“The Sugar Shack,” the dance-hall painting manufactured famed for showing up in the credits of the 1970s sitcom “Good Times,” bought at auction Thursday for a history-breaking $15.2 million.
Ernie Barnes’ 1976 acrylic-on-canvas piece showing jubilant Black dancers in a club was also highlighted in the Evans’ family condominium all through the Television comedy’s fifth and sixth seasons and was made use of as the address of Marvin Gaye’s hit solitary “I Want You.” Other operates from the NFL star-turned-artist, who visitor starred on the display, had been often made use of in the collection and occasionally credited to J.J. Evans, the character famously performed by Jimmie Walker.
The iconic portray offered in New York for 76 situations its estimate of $150,000 to $200,000, according to intercontinental auction residence Christie’s. “The Sugar Shack” marked the initial look of Barnes’ perform in an evening sale and experienced 22 bidders intrigued. It was bought immediately to strength trader and poker player Bill Perkins only 10 and a 50 percent minutes into bidding.
“My existence has so much been a delighted absurdity…..” the Houston-based Perkins tweeted Friday when he was revealed to be the greatest bidder.
The collector, who owns several performs by Barnes and other prominent Black artists these as Charles White and John T. Biggers, flew to New York for the auction and appeared to be delighted with his new piece’s affordability far too, according to Artnet.
“I’m strolling away with the treasure when everybody is preventing more than a Warhol or a Monet,” the producer instructed the internet site.
Without a doubt, the exact same evening auction that noticed the sale of “The Sugar Shack” also built headlines for the 12-whole lot sale of the Selection of Anne H. Bass, which involved Edgar Degas’ well known 1800s ballerina sculpture “Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans” (“Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen”), which offered for for $41.6 million and broke the document for the artist for the very first time in nearly 15 many years, Christie’s mentioned. Claude Monet’s “Parlement,” the top rated good deal of the sale, offered for $75.9 million that evening.
In 2019, the California African American Museum devoted a retrospective to the late American artist Barnes, who died in 2009. He painted “The Sugar Shack” from a childhood memory — sneaking into the Durham Armory, a North Carolina location that hosted segregated dances and that nonetheless exists. Barnes as soon as stated it was the “first time my innocence achieved with the sins of dance.”
“This image has been in my consciousness due to the fact I was a kid. I have an psychological link to it,” Perkins informed Artnet, adding, “If I did a study, and I place a picture of the Mona Lisa and a picture of The Sugar Shack aspect by side, in my group of African People in america, they are likely to keep in mind The Sugar Shack far more than anything else.”
“We were being so happy to see such phenomenal performances by an exceptionally varied group of 20th century artists in our sale this night,” Emily Kaplan, co-head of the 20th Century Night Sale, reported in a statement to The Occasions.
“We featured operates by 9 woman artists representing a vary of creative intervals, two of whom set records — Grace Hartigan and Howardena Pindell. We had been also thrilled by the remarkable efficiency by Ernie Barnes. The Sugar Shack soared past its significant estimate of $200,000 to sell for $15.2 million, virtually 28 occasions his former auction document.”