Barkley L. Hendricks, a towering artist best known for his celebratory, uncompromising oil portraits of Black people from urban places, passed away early this morning. His death was sudden but due to natural causes. He was 72 years old.
Born in Philadelphia in 1945, Hendricks received a certificate from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and a BFA and MFA from Yale University. He studied photography before delving into painting — in a recent Tate video video, he called his camera “my mechanical sketchbook” — and over the course of his decades-long career worked in fashion as well. The last is what often drew him to his subjects, whose clothes are typically as evocative as their expressions and poses. Hendricks began painting portraits of everyday people — friends, acquaintances, and individuals he met on the street — in the 1960s and ’70s, earning acclaim for a style that was both nuanced
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“Photo Bloke” (2016) | Barkley L. Hendricks
“Sweet Thang (Lynn Jenkins)” (1975–76) | Barkley L. Hendricks
“Lawdy Mama” (1969) | Barkley L. Hendricks
October’s Gone… Goodnight | Barkley L. Hendricks
Blues For Smoke | Barkley L. Hendricks
“Slick (Self-Portrait)” (1977) | Barkley L. Hendricks
The play won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play involves the plight of women in the civil war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo.
Ruined was commissioned by the Goodman Theatre (Chicago, Illinois) and is a co-production with the Manhattan Theatre Club. Nottage and director Kate Whoriskey traveled to Uganda to interview women as background for the play, which first was performed in 2007 in the Goodman Theatre New Stages Series. The play premiered on November 8, 2008 at the Goodman Theatre and ran through December 14.
The play opened Off-Broadway at the Manhattan Theatre Club, New York City Center – Stage I in previews on January 21, 2009, and officially on February 10, 2009. The production closed on September 6, 2009 after receiving nine extensions. (Wikipedia)
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