This lecture was presented on October 19, 2016, for the Society for Contemporary Art (SCA). Since the 1960s, Barkley L. Hendricks has explored issues of race, gender, and identity through bold, life-sized portraits, primarily of African Americans. He elevates images of his neighbors, family, friends, and acquaintances into an empowered iconic status by emphasizing their unique style, attitude, and individuality. His early portraits are often associated with cultural upheaval in the 60s and 70s, but Hendricks explains, “My paintings were about people that were part of my life. If they were political, it’s because they were a reflection of the culture we were drowning in.” His cool, empowering, and sometimes confrontational representations are painted with an uncanny acuity and sophisticated technical skill. Hendricks’s works are often credited as important precursors to identity-based work by a younger generation of artists. Hendricks was the subject of a large-scale traveling survey exhibition organized by the Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University, North Carolina, which traveled to the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; Santa Monica Museum of Art, California; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; and Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Texas. His work has been included in group exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Brooklyn Museum, New York; National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; MoMA PS1, Long Island City; and Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, among others.

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