CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 2/19/2023

Black artist as superhero: Barkley L. Hendricks in 'Soul of a Nation'

Barkley L. Hendricks’ riveting 1969 self-portrait—titled Icon for My Man Superman (Superman Never Saved any Black People—Bobby Seale)—is reproduced from Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, a book that we are proud to have published, and kept in print through many editions, since it came out alongside the groundbreaking TATE exhibition in 2017. “The work’s subtitle invites a declarative statement of solidarity with the Black Panther co-founder Bobby Seale,” co-curator Zoé Whitley writes. “But Hendricks makes evident another position: here we find the Black artist as superhero, painting himself into history rather than waiting for someone else to confer the honor upon him.” A staff pick for Black History Month and beyond.