NOT GETTING HASSLED:

At the California African American Museum's retrospective dedicated to late artist and former NFL player Ernie Barnes, "The Sugar Shack" is an undeniable star.

Visitors often form a line around the painting, said the show's curator, Bridget R. Cooks, associate professor in the departments of African American studies and art history at UC Irvine. They all wait for their moment with Barnes' work, a piece that entered pop-culture consciousness after appearing on the 1970s sitcom "Good Times" and as the cover art to Marvin Gaye's 1976 album, "I Want You."

"The Sugar Shack" transports viewers to a jubilant black club. Vibrant, dancing partygoers and musicians fill the 3-by-4-foot canvas. Most have their eyes closed, a signature in nearly all of Barnes' paintings, referring to his oft-stated belief that "we are blind to each other's humanity."

As a neo-mannerist who referenced the late Renaissance period of Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael, Barnes painted the figures in "The Sugar Shack" as exaggerated and elongated forms, one man's arms joyously nearly reaching the top of the canvas, another woman's curvy legs stretching halfway across the dance floor. Barnes' expressive style helps viewers identify with the rhythm and sensuality of the painting, Cooks said. [...]

After being drafted by the Baltimore Colts in 1959, Barnes played professional football for teams including the Denver Broncos and San Diego Chargers until 1965, before pursuing his passion for art.

In the early 1970s, Barnes settled in L.A.'s Fairfax district. He became interested in Jewish culture and was impressed with how much the community knew of its history, Cooks said. "And he really wished that black people had the same type of cultural education." Inspired by the "Black Is Beautiful" movement, he premiered his exhibition "The Beauty of the Ghetto," 35 paintings depicting everyday scenes from black life, in 1972.

His work during the time, including "The Sugar Shack," was about "showing blackness as beautiful and even exaggerating form," Cooks said. "It's not about trying to hide the curves of your body or the facial features that you have. It's about showing them, even exaggerating them and making it not even just OK but something to really be celebrated."

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