No Tours

Artist Ernie Barnes Jr. (1938 - 2009)

Date1980s

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions29 x 39 in. (73.7 x 99.1 cm)

ClassificationsPainting

Credit LineGift of the Hilbert Collection

Object number2018.035

DescriptionIn May 2022, a painting by Ernie Barnes Jr., “The Sugar Shack,” was sold by Christie’s auction house for $15.3 million, smashing all previous records for the artist. The famous painting had appeared on the hit TV series Good Times and as the cover of a Marvin Gaye album.

Ernie Barnes Jr. was a gifted neo-mannerist painter best-known for his paintings of people with elongated limbs and torsos caught at the height of bold motion. Born during the Jim Crow era in North Carolina, Barnes grew up sketching scenes of his own Black community while attending segregated schools.

After attending North Carolina College on a full athletic scholarship, he was drafted by the Baltimore Colts in 1959, in the 10th round – after being rejected by Washington in the 8th round when they found out he was Black. He then played for the San Diego Chargers and Denver Broncos before closing out his pro football career with the Canadian Football League.

Throughout his football career and after, Barnes continued drawing and painting. His paintings of athletes are perhaps his best-known works. He was named official sports artist of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, and was recognized in 2004 as "America's Best Painter of Sports" by the American Sport Art Museum and Archives.

But Barnes also pictured, with eloquence and humor, the everyday scene -- such as this painting showing a variety of stories happening backstage at a motion-picture shoot in Hollywood. Barnes was no stranger to Hollywood, having appeared on television in several roles, including bit parts on Good Times.

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