{"id":98523,"date":"2025-07-28T04:58:24","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T04:58:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/98523\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T04:58:24","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T04:58:24","slug":"dai-exhibit-shows-works-of-well-known-local-creator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/98523\/","title":{"rendered":"DAI exhibit shows works of well-known local creator"},"content":{"rendered":"

Barnes, who passed away in 2019, was co-founder of the African American Visual Artists Guild<\/a> and a highly regarded mentor to local artists.<\/p>\n

He was a U.S. Air Force veteran, a Wright State University graduate, an educator in the Dayton Public Schools and a professor at Sinclair Community College. He was, at the core, a painter.<\/p>\n

\"Curtis<\/p>\n

Credit: Contributed<\/p>\n

\"icon<\/p>\n

Credit: Contributed<\/p>\n

\u2018Curtis Barnes, Sr., Dayton Icon\u2019<\/b><\/p>\n

The Dayton Art Institute has opened an impressive retrospective of Barnes\u2019s work in a special exhibition titled \u201cCurtis Barnes, Sr., Dayton Icon\u201d that celebrates the varied themes of his prolific output.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis exhibition is both a celebration of his artistic vision and a reflection of the community that helped shape it,\u201d said DAI Head Curator and Curatorial Affairs Director Jerry N. Smith.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis work invites us to see the world through his eyes: layered with history, rooted in identity and always open to experimentation and interpretation.\u201d <\/p>\n

Working all hours from his basement art studio lovingly referred to as \u201cThe Tomb\u201d, Barnes completed nearly a painting a day in his later years, often re-using canvases when he ran out of surfaces to work on.<\/p>\n

He flowed with ease across genres including portraiture, still life, abstraction, non-objectivity and even architecture; his paintings emphasized color and texture and highlighted his Dayton neighborhood of Westwood.<\/p>\n

His abstract works move in ripples of color with the rhythm of jazz, the music that often drifted up from The Tomb to greet family and friends for conversation and impromptu art lessons.<\/p>\n

The walls of the exhibit have been painted in deep hues of eggplant, burgundy and terracotta to compliment Barnes\u2019s rich palette. The warm tones welcome you into the space with the initial gallery offering a sampling of Barnes\u2019s themes, including a self-portrait, a still life, and a mask painting.<\/p>\n

He knew painting<\/b><\/p>\n

Barnes held the modern masters in high esteem. He was self-taught in art history and in some of his work directly referenced painters including Cezanne and Picabia, while other artists wove their influence in more subtly.<\/p>\n

\"Barnes<\/p>\n

Credit: Hannah Kasper<\/p>\n

\"icon<\/p>\n

Credit: Hannah Kasper<\/p>\n

Michael Goodson, who in 2021 launched the exhibit Zachary Armstrong: Grids and Abstracts alongside Curtis Barnes, Sr.: Love & Peace as then-curator of The Contemporary Dayton, immediately recognized the singular talent of Barnes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing I know now, after learning Curtis\u2019s work, is that he knew painting. You can see it in the work, but he spoke of it too,\u201d said Goodson.<\/p>\n

Among his references Barnes mentioned Albrecht Durer, John Singer Sargent, Mark Rothko, Helen Frankenthaler and Richard Diebenkorn.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe work speaks immediately to the history of Black painters leading up to Curtis \u2014 painters we all know like Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence and Alma Thomas. The work speaks (also) to Black painters more recently \u2014 Jean Michel Basquiat, Henry Taylor, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye,\u201d said Goodson.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was hungry to be an artist and a scholar, and he shaped his own contours in this regard.\u201d<\/p>\n

A symphony of color<\/b><\/p>\n

A striking portrait in the DAI exhibit from 1979 titled \u201cSister Babalola (Mother Babalola)\u201d illustrates the detail that Barnes was able to achieve even through layers of texture. The density of paint application in the sitter\u2019s cheekbones begs you to reach out to the subject; it is filled with pathos. Areas are carved into, maybe with the end of a paintbrush. Geometric houses in the background allude to a close community. Momma Babalola, with her larger-than-life foregrounding, appears to watch over the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Credit: Hannah Kasper<\/p>\n

