Barkley L. Hendricks: Solid!,Used

The longawaited monograph on Barkley L. Hendricks powerful portraits of contemporary Black subjectsBarkley L. Hendricks is rightly known as one of the foremost American painters of the late 20th century. His sixdecade artistic oeuvre encompasses not only portraits but also includes evocative landscapes, hardedged geometric abstractions, lush watercolors on paper and singular photographs informed by his studies with Walker Evans. This final publication of a fivevolume set dedicated to the artist is a 300page monograph that captures his full evolution as a portraitist.Solid! is a compilation of Hendricks acclaimed figurative paintings: largescale canvases of distinctively dressed (or undressed) individuals, including several selfportraits, against solidcolor backgrounds. Critical essays from curators and fellow artists provide further, often personal, insight into all aspects of Hendricks practice: probing his photographic experimentation as a forbear to contemporary street photography; celebrating his sensitivity as a colorist whose unique expertise seamlessly combines oilbased and waterbased pigments; and highlighting the observational genuineness in his provocative and personal interpretations of women, of unapologetically visible queer identities and of his own beloved Black communities across the African Diaspora. The book closes with a conversation between Trevor Schoonmaker and Barkleys widow, Susan Hendricks, in which she recounts their trips to Jamaica and Barkleys process for creating landscape and fruit paintings outdoors.Barkley L. Hendricks (19452017) was born in Philadelphia and trained at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and Yale. His lifesize paintings of everyday Black Americans have inspired generations of artists. Hendricks gave up painting in favor of photography, but returned to oil portraits later in life. He taught at Connecticut College from 1972 until 2010.