Barkley Hendricks captured the spirit of a generation in his iconic paintings. The Nasher Museum's "Barkley L. Hendricks: Birth of the Cool" exhibition showcases the artist's life-sized portraits and has supplemented the show with numerous panel discussions and appearances by the artist himself. And in May, the Nasher joined up with the Screen/Society branch of the Film/Video/Digital program to present a series of films from the era Hendricks captured.
The film series is varied and has included a documentary as well as several blaxploitation films such as Shaft and Super Fly.
The series was born out of a need for summer programming. Trevor Schoonmaker, curator for the Hendricks exhibition, said that while the academic year tends to draw more scholarly programming such as panel discussions, the summer is about finding a wider appeal. Thus, Schoonmaker decided a film series would get a different audience.
After coming up with a list of films he thought would complement the show, Schoonmaker approached Screen/Society coordinator Hank Okazaki about helping with the series and the list of films. After consulting the list, Okazaki got on board and immediately supported the list given its representation of what he calls "the tapestry of the era."
One of the most important elements in choosing the films was the musical element. Hendricks, a musician himself, was heavily affected by music. This influence is apparent in the titles of some of his works as well as the exhibition's title, borrowed from Miles Davis' landmark 1949 album Birth of the Cool. Similarly, music plays a role in many of the films. Isaac Hayes' Oscar-winning score for plays a more subtle role in the picture Shaft whereas the 1972 film The Harder They Came, scored by Jimmy Cliffe, uses reggae as a major plot device. The series also included Music is the Weapon, a documentary on Afrobeat musician Fela Kuti, a subject of one of the Hendrick's paintings on display.
"I wanted the musical components to come out in the film series," Schoonmaker said. "But I also just sort of wanted to culturally, historically look at the culture he was documenting and exploring."
Schoonmaker added that screening films is important to the Nasher as the museum tries to showcase more than visual art.
"The music film and visual arts are not separate worlds, they do overlap," he said.
The films also demonstrate a convergence of ideas popular at the time.
"There's kind of a synergy between the music, the politics [and] the fashion of the time," Okazaki said. "It reflects the influences and the interests of the painters and his subjects."
Okazaki said that one of the biggest joys for him, in addit ion to seeing the films he hadn't seen before, was getting to work with the Nasher's broad mission statement.
"It's nice that the Nasher Museum has an expanded view of what's sort of important and cultural and that we are worthy of consideration in a museum context," Okazaki said.
Schoonmaker said the screenings have averaged between 50 and 100 visitors per show, some of the largest audiences ever for film screenings at the Nasher.
"I know there's people who have come to the film series who have never been to the museum before. Even if that's just a handful of people, that's great," he said.
Because of the success of this series, Schoonmaker hopes to continue screening more films at the Nasher.
"The response has been very positive and it's encouraging that we can do more of these in the future," he said. "We've done a screening here and there, but the more we do people are going to get accustomed to films that have just enough appeal to a broad audience but just removed enough from the mainstream to where people haven't seen it three times already."
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