\"icon<\/p>\n

Credit: Hannah Kasper<\/p>\n

Artist Zachary Armstrong, who was close with both Barnes and his son, Curtis Barnes, Jr., described how the elder Barnes would forsake new paintbrushes for a certain well-worn one with just a few remaining bristles. Barnes would call it his \u201cmagic wand\u201d and was able to achieve details like eyelashes with one confident swipe.<\/p>\n

Armstrong said Barnes would hold his brush way back at the end of the handle, with his nose \u201c3 feet from the canvas\u201d. That confidence of touch is present in the paint handling. There are no neglected areas; the canvas is one holistic symphony of color.<\/p>\n

\u201cUntitled (Family Reunion)\u201d is an example of visual rhythm that can be achieved through color mastery. It seems as though Barnes\u2019s hand did not rest for too long in one spot, moving around fluidly. Look closely and the paint abstracts into dashes of color, back away from the canvas and you feel the crowd buzzing.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/p>\n

Credit: Hannah Kasper<\/p>\n

\"icon<\/p>\n

Credit: Hannah Kasper<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things I really took away from him and live by to this day was that there\u2019s no difference between being an abstract painter and a figurative painter,\u201d said Armstrong, who would sit and watch the painter work in his studio.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all the same. It\u2019s all moving paint. Nothing that you put down on a canvas has been realized before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gestures of humanity<\/b><\/p>\n

Barnes\u2019 works, even the most representational portraits, do not seem to have aimed for perfection. They are not meticulous in nature. <\/p>\n

You can tell that some canvases were stretched later onto their frames, not quite as an afterthought, but also not as a priority. The frames are made with narrow lumber in a folk-like manner; some are smudged with paint.<\/p>\n

These are not criticisms of quality; this is evidence of gestures of humanity. The imperfection conveys the immediacy with which the work was created. If no canvases were available, he would paint on cardboard or shipping crates.<\/p>\n

Several of the pieces are untitled and undated. That precious bit of information that so many viewers glean to \u201csolve\u201d the mystery of the artwork, is not always there. According to Smith, this was no accident.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you give something a title, you\u2019re pre-judging it for other people. You\u2019re projecting something. He was very much wanting others to see what they see in it. There\u2019s no wrong answer,\u201d said Smith.<\/p>\n

As for Barnes\u2019s teaching style, Smith described it as similar to the work itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would cut the erasers off of pencils when teaching. There are no mistakes. You can work your way through any situation,\u201d said Smith.<\/p>\n

We wear the mask<\/b><\/p>\n

Masks, sometimes in combination with portraits and sometimes as more isolated imagery, were a theme that appeared regularly over Barnes\u2019s career. In the exhibit are references to Dayton poet Paul Laurence Dunbar\u2019s famous poem \u201cWe Wear the Mask\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAround the 80s,\u201d Barnes was quoted as saying, \u201cI became fascinated with doing mask-related imagery after studying African art.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith spoke of the poem in relation to the paintings.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt speaks to the many false fronts people within an oppressed group must present to the world in order to hide one\u2019s true self,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Doll-like<\/p>\n

Credit: Contributed<\/p>\n

\"icon<\/p>\n

Credit: Contributed<\/p>\n

According to Barnes\u2019s granddaughter, Brooke Goodwine, mask imagery served not just to conceal but also to represent \u201creflections of identity and protection\u201d. Barnes was a family man, as evidenced through the many portraits of his relatives. Perhaps there is a thin line here between a portrait and a mask, to be both proud and protective.<\/p>\n

\u201cWestwood Community Portraits\u201d is an eye-grabbing wall of 36 gridded portraits depicting individuals Barnes shared the neighborhood with for forty years.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing people born, people living, people getting older, generation after generation\u2026it\u2019s almost like a living, breathing history,\u201d Barnes said in an essay on the Westwood portraits.<\/p>\n

Some of his work referenced creation stories and mythology. He spoke often of \u201cthe cosmos\u201d which would suggest a spiritual slant to some of the work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are things in those paintings that, in various ways, speak to what is eternal and even mystical in great painting,\u201d said Goodson.<\/p>\n

Black Palette Art Gallery<\/b><\/p>\n

Running concurrently with the DAI retrospective, the Black Palette Art Gallery is showing \u201cTreasures from the Tomb, Celebrating the life and legacy of Curtis Barnes, Sr.\u201d.<\/p>\n

