Sugar shack marvin gaye
Ernie Barnes ‘Sugar Shack’ Painting Featured In ‘Good Times’ Sitcom Sells For Gigantic $15.3 Million
Ernie Barnes’ 1976 painting The Sugar Shack, familiar to millions of TV viewers for its use during the closing credits of the ’70s sitcom Good Times as well as serving as the album cover of Marvin Gaye’s 1976 release I Hope for You, sold at auction in Brand-new York City last night for $15.3 million.
According to Christie’s auction house, the sale set an auction record for Barnes’ work by more than 27 times the artist’s previous record, and was 76 times the high estimate of $200,000. The 10-minute auction drew 22 bidders before Houston-based energy trader Bill Perkins.
“I would have paid a lot more,” Perkins told The Modern York Times obeying the auction. “For certain segments of America, it’s more famous than the Mona Lisa.”
The Sugar Shack, which depicts a dance hall filled with vibrantly drawn Black dancers, elongated as they move to the rhythms of an R&B band, was inspired by Barnes’ memories of his childhood North Carolina hometown and is painted in the style that has come
The Sugar Shack by Ernie Barnes on view at Mint Museum Uptown.
For Immediate Release
The Mint Museum welcomes artist Ernie Barnes’s iconic masterpiece, The Sugar Shack
Charlotte, North Carolina (December 13, 2024) — The Mint Museum is proud to inform the arrival of The Sugar Shack, the celebrated masterpiece by esteemed artist Ernie Barnes. On loan through June 30, 2025, this iconic painting is now on display in the American Art galleries on Level 4 of Mint Museum Uptown. This marks the first time a museum in North Carolina has showcased the widely recognized and revered painting.
Visitors to The Mint Museum have a unique opportunity to experience the electrifying energy of The Sugar Shack, which captures a lively night at a Inky music hall in mid-20th century, segregated North Carolina. Inspired by Barnes’s memory of sneaking into the Durham Armory as a preteen in 1952, the painting vibrates with movement and sentiment, as dancers and musicians forget themselves in the joy of the moment. Barnes’s signature design of elongated, fluid figures establish in motion brings the scene to life with unmatched vitality.
Barnes painted two versions of The Sugar Shack. The o
The Sugar Shack
Visitors to the Blanton can view The Sugar Shack, Ernie Barnes’s famous masterpiece featuring dancing figures in a crowded Black music hall in segregated mid-century North Carolina.
The Sugar Shack became a Black cultural icon after the first version was featured on the cover of the 1976 Marvin Gaye album, I Want You. That same year, Barnes created this second version, which garnered wider fame when it was added to the end credits of the groundbreaking sitcom Good Times and later became a popular printed reproduction. The painting is on loan to the Blanton from Houston collectors Lara and Bill Perkins, who acquired it at a record-smashing auction last year. It was previously on view 2022-23 at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Included with museum admission and Blanton All Day admission. Located in the American Art galleries on the second floor of the museum.
About “The Sugar Shack“
filled with elongated, muscular figures. The Sugar Shack was based on the artist’s childhood memory of sneaking into a local Black club in segregated North Carolina to trial what he called the “sins of dance.” Stron
'Sugar Shack,' an iconic painting featured on a Marvin Gaye album cover that depicts Durham twist hall, sells for $15.3 million
A painting that served as the cover for one of celebrated soul singer Marvin Gaye's albums has sold at auction for almost $15.3 million.
Ernie Barnes' joyous depiction of a frenetic scene in a dance hall, titled "The Sugar Shack," sold to Bill Perkins, a hedge fund manager and entrepreneur, after 10 minutes of bidding by more than 22 bidders, confirmed Christie's auction house.
According to Christie's, the final sale price for "The Sugar Shack" was 27 times higher than the most expensive Barnes serve to sell before it. It also blew past its estimated sale price of $150,000 to $200,000.
The painting depicts a group of Black dancers enjoying a night at the Durham Armory. The Armory was a famous move hall in segregated North Carolina advocate in 1952.
Barnes, who died in 2009, was born in North Carolina in 1938 and often drew upon his own experiences growing up in the American South during the Jim Crow era in his depictions of social moments and images of quotidian Ebony life.
In a 2002 interview, in which the Oakland Tribune described Barnes as the "Pica