Ernie Barnes (American, 1938-2009). Playin' the Net, 1972. Oil on canvas. 18 x 36 inches (45.7 x 91.4 cm). Signed lower ...

Description

Ernie Barnes (American, 1938-2009)
Playin' the Net, 1972
Oil on canvas
18 x 36 inches (45.7 x 91.4 cm)
Signed lower right: Ernie Barnes

PROVENANCE:
The artist;
Dinah Shore, California;
By descent to the present owner, 1995.

Ernest Eugene Barnes Jr. grew up in a segregated neighborhood outside Durham, North Carolina during Jim Crow. His mother's employer, an attorney and local Board of Education member, introduced the young Barnes to art history and classical music. Familiar with the works of Old Masters such as Delacroix and Michelangelo by the first grade, Barnes could thoroughly critique paintings in major museums years before he would be allowed into them at the end of segregation. He chose to study art history at North Carolina College on a full athletic scholarship for football.

During his subsequent professional career (playing for the Baltimore Colts, New York Titans, San Diego Chargers, and Denver Broncos), Barnes often received penalties for sketching amid timeouts on the field. Barnes' style became widely recognized when he 'ghost-painted' the art by J.J. on the sitcom, 'Good Times,' and Marvin Gaye adopted Sugar Shack (1971) for the album cover of 'I Want You.' The artist's later accolades and commissions include official sports artist of the 1984 Olympic Games, America's Best Painter of Sports per the American Sport Art Museum & Archives, and the Los Angeles Lakers' signature championship image which honored the team's 10th NBA title win in a game against the Boston Celtics. His depiction of the Lakers in Fast Break (1987) features the starting five: Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, Kurt Rambis, and Michael Cooper charging down the court in a masterful, harmonized siege.

Barnes' distinct grasp on the reality of strenuous, striving athletic movement is palpable in Playin' the Net, the subject figures exhibiting his signature elongated limbs often stylistically described as Neo-Mannerist. The complimentary concave arcs into which the players' bodies are gracefully contorted emblematize the aesthetic motifs of balance and harmony characterizing Barne's best sports paintings. The appreciation of the elegance of human anatomy at its extreme limits is that of an elite athlete, and the hand to have composed the image is clearly that of an educated and technically sophisticated master painter. No wonder that Ernie Barnes was once described as the finest expressive sports painter since George Bellows, and the first professional American athlete to garner artistic acclaim.

When asked about how his experience as an athlete influenced his art, Barnes answered, "For me, they were both integrating experiences...I paid attention to how the body felt like in movement and my effort has been to translate that feeling onto paper or canvas." Playin' the Net exquisitely integrates these experiences, elucidating the appeal of Barnes' work to art-collecting professional athletes and sports-appreciating connoisseurs alike.

This work is from the collection of one of such connoisseurs. Although not a professional athlete herself, the actress & singer Dinah Shore was an avid fan of, among other sports, tennis. While often associated with the golf tournament formerly named after her, Shore clarified that her game of choice was in fact tennis in a 1994 interview with the LA times. Pictured here is Shore on the court at the 1971 Dinah Shore Invitational Classic in Fort Lauderdale as well as the actress alongside Ernie Barnes in 1972.

Playin' the Net is included in the forthcoming Ernie Barnes Catalogue Raisonné. We thank Luz Rodriguez for her assistance with this work.




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