Florida State University’s Museum of Fine Arts is highlighting a set of 12 offset lithograph prints by American artist Ernie Barnes, donated by the late actor and former FSU football player Burt Reynolds. The museum and the Department of Art History are marking what would have been Reynolds’ 90th birthday with a special focus on these works.
Kaylee Spencer, director of the Museum of Fine Arts, said, “By contributing this portfolio of lithographs to MoFA, Reynolds made a lasting impact on FSU and the Tallahassee community. We’re honored to have these prints as part of our collection. They serve as vital examples of Barnes’ work and 20th-century American art for generations to come.”
Reynolds, known as “Buddy” during his time at FSU, was recognized for his contributions not only to athletics but also to the arts at the university. In addition to donating the Barnes prints, he gave $600,000 to establish the first named chair position in the FSU School of Theatre. He frequently returned to campus as a guest lecturer for film and theater students and attended various performances.
Mora J. Beauchamp-Byrd, associate professor and director of the Museum and Cultural Heritage Studies Program in FSU’s Department of Art History, recently viewed the Barnes prints currently displayed at the College of Fine Arts Dean’s Office at the Facility for Arts Research. She noted that while these works reflect imagery from the Black Arts Movement of the 1970s, they also reference other global art movements across centuries.
“In Barnes’ work, you can see influence from the Mannerists of the 16th century through 19th-century French realism, through American social realism of the 1930s and the Black Arts Movement of the ‘60s and ‘70s,” Beauchamp-Byrd said. “As an art historian, I am intrigued by these art historical references in his work, and we are so excited about Barnes’s inclusion in MoFA’s collection here at FSU.”
Beauchamp-Byrd compared Barnes’s print “The Runner” with Jean-Francois Millet’s painting “The Sower,” pointing out similarities in composition such as earthy colors and elongated figures. She explained: “I see compositional similarities in the landscape, with the earthy colors and a lone, isolated, elongated figure, rendered in a really graceful way. Whereas Millet’s earlier, Realist painting is a celebration of the laborer, here, in Barnes’s Neo-Mannerist print, there is a celebration of the athlete, participating in a different kind of labor. He’s highlighting the work ethic that goes into this type of labor as well.”
Barnes was originally from Durham, North Carolina. Before becoming an artist known for his depictions related to sports and African American life, he played five seasons in the American Football League (AFL) for teams such as the Denver Broncos and San Diego Chargers. In 1965 he was named official artist for the AFL and later became known as “Sports Artist of the 1984 Olympic Games.”
Barnes gained recognition among pop culture fans when his painting “The Sugar Shack” appeared during opening and closing credits on “Good Times,” a sitcom from the 1970s. His artwork has also featured on album covers by musicians including Marvin Gaye (“I Want You”), Curtis Mayfield (“Something to Believe In”), and B.B. King (“Making Love is Good for You”).
Beauchamp-Byrd described how Barnes’ works document an important period after America’s civil rights movement: “It was so important to artists like Barnes to depict the kind of everyday experiences of life — rural as well as urban scenes, African American achievement including educational success; those intensely-emotive celebratory moments where figures are entranced in expressive rhythmic movement,” she said. “All of these aspects make his work truly distinctive; they speak so eloquently about this time and place in 1970s America.”
For more information about Ernie Barnes or details about exhibitions at Florida State University’s Museum of Fine Arts visit ErnieBarnes.com or mofa.fsu.edu.
