Barkley L. Hendricks: Birth of the Cool

Amazing artist, amazing book. This guy was an original. Kehinde draws a straight line back to Hendricks. I first saw his work in person before I’d ever heard of him and was blown away. I’m so happy to have this book of his work on my shelf. I would LOVE to see his work exhibited more and would love to see more books on Barkley Hendricks on my shelf.

I saw this show when it was up at the Nasher Museum at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. I was taking a group of art history students to the Nasher and had never heard of Barkley Hendricks. I was completely blown away. I am a figure painter, borrowing a lot of techniques from the Renaissance painters, and so his work really resonated with me. I literally spent an hour and a half looking at the entire show. I read every single description and stared at each painting, taking it all in. Of course I didn't have the money to purchase the book when the show was up almost two years ago and have been dying to have it since. I finally got it for Christmas and am reading through the essays now. The color images in the book are beautiful and the essays are very interesting and informative. I recommend this book to any artist or art historian, but especially to those who love figure painting, modern application of classical technique and work relating to minority culture. (The subject matter is mostly African-American, but there are some Hispanics represented in the work, as well.)

Just so you know, this is not a hardcover edition. I would have possibly been ok with that, but mine arrived a bit beat up because it was shipped in a thin envelope with no padding. Nice looking book, but disappointing that it was not as advertised.