in part by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.; National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art; Mary Duke Biddle Foundation; and North Carolina Arts Council with funding from the State of North Carolina.

Pictured: Barkley L. Hendricks, Sweet Thang (Lynn Jenkins), 1975–1976, Oil on linen canvas, 52 1/2 x 52 3/4 inches. Courtesy of the artist..