- Hasty Tasty
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Barkley
L. Hendricks is best known for his life-size portraits of family members,
lovers, and friends, as well as strangers met through chance encounters. He
typically chooses to focus on subjects who have been marginalized in American
painting, empowering them through his admiring gaze.
Hendricks encountered this couple on a street in his native Philadelphia; even as the Gay Liberation movement gained ground in the 1970s, the casual embrace of the two figures would have been an outright political gesture, one further complicated by racial difference. Hendricks recalled, “They looked like such a happy couple. So I asked if they would pose for me and they said yeah. I named it after the shirt, Hasty Tasty."
Provenance[Jack Shainman Gallery, New York]; purchased by Michael Zilkha; given to MFAH, 2015.
Exhibition HistoryACA Galleries, New York, 1977–2008. (Various group and solo shows).
"The Southern New England Invitational Art Exhibition 1978," Fairfield University, Connecticut, 1978.
"Barkley L. Hendricks Presents Barkley L. Hendricks, 1967-1987," Housatonic Museum of Art, Bridgeport, Connecticut, January 25–February 26, 1988.
"The Barkley L. Hendricks Experience," Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London, Connecticut, April 13–June 17, 2001.
"Shared Intelligence: American Painting and the Photograph," Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio, February 4–April 24, 2011; Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico, May 20–September 11, 2011.
"Statements: African American Art from the Museum's Collection," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, January 24–April 24, 2016.
"Art After Stonewall, 1969-1989," Grey Art Gallery, New York University, New York, April 19–July 21, 2019; The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, Miami, September 14, 2019–January 6, 2020; Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio, March 5–October 4, 2020.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Verso, attached to stretcher bar, printed label: ARTIST: BARKLEY L. HENDRICKS / TITLE: HASTY TASTY [handwritten] / MEDIUM: Oil and Acrylic on Linen Canvas [handwritten] / YEAR EXECUTED: 1977 [handwritten] / DIMENSIONS, HEIGHT X WIDTH: 72 x 48 inches [handwritten] / CATALOGUE # (for use by LWT only)
Cataloguing data may change with further research.
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