Ernie Barnes (American, 1938-2009). The Comedian. Acrylic on canvas. 24 x 18 inches (61.0 x 45.7 cm). Signed lower right...

Description

Ernie Barnes (American, 1938-2009)
The Comedian
Acrylic on canvas
24 x 18 inches (61.0 x 45.7 cm)
Signed lower right: Ernie Barnes

PROVENANCE:
Private collection, Pacific Palisades, California, acquired circa 1985.

LITERATURE:
A. Haley, Ernie Barnes/Artist, West Hollywood, California, 1979, p. 16, illustrated.

The Comedian stands as a compelling example of Ernie Barnes's expressive visual language-marked by elongated anatomy, rhythmic linework, and emotionally saturated figuration-all hallmarks of what the artist termed his "neo-mannerist" style. Born in 1938 in segregated Durham, North Carolina, Barnes was denied access to formal art institutions due to Jim Crow laws. Instead, he cultivated a self-directed education through books, exhibition catalogues, and observation until enrolling at North Carolina College in 1956, where he majored in art. While he achieved early national visibility as a professional football player, Barnes consistently insisted that he was, first and foremost, a painter. His career would come to bridge sport, performance, and popular culture, offering a visual record of Black life rendered with grace, complexity, and pathos.

In The Comedian, Barnes shifts his focus to the solitary world of performance, portraying a lone figure onstage with one hand tucked in his pocket and the other delicately holding a cigarette. The performer's elongated limbs, sloping shoulders, and lowered head-partially obscured by a wide-brimmed hat-convey a quiet vulnerability that contrasts with the traditional bravado associated with comedy. Littered debris-crumpled paper, discarded cups, broken bottles-replaces the adulation of applause, signaling rejection or emotional aftermath. The deep, warm palette, punctuated by dramatic shadows, further isolates the figure, casting him not just in the spotlight but in introspection.

This painting is not simply about performance, but about its costs: the act of standing alone, vulnerable before an unseen crowd, particularly for Black entertainers negotiating white-dominated cultural arenas. Within this framework, the comedian becomes a proxy for the artist himself-both performer and observer, tasked with exposing truth through gesture, timing, and vulnerability. Barnes, who spent time within Hollywood's elite circles in the 1970s, no doubt drew from personal encounters with the paradoxes of visibility-where applause can be both affirmation and erasure.

This composition recalls an earlier 1976 painting Barnes created as a gift for television producer Norman Lear, which featured a similar stage setting and pose but served as a personal portrait. In contrast, the present work, with its anonymous central figure, expands the emotional register and situates the comedian as a more universal archetype: the artist as truth-teller, entertainer, and cultural conduit.

Notably, the painting is housed in one of Barnes's signature artist-made frames, constructed from distressed wood salvaged from the picket fence of his childhood home-a personal tribute to his father and a grounding motif in his later practice. This intimate gesture underscores the artist's continual effort to bridge the deeply personal with the broadly symbolic.

With works featured on the album covers of Marvin Gaye and B.B. King, and a legacy that bridges fine art and popular culture, Barnes's impact spans sport, performance, and the Black American experience. The Comedian stands at this intersection, offering a rich, reflective meditation on identity, vulnerability, and the performative demands placed on those who dare to take the stage.

The Comedian is included in the forthcoming Ernie Barnes catalogue raisonné. We thank Luz Rodriguez for her assistance cataloguing this work.




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