Ernie Barnes American, 1938-2009

Ernie Barnes' Hustler depicts the colorful and celebrated actor, Jackie Gleason (1916-1987) as Minnesota Fats in the 1961 film The Hustler. Barnes depicts Fats, with eyes closed, chalking the end of his pool stick and presumably calculating his next move in the game before him. A distinct feature in Barnes' work, especially those that touch on the subject of race, often depict the subjects with closed eyes. When discussing in an interview his "The Beauty of the Ghetto" exhibition that toured major American cities from 1972 to 1979, Barnes explained the symbolism behind this choice, remarking "I began to see, observe, how blind we are to one another's humanity. Blinded by a lot of things that have, perhaps, initiated feelings in that light. We don't see into the depths of our interconnection. The gifts, the strength and potential within other human beings. We stop at color quite often. So one of the things we have to be aware of is who we are in order to have the capacity to like others. But when you cannot visualize the offerings of another human being you're obviously not looking at the human being with open eyes." ("Personal Diaries" with Ed Gordon, BET, 1990) At the end of the film, Paul Newman's (1925-2008) character Eddie returns to challenge Fats after suffering a big lose to him at the beginning of the film. Eddie defeats Fats so badly that Fats is ultimately forced to quit.