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Sir Charles, Alias Willie Harris
Barkley Hendricks (born 1945)
Oil on canvas, 1972

Enlarged image

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; William C. Whitney Foundation


Sir Charles, Alias Willie Harris
Barkley Hendricks (born 1945)
Oil on canvas, 1972

By the 1970s, practicing artists had a long tradition of portraiture that they could refer to, build on, amplify, and reshape to their own purposes. Sir Charles, Alias Willie Harris is a triptych view—like someone standing before a dressing room mirror—of a young black man, Willie Harris, who is styling in his spectators and loosely draped overcoat. It is an African American assertion of presence and individuality through fashion. Yet artist Barkley Hendricks, who was educated in art at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and Yale, takes the coat from a red cloak that he had seen in a portrait by Anthony van Dyck. Combining tradition with the “now,” Hendricks makes the witty point that artists find their inspiration in and among the society and people in which they live.



Enlarged image

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; William C. Whitney Foundation