Organized by gallery owners Shola Odumade and James Pate, the intimate exhibit offers a personal glimpse into the artist\u2019s world. The selection consists of pieces culled from the personal collections of the gallerists with a few works on loan from family and friends.<\/p>\n

Odumade described the preparation of the show as a catharsis and a way to confront the grief surrounding the loss of both Barnes and his son, Curtis Barnes Jr., who passed in 2021 and was instrumental in pushing forward the legacy of his father\u2019s art. He was also responsible for introducing Odumade and Pate, now married with a family.<\/p>\n

Alongside the paintings at Black Palette are archival photos of Barnes at work in The Tomb, documented by Odumade over the years. There is also a framed palette, encrusted with thick layers of dried oil paint. It was a gift from Zachary Armstrong for Barnes\u2019s 75th birthday. Here we catch a glimpse of Barnes\u2019s personality \u2014 his palettes were repurposed Sinclair lunch trays. Use what you\u2019ve got.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Tomb was a sacred space for discovery, conversation and creativity. We spent many New Years Eves down there. They would paint and music would be playing,\u201d said Odumade, who curated the show.<\/p>\n

Pate, a renowned local artist known for his figurative charcoal drawings, said that central to Barnes\u2019s work is a sense of authenticity. Included in the show is one of Pate\u2019s drawings, an impressive rendering of Barnes at work in The Tomb, alongside a photographic source.<\/p>\n

\"Running<\/p>\n

Credit: Hannah Kasper<\/p>\n

\"icon<\/p>\n

Credit: Hannah Kasper<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was very brave as a painter, very confident. He would let that brush go. You can see that he didn\u2019t pick over it. When I look at his work, I can see the ancestors. That intuitive power,\u201d said Pate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are literal treasures, artifacts \u2014 part of history. These are moments captured in time,\u201d said Odumade. <\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that people can feel the personal aspect and intimacy of this exhibition experience and how it compliments the larger excitement that\u2019s happening at the DAI.\u201d<\/p>\n

At his core, a painter<\/b><\/p>\n

Armstrong reflected on his mentor, the man who inspired him to pursue life as a professional artist.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been 20 years since I\u2019ve known his work, and I realize I was lucky that one of the first artists I knew happened to be one of the best painters I\u2019ve ever seen in my life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

When Goodson was first introduced to Barnes\u2019s work, it was a 1978 self-portrait that made a deep impression.<\/p>\n

He reflected on the legacy of Curtis Barnes, Sr., and on that particular piece.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing I knew when I looked at that painting was relatively straightforward: He was a great painter,\u201d said Goodson.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I came to know was more complex: He was under-appreciated, but he still just kept painting, year after year, hundreds of paintings, in a basement on the west side of Dayton, Ohio. In the warm embrace of his family.<\/p>\n

When I looked at that painting I knew Curtis Barnes was, at his core, a painter.\u201d<\/p>\n

HOW TO GO<\/b><\/p>\n

\u2018CURTIS BARNES, SR., DAYTON ICON\u2019 EXHIBIT<\/b><\/p>\n

Where: <\/b>Dayton Art Institute, 456 Belmonte Park Drive, Dayton<\/p>\n

When: <\/b>11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday; 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday; noon to 5 p.m. Sunday and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday. Through Sept. 14.<\/p>\n

Admission: <\/b>$15 for adults; $10 for seniors, active military, groups of 10 or more, college students and youth. Children ages 6 and younger and museum members are free.<\/p>\n

More info: <\/b>Special Exhibition Workshop Series \u2014 Everything is Everything: July 31 31, 5:30\u20138:30 p.m. Mixed media workshop led by artist Erin M. Smith Glenn. Cost: $100 for museum members; $125 for non-members.<\/p>\n

BLACK PALETTE EXHIBIT<\/b><\/p>\n

What:<\/b> \u201cTreasures from the Tomb, Celebrating the life and legacy of Curtis Barnes, Sr.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where: <\/b>Black Palette Art Gallery, 1139 W. Third St. Dayton<\/p>\n

When:<\/b> 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.<\/p>\n

Admission: <\/b>Free<\/p>\n

More info: <\/b>Instagram @blackpaletteartgallery<\/a><\/p>\n