Sale 2487 - African-American Fine Art, October 4, 2018

156 c ERNIE BARNES (1938 - 2009) Three on Three . Acrylic on cotton canvas, with artist-built frame, 1999. 1219x610 mm; 48x24 inches. Signed in acrylic, lower right recto. With the artist’s ink copyright stamp, verso. Provenance: acquired directly from the artist; private collection, Oregon (2001). Ernie Barnes framed many of his early paintings with the distressed wood from a weathered picket fence in honor of his late father - inspired by the fenced backyard of his childhood home in Durham, NC. In his autobiography, Barnes wrote, “I placed a painting against the fence and stood away and had a look. I was startled at the marriage between the old wood fence and the painting. It was perfect. In tribute...Daddy’s fence would hug all my paintings in a prestigious New York gallery.” Biography courtesy of the artist’s website. [25,000/35,000]