Human Interest: Portraits from the Whitney’s Collection

Apr 2, 2016–Apr 2, 2017

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Entry Gallery, Floor 7

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Selected works from the seventh-floor entry gallery appear in this section.

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STEVE, 1976

Barkley Hendricks, Steve, 1976. Acrylic and oil on linen, 72 x 48 in. (182.9 x 121.9 cm). Purchase and gift with funds from the Arthur M. Bullowa Bequest by exchange, the Jack E. Chachkes Endowed Purchase Fund, and the Wilfred P. and Rose J. Cohen Purchase Fund 2015.101

Barkley L. Hendricks began making full-size portraits of his friends and neighbors in the late 1960s. Stevedepicts a young man he met on the street. Sharply dressed and striking a pose at once commanding and detached, the figure emerges from a flat white ground. Steve is the first of several portraits in which Hendricks used what he has described as a “limited palette” to purposefully contrast with the complexity of an individual sitter’s personality. Within the reflection of Steve’s sunglasses the viewer can discern the stained glass windows of Hendricks’s studio and the artist’s face, making this work a double portrait.

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Maya Man, A Realistic Day In My Life Living In New York City

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