Ernie Barnes (American, 1938-2009). Hold the Pocket, 1982. Acrylic on canvas. 36 x 60 inches (91.4 x 152.4 cm). Signed l...

Description

Ernie Barnes (American, 1938-2009)
Hold the Pocket, 1982
Acrylic on canvas
36 x 60 inches (91.4 x 152.4 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, 1983.

Ernest "Ernie" Barnes, Jr. was a singular figure in American art and culture-a professional NFL player turned painter whose work uniquely bridged athleticism and aesthetics. Born in segregated Durham, North Carolina, Barnes was drawn to art from an early age, inspired by Delacroix, Michelangelo, and Toulouse-Lautrec. Rarely without a sketchbook, he sketched in classrooms and on the sidelines, his early creative instincts developing alongside his physical discipline on the football field. Athletic prowess became his gateway: he earned a scholarship to North Carolina College at Durham (now NCCU) in 1956, where he majored in art and studied under Ed Wilson, who encouraged him to merge his identities as athlete and artist.

Barnes was drafted into the NFL by the Baltimore Colts in 1960 and went on to play for the San Diego Chargers and Denver Broncos. During his professional career-culminating in 1965-he continued to draw, often sketching his teammates in the locker room, documenting the fluid power and tension of the athlete's body. His teammates nicknamed him "Big Rembrandt," and in a testament to his dual mastery, Barnes was later appointed the NFL's official painter.

Far from viewing his athletic career as separate from his artistic one, Barnes saw sport as central to his practice. "Being an athlete helped me to formulate an analysis of movement," he explained, "and movement is what I wanted to capture on canvas more than anything else; I can't stand a static canvas." (Ernie Barnes: This is My Art, YouTube, July 28, 2011).

His work, which he termed "neo-mannerist," is defined by elongated forms and dynamic compositions that emphasize rhythm, physicality, and emotional intensity. In Hold the Pocket, Barnes invites the viewer into the frenzied immediacy of the gridiron. Bodies clash and entwine in an almost sculptural knot, their limbs indistinguishable, their expressions taut with effort. The players' uniforms shift from modern jerseys to classical drapery, and the columns rising in the background lend the painting the gravitas of a Roman arena. In likening football players to gladiators, Barnes underscores both the spectacle and sacrifice embedded in American sport.

The figures' exaggerated proportions reflect not only physical strain but emotional resonance. Barnes's interest was never in static realism, but in the lived experience of the body in motion-whether on a football field, a dance floor, or in the streets of his native Durham. His canvases convey more than action; they capture atmosphere, soul, and struggle. In Hold the Pocket, Barnes collapses the divide between artist and athlete, participant and observer, offering a vision of Black athleticism as heroic, beautiful, and unflinchingly honest.

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


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