Barkley Hendricks' "Birth of the Cool" exhibit opens at PAFA

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Barkley Hendricks' "Birth of the Cool" exhibit opens at PAFA

POSTED: Monday, October 19, 2009, 3:44 PM

Filed Under: Arts | Philly Artists Visual Art

Barkley Hendricks

Vendetta, 1977. Oil, acrylic and magna on linen canvas, 36 x 48 inches

No exaggeration: Barkley Hendricks, a 64-year-old originally from North Philly, is one of the most talented artists to come out of this city. Though he's worked in many mediums ' photography, landscape painting and jazz, and even plays a bit of basketball, he's eager to tell me ' Hendricks is best known for his lifesize portraits of black people from the '60s, '70s and '80s. Working at a time when abstraction was in vogue and photorealism was largely out, he was an outsider both because of the medium he chose and the community he depicted. And, too, the way he depicted them ' hyper stylish, confident, sometimes aggressive, sometimes cool as can be, always self-aware and introspective. I spoke with Hendricks, who now lives in Connecticut and works as a professor of art at Connecticut College, about his exhibit up at his alma mater, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (118-128 N. Broad St., 215-972-7600) through Jan. 3.

City Paper: How many of your portraits were of Philadelphians?

Barkley Hendricks: Some were from Philly, some were from New Hampshire, London, North Africa, Paris. I got some of them from people posing for me, some from photographs and a few were completely out of my head. There's a piece I did called Victory at 23, from a visit abroad, based on a little girl ' 8 or 9 years old, who was wonderfully shy and outgoing. You might ask, "How could she be shy and outgoing?" But she was. So I had her in mind, and imagined her at 23 for Victory at 23, so that was almost completely out of my head. I also did a piece called The Twins, which was actually just one person.

CP: A lot of your subjects are pretty damn fashionable. Do you follow fashion, or does it interest you for other reasons?

BH: I like to think that I'm a fashionable guy. I grew up in a period when style and fashion and the way you expressed yourself was a major concern. One would say that you were "ragged" if you were fashionable. Do you have a pair of Chuck Taylors?

CP: Yeah, of course.

BH: Back in the day, women didn't wear Chuck Taylors. It was a male-dominated shoe.

CP: What I want to know is how Chuck Taylors were a basketball player-dominated shoe. Seems painful.

BH: I worked at the Philadelphia Department of Recreation, and there was a kid who could really play ball but had some run-down sneaks. People would play humiliation b-ball ' trashing talking, get inside your head ' and they'd get on him for his shoes and his clothes. Philly was a tough city, still is.

CP: You've been working on landscapes lately. In the show, your recent work is portrayed as mostly landscapes ' have you drifted from portraiture?

BH: I love nature, I love being in nature. I used to spend summers in the South with my family, and it was such a nice break from the city streets ' the food, relatives, warmth. And now I love going to Jamaica ' been going back and forth for 23 years now. So it's not a transition that I'm doing landscapes; I've always loved them. There are many other sides of my creative process that are less known, but that I'm drawn to with the same intensity as I am the portraits.

CP: Does that mean you're still working on portraits?

BH: Yes, I'm currently doing some portraits that are like the ones with silver and gold leaf that I did; now I'm using copper, aluminum leaf. They're in an early stage right now. Once I re-group in terms of certain health issues, I'll be working on them more.

CP: You said that there are mediums and things you do that people are less familiar with. Can you elaborate?

BH: I do a lot of photography. Even in college, I hung out with the photographers more than I did with the painters. I was one of the only figurative painters, so the photographers' work was closer to mine in a way. I've done work with jazz musicians, taken pictures of them backstage. I've also played all sorts of instruments ' trumpet, sax, piano, trombone. I play b-ball here and there. I like to rollerblade. I'm a professor.

CP: Can you tell me a little about your teaching methods?

BH: Well, I had a nude model come in for an art class recently, and the first week she was totally nude. The second week, I gave her high heels to wear and a sword ' I wanted to channel that whole Xena thing. We didn't have action women back in the day. I mean, there was Wonder Woman, but this generation has it on a whole different scale. I was tempted to put her in boxing gloves.

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