Ernie Barnes (American, 1938-2009). Opening Ceremonies, 1984. Acrylic on canvas. 36 x 24 inches (91.4 x 61.0 cm). Signed...

Description

Ernie Barnes (American, 1938-2009)
Opening Ceremonies, 1984
Acrylic on canvas
36 x 24 inches (91.4 x 61.0 cm)
Signed lower right: Ernie Barnes

Masterworks of Sport and Spirit: Property from the Collection of John W. Mecom Jr.

PROVENANCE:
The artist;
Acquired by the present owner from the above, 1984.

Ernest "Ernie" Barnes, Jr. was born in 1938 into a deeply divided America. As a young Black man raised in the Jim Crow South, Barnes witnessed firsthand the dehumanizing effects of segregation and racism-experiences that shaped both his worldview and his artistic voice. In his autobiography, Pads to Palettes (1995), Barnes reflects on how mainstream culture reduced the Black experience to caricature and stereotype, a shallow rendering that denied its emotional complexity and richness. His art would become a profound rebuttal: a celebration of Black life not through protest or confrontation, but through exuberance, dignity, and humanity.

Barnes' signature style-elongated figures animated with fluid motion and emotional charge-captured the rhythms of everyday life in Black America with grace and vitality. His canvases are alive with movement: children playing in neighborhood lots, dancers losing themselves to music, bands marching, athletes in motion, and families at home. Each painting is a tapestry of lived experience, a kaleidoscope of joy, struggle, ritual, and community. Barnes was not painting what others saw of Black America-he painted what it felt like from within.

His selection as the official artist for the 1984 Summer Olympics by the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce was not just a professional triumph but a resonant symbol of cultural recognition. Barnes approached the commission not simply as a celebration of athleticism, but as a meditation on unity-the ideal that undergirds the Olympic Games. "My aim is to refresh the heart," he told The New York Times. "To put people in touch with themselves... I look at every individual with the hope of finding their basic dignity, humor, kindness, and humanity" (D.K. Shah, "Ernie Barnes: An Athletic Artist," New York Times, May 7, 1984, Section C, p.17).

That vision comes to life in Opening Ceremonies (1984), a triumphant panorama of communal elation. With near-Bruegelian density, Barnes renders a vibrant crowd bursting with energy and diversity-each figure engaged in their own moment of expression: flag-waving, cheering, embracing, conversing, marveling. The sheer abundance of detail-costumes, gestures, skin tones, flags-creates a sensory-rich spectacle that draws the viewer in not as an observer but as a participant. It is a masterclass in organized chaos, where every gesture contributes to a collective rhythm of anticipation and joy.

Above the sea of figures, national flags punctuate the composition with clarity, signifying the identities of individuals within the crowd-yet at the very top, the Olympic flag presides alone, symbolizing a shared ideal that transcends borders. In this way, Barnes fuses individual specificity with universal belonging, making Opening Ceremonies not just a depiction of an event, but a profound meditation on humanity united in celebration.

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


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