Ernest Eugene Barnes

Posted by Si Fi in

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In an age fueled by technology and instant access to all information it came as a complete shock that I was unaware of one of the most influential artists of our times.  My surprise continued to grow when that same influential artist, whose work I grew up on without knowing, was a black man from Durham, NC.  Ernest Eugene Barnes helped shaped the lives and informed a culture of the workings of the inner city.  Most recognize his work from the popular 70’s TV show Good Times.
 The vivid imagery of one of his most famous paintings “Sugar Shack” was also used as the cover art for the Marvin Gaye album titled “I Want You.”  So as I began to familiarize myself with the greatness of his work and the unbelievable path this man took within his life I noticed 2 things.  The first is “Why a renaissance man of his skills is not touted and revered like other less influential artist?”  No disrespect to the Andy Warhol’s or the Jean-Michel Bisquait’s of the world but to not mention Ernie Barnes or “June,” as his family called him, is a travesty!  A man once commissioned to be the main artist of the 1984 Olympics must be mentioned as one of the greats.  A man that has done personal artwork for governors, senators, actors, professional sports leagues, and music superstars is not even mentioned in our collective thoughts.  I googled top 100 painters of the 21st century and his name was no where in sight.  That’s like leaving off Magic Johnson from the greatest NBA players list in our generation or making the statement that Jackie Robinson was just OK.  The second is “Why a black man from NC of his caliber was not regularly promoted in my state?”  As an information junky I consider myself pretty knowledgeable on all events but especially of information related to my state.  Never once in schools was his named mentioned to me.  Unbelievable is the fact that a man of his profound insight and artistic talents seems to be lost to many from the state of NC.  I thought to myself that it must be me.  Simply I closed my eyes and chose not to see the extreme talents that this man possessed.  Maybe his media attachment made me trivialize and not appreciate the imagery that he displayed with the swaying movements of the fluid people in his artwork.  If so I truly feel that I have missed an important part of Pop Culture.  I missed out on my generations Rembrandt.  I overlooked the Salvador Dali of my youth.  I am now enlightened and this will not be the last time that Ernest Eugene Barnes is spoken from Si Fi.

Ernest Barnes

Sugar Shack