Analysis Of Ernie Barnes Sugar Shack

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The painting “Sugar Shack” depicts how African Americans relieve physical tension through dance and movement. This painting suggests that Ernie Barnes shows how his culture expresses themselves through dance. In fact, one of the reasons Sugar Shack is popular is because of the way Barnes captured physical strain and dynamic movement through the extension of arms and legs and the swaying of hips. We see the figures as men and women who are dancing in pairs, physically relating to one another and to other couples. This creates a sense of unity among all the figures in the piece, including the band. Barnes said, “Sugar Shack is a recall of a childhood experience. It was the first time my innocence met with the sins of dance.” The painting is supposed to make a person feel the rhythm while viewing it to show that African Americans use rhythm as …show more content…

Sugar Shack successfully captures the feeling of being out at a typical African American night club on a Friday or Saturday night back in day. We are immediately captivated by the visual poetry of the bodies moving with a rhythmic flow reminiscent of pulsating soul music. It is easy to understand why Marvin Gaye wanted to use the painting as an album cover. Barnes altered the image after Marvin Gaye requested to use the image for his ‘I Want You’ album. Barnes added banners hanging from the ceiling to promote the singles on the album. On the original Sugar Shack, Barnes’ hometown Durham, North Carolina radio station WRSC was featured on a banner. The station’s frequency was incorrectly shown as 620, it was actually 1410. Barnes mixed up the on-air radio personality, Norfley Whitted former station WDNC, in which he worked in the early 1950’s, with

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