The Studio Museum’s permanent collection features Barkley L. Hendricks's painting "Lawdy Mama" (1969). This work has been exhibited in drastically diverse cultural climates, