Exhibit in honor of late renowned painter opens at NCCU Museum of Art

By Neil Offen

noffen@herald-sun.com; 419-6646

DURHAM -- It was homecoming for Ernie Barnes, too.

The native son who became a prominent professional football player and a renowned artist before his death last April returned to his hometown and his alma mater Friday as the N.C. Central University Museum of Art opened an exhibition in his honor.

The centerpiece of the university's homecoming weekend during a yearlong celebration of the school's centennial, the exhibit features nearly three dozen works, including some recently bequeathed to NCCU by the Barnes family.

"We are here today to salute Ernie Barnes," Kenneth Rodgers, director of the museum, told an audience at the opening that included the artist's family members, other donors, friends and others who had gathered for the occasion. "He was an original pioneering artist who was copied by legions of artists everywhere. He gave the nation an honest portrayal of the African-American experience."

David Hartman, the former anchor for the television program "Good Morning, America," recalled how he had been mesmerized by a Barnes painting way back in the 1960s. The painting shows a young man with an impossibly long arm soaring to score on a peach basket goal.

A version of that work, "Aspiration 1," Hartman said, has been "front and center in my main room wherever I have lived for the last 40 years."

That painting, like all of Barnes' work and his life, Hartman said, "teaches us about life. It shows us that wherever we start from, we can grow. Ernie celebrated humanity, and his paintings take you by the hand to a different place."

After short remarks from other university officials, including Chancellor Charlie Nelms, and Barnes' daughter, Deidre, the crowd made its way into the Carol Grotnes Belk Gallery, where the works were displayed. Many in the crowd headed almost immediately to Barnes' painting "Homecoming," the seventh work on the left.

It's a joyous, kinetic rendering of an NCCU parade, led by an incredibly supple drum major, head tossed way back, arm thrust into the air. Signs in the background clearly point to Durham as the location of the parade and the painting.

Melvin Carver, chairman of the NCCU art department, who called Barnes "perhaps the pre-eminent figurative artist of his generation," had earlier noted the importance of home to Barnes.

"I believe Ernie felt at home here," he said.