Ernie Barnes - 20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale, Morning Session New York Wednesday, November 15, 2023 | Phillips

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  • Ernie Barnes’ The Vanishing Breed, 1972, presents a jumble of bodies—helmets, muscles and limbs—intertwined and struggling to get hold of the football, hidden in shadow in the center of the composition. Set against a foreboding sky in the background, the present work highlights the drama for which the artist is well-known, recalling the work of Old Masters like Michelangelo and Peter Paul Rubens, while translating it to a distinct 20th century moment. The largest work by the artist to come to auction to date, the five-foot-long painting celebrates the beauty of a routine game of football, elevating the quintessential symbol of America.

     

    “[They] told me to pay attention to what my body felt like in movement. Within that elongation, there's a feeling. And attitude and expression. I hate to think had I not played sports what my work would look like.”
    —Ernie Barnes

     

    Throughout his practice, Barnes celebrated the mundane: “he always painted everyday people; it’s a style of painting he became known for, and this became a relatable painting to African Americans.”i Growing up in the South during the Jim Crow era, Barnes was unable to visit art museums and had to educate himself through books on the works of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Eugène Delacroix and Peter Paul Rubens – all artists who only depicted European subjects and culture. First exposed to art illustrating Black figures in the drawings of Charles White, Barnes was inspired by White’s soft realism used to depict those of his own race, striving to create works which are accessible to everyone and celebratory of African American culture.

     

    Charles White, Gideon, 1951. The Art Institute of Chicago. Image: The Art Institute of Chicago / Art Resource, NY, Artwork: © The Charles White Archives

    Playing football in high school and college and eventually going on to play professionally, Barnes retired from the National Football League in 1965 after five seasons. Through his time on NFL teams including the San Diego Chargers, Denver Broncos and the Baltimore Colts, Barnes became acquainted with the bones and musculature of the human body through sport, translating his understanding of anatomy into his paintings. This attention to detail in The Vanishing Breed allows for the painting to completely engulf the viewers, positioning them as if they are taking part in the brawl before them. The forward motion of the figure holding the football makes it seem as though the figures are charging towards us, and the clawed hand at the upper right seems to jump off the canvas. Indeed, Fourth and One essentially gives the viewer a jersey, asking them to take part in the action before them.

     

    A favored subject in the artist’s oeuvre, football is depicted in some of Barnes’ most famous artworks, including The Bench, 1959, housed in the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s collection, dedicated by his widow, Bernie, in 2014, on the occasion of the exhibition From Pads to Palette, Celebrating the Art of Ernie Barnes. Notably chosen for inclusion in his autobiography, From Pads to Palette, the present work is indicative of the artist's close connections to the sport, and further an example of the connections between artist and athlete of which Barnes is well known. Barnes was named the "Sports Artist of the 1984 Olympic Games" by the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee, creating five paintings for the games and continuing his connections to athletics, both on and off the football field.

     

    Ernie Barnes, The Bench, 1959. The Pro Football Hall of Fame. Artwork: © Ernie Barnes Family Trust

     

    “In the Black community, the athlete was respected as the finest embodiment of one’s African heritage. There were those convinced that the only way to heave was with a football or basketball.”
    —Ernie Barnes

     

    Using chiaroscuro to carefully illuminate his subjects in highlights and shadow, the exaggerated limbs reminiscent of Mannerist and Baroque styles are given a new life in The Vanishing Breed. Called "Big Rembrandt” by his teammates, Barnes self-described his style as “Neo-Mannerist,” characterized by elongated figures which “like Michelangelo’s, derive their power from portraying the convolutions of the soul through the contortions of movement.”ii Using this contortion to his advantage, the present work illustrates the competitive emotions of the footballers. Though obscuring their faces with helmets and hiding their eyes, as is typical of the artist’s subjects, the energy of the players is almost tactile. This psychophysical connection is reflective of Barnes’ similarities to the Old Master portrait painters, such as Rembrandt.  Favoring the depiction of human nature over abstraction, as was being created by his contemporaries, Barnes worked to recontextualize the art historical canon by including and celebrating Black figures, previously excluded from the narrative. 

     

    Rembrandt van Rijn, Allegory of the Sense of Smell (detail), circa 1624–1625. The Leiden Collection, New York

     

     

    i Bridget R. Cooks, quoted in ”Ernie Barnes: the overlooked legacy of the athlete turned celebrity artist,” The Guardian, June 27, 2019, online.

    iiJoan D’Arcy, quoted in From Pads to Palette, Waco, 1995, p. 5.

    • Provenance

      Heritage Gallery, Los Angeles
      Private Collection
      Sotheby's Private Sales, New York
      Acquired from the above by the present owner

    • Literature

      Ernie Barnes, From Pads to Palette, Waco, 1995, p. 79 (illustrated; erroneously titled as Fourth and One)

Property from a Prestigious Hamptons Collection

125

The Vanishing Breed

signed "ERNIE BARNES" lower right
oil on canvas
48 x 60 in. (121.9 x 152.4 cm)
Painted in 1972.

The Vanishing Breed is included in the forthcoming Ernie Barnes Catalogue Raisonné. We thank Luz Rodriguez for her assistance in cataloguing this work.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$350,000 - 500,000 

Sold for $406,400

Contact Specialist

Annie Dolan
Specialist, Head of Sale, Morning Session
+1 212 940 1288
adolan@phillips.com

20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale, Morning Session

New York Auction 15 November 2023