CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 6/13/2021

The little-known photographs of Barkley L. Hendricks

“Untitled” (1974) is reproduced from Barkley L. Hendricks: Photography, the highly-anticipated new release from Skira. Whether used as source material for Barkley’s iconic figurative paintings or produced as discreet artworks in and of themselves—Hendricks studied with Walker Evans at Yale—the 50 color photographs gathered here comprise a key, but until now, little-known aspect of the artist’s oeuvre. In both his paintings and his photographs, Hendricks involved his subjects in a riveting performance. Yet, "taking a photograph was just as much a performance on his part," Anna Arabindan-Kesson writes, "a stage on which he could reveal his own artistry. Diminutive actions, slight gestures, fine angles and unconscious expressions, these were the notations with which Barkley L. Hendricks worked.”

Image © Estate of Barkley L. Hendricks. Courtesy of the artist’s estate and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.