When Ernie Barnes’ “Sugar Shack” painting went up for auction at Christie’s in May of 2022 — more than a decade after the artist’s death — the British auction house estimated it would sell for around $200,000. The 1976 painting of a live dance hall scene is his most celebrated work and one of the few that gained national attention in Barnes’ lifetime, famously appearing on the cover of Marvin Gaye’s album “I Want You” and in the credits for the 1970s sitcom “Good Times,” a show that centered on a Black family in Chicago’s housing projects.
At Christie’s, the bidding started below $120,000 but rapidly climbed, with 22 bidders pushing it past the million-dollar mark. Within minutes, the price skyrocketed to an eight-figure range. To the shock of the auctioneers, “Sugar Shack” had a final selling price of $15,275,000, 76 times the pre-auction estimate, and went to African-American hedge fund manager and high-stakes poker player Bill Perkins.
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In many ways, Christie’s auction parallels Ernie Barnes’ career as a Black artist. During his lifetime, major museums repeatedly passed over his works. Yet, his images have found a permanent place in the American psyche, and it has been the Black community that has kept his legacy alive.
It turns out there are two original copies of “The Sugar Shack,” and Eddie Murphy owns the other. “I paid fifty grand for that picture. After Marvin Gaye passed away, I bought it from his estate,” Murphy told Jimmy Kimmel with a huge grin on his face on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” in 2023, a clip recently resurfaced on X shows. The painting transports us to a Black club, with dancers and musicians painted in Barnes’ signature style: expressive, elongated, and most with their eyes closed — an allusion to his belief that “We are blind to each other’s humanity.”
Eddie Murphy paid $50k for a painting estimated to be worth tens of millions of dollars pic.twitter.com/9QB3eMC3CQ
— Historic Vids (@historyinmemes) March 17, 2024
Barnes later elaborated: “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. We look upon each other and decide immediately: This per
