Good Times

Even this old white guy recognized Jimmie Walker although I never watched his Norman Lear sit com.  But who knew that Ernie Barnes created this and other art used in the production of Good Times?   That would make an excellent "playlist" for a museum exhibit: paintings created specifically for television or film.  I'll bet there wouldn't be many as good as these.

"Portrait of JJ" (1974)

When reading a New York Times review of "In Rapture," his terrific solo show at Ortuzar Projects,  I mistook Barnes's work for that of Archibald John Motley, Jr. whose painting is just as crowded, colorful and sinuous, although maybe not quite so joyful.  Barnes--who also played for the National Football League and dabbled in acting, too--really celebrates Black life.  His subjects dance as if everyone's looking.

"Full Boogie" (1978)

“The Rapture” (2000)

Even in church

"Friendly Friendship Baptist Church" (1994)

. . . and at home.

"Room Ful 'A Sistuhs" (1994)

You can hear the music in his work, too.

"Street Song" (1971)

After seeing “Sugar Shack,” perhaps Barnes’s most famous work, run with the end credits of Good Times, Marvin Gaye asked the artist if he could use it on a 1972 recording. Barnes, who also illustrated album covers for The Crusaders, B.B. King and Curtis Mayfield, even adapted the banners to include relevant text. No prima donna he--Barnes's utter lack of pretension and commercial licensing of his work probably did not do much for his long overdue credibility in the art world.

Apparently Barnes didn't care much for playing ball. A Denver Broncos coach once fined him for sketching during a game. He used his time well, doing for arm and leg muscles what Tom of Finland, another marginalized artist, did for penises and pecs: exaggeration as eroticism.

"Fumble in the Line" (1990)

Exaggeration is even more evident in his depictions of basketball, this time in service of elasticity.  Without knowing that Barnes produced an exhibition in the '70s called "The Beauty of the Ghetto," I could feel the sense of Black pride that permeates his work.

"Shootin' the Breeze" (1974)

"Protect the Rim" (1976)

This paddle-ball playing young woman has attitude--and legs--to spare.

 

"Juba Dis an Juba Dat" (1976)

I usually crop out frames in art photos but this one tells a story.  Barnes, who died in 2002 at the age of 70,  often used distressed wood in honor of his father, an uneducated man who worked as a shipping clerk for a tobacco company in Durham, NC.  Ernest Barnes, Sr. meticulously maintained the white picket fence around the family home until he became sick and died around the time his son first exhibited his work.  Ernie, Jr. propped one of his paintings against the fence and discovered how the art and the wood complemented each other, thus beginning a tradition.  Although this work isn't a self-portrait it's hard not to see Ernie headed for good times in "The Graduate" (1972), framed by the love for his father.