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Lot Essay
Ernie Barnes powerfully articulates his recollection of quotidian Black American life in his painting, The Hall, a significant exemplar of his famed series depicting pool halls. Painted in an expressive neo-Mannerist style, Barnes’ lithe, energetic figures appear frozen in motion, centered around the illuminated pool table and oriented mostly with their backs to the viewer. Those whose faces he reveals have their eyes closed; Barnes recollects that “I tend to paint everyone, most everyone, with their eyes closed because I feel that we are blind to one another’s humanity so if we could see the gifts, strengths, and potentials within every human being, then our eyes would open” (E. Barnes, quoted in “The Art of Ernie Barnes,” CNN, November, 1990).
The Hall is an autobiographical scene vividly brought to life by Barnes’ minute touches of realism—the crumpled papers on the floor, the recumbent hound, the stained and cracked floors and walls, the roll of toilet paper escaping toilet paper, and especially the haphazardly affixed posters. One just to the left of the bathroom advertises a home football game for Hillside High—the high school team which Barnes captained until his graduation in 1956—which was not desegregated until 1970. Segregation prevented him from attending nearby Duke University or the University of North Carolina, but he received a full athletic scholarship to all-Black North Carolina College at Durham, where he majored in art. Barnes then played professional football for six years before devoting the remainder of his life to his artistic practice. With The Hall, Barnes portrays a subtle yet potent view into the dignified daily life of Black Americans at a critical point of American history.
The Hall is an autobiographical scene vividly brought to life by Barnes’ minute touches of realism—the crumpled papers on the floor, the recumbent hound, the stained and cracked floors and walls, the roll of toilet paper escaping toilet paper, and especially the haphazardly affixed posters. One just to the left of the bathroom advertises a home football game for Hillside High—the high school team which Barnes captained until his graduation in 1956—which was not desegregated until 1970. Segregation prevented him from attending nearby Duke University or the University of North Carolina, but he received a full athletic scholarship to all-Black North Carolina College at Durham, where he majored in art. Barnes then played professional football for six years before devoting the remainder of his life to his artistic practice. With The Hall, Barnes portrays a subtle yet potent view into the dignified daily life of Black Americans at a critical point of American history.