Barkley Hendricks is an artist known for expressing his style through portraits with post-modern, contemporary and realism in mind. I am a lifelong fan of all forms of art and possess a special place for African - American visual art/artist. I actually took Visual Art classes from 8th grade until graduating undergrad at Duke University academically(09'). Duke University can actually take credit for me discovering Barkley Hendricks and to be more specific the Nasher Museum of Art on campus.

Around 2008 I was academically learning of the history of dance, the history of jazz and partaking in visual art courses. I picked up the school paper and as always would pick a random event to check out. At this time my love for Miles Davis and John Coltrane's creativity/person was at its peak. I almost could say the word "cool" was synonymous with Miles and the phrase "Birth of Cool" is very much related to the namesake of my blog "1959". Birth of the Cool is a compilation album by American jazz musician Miles Davis, released in 1957 on Capitol Records. This era in creation inspired my blog title (Check out my first blog post to get deeper into that).

I never heard of Barkley Hendrick's before this exhibit, but his art was already a part of me from first sight. I am pretty sure I stared at the first piece for at least 15 minutes checking out the detail and "cool" exuded.

Below is a slideshow of some of his works that transform your everyday person into a celebrity :

“His bold portrayal of his subject’s attitude and style elevates the common person to celebrity status. Cool, empowering, and sometimes confrontational, Hendricks’ artistic privileging of a culturally complex black body has paved the way for today’s younger generation of artists.”

— Jack Shainman Gallery