A couple of Sundays ago, I spent the afternoon being surrounded by engaging art at the Studio Museum in Harlem. The admission was complimentary courtesy of Target®.
The current exhibit is a retrospective of the art of Barkley Hendricks called The Birth of the Cool. The collection is a series of life size portraits of people of color during the 1960s and 1970s.
One of the pieces that appears prominently on the second level of the gallery features African singer Fela Kuti surrounded by 27 pairs of high heeled shoes that represent his multiple wives or queens.
What makes the work of Hendricks so compelling is that the personality of each subject was captured on canvas so well. There is nothing particularly extraordinary about any of the subjects, besides the fact that their body language and facial expressions tell you who they are. What they all have in common is the expression of the black power movement and they ooze the catch phrase of the period, “black is beautiful.” From Sweet Thang, who casually leans back on a sofa while blowing perfect pink bubbles to Fela, who simultaneously grips his manhood and cigarette with one hand, while holding a mike to his mouth with the other, Hendrick’s paintings appear to be more than one dimensional representations. They have multidimensional layers that even a layperson could pick up on; From the phallic references in Fela to the complex dynamics that make up the sister named Vendetta, each subject has a personal story to tell.
The exhibit runs through March of next year.
In addition to the Barkley exhibit, the museum also has a more abstract and interpretive piece by Shenique Smith in the sub-level gallery. Also on the sub-level is an exhibit called Collection in Context that spans the four decades that the museum has been in existence.
The Studio Museum has also embraced technology and offers multimedia exhibits called Studio Sound and Video Studio. Their continuing series of Harlem Postcards can be viewed in the gallery located in the entrance of the museum.
Each Sunday the museum offers a workshop and a movie screening to round out the cultural experience. This past weekend the movie was a tribute to Aimé Césaire by director Euzhan Palcy.
The week I attended the film being show was the Harlem classic “The Wiz” starring Diana Ross, Micheal Jackson and Nipsey Russell. Before Diana’s character was swept off into the land of Oz by a whiteout blizzard, she tells her worried Aunt Em, “I can’t see how goin’ south of 125th Street ever made anybody’s life better.” After spending an afternoon in the museum I might be partial to agree with Dorothy.
I highly recommend taking advantage of the free Sundays. If time allowed, I would go each and every Sunday. Below are pictures of the fabric workshop that was being offered the Sunday I went to the museum. As you can see, there were patrons of all races, ages, and sizes displaying their creativity.
Get Togetha
December 15, 2008
Those Black is beautiful cups would make an excellent gift…being that Barack has been elected president and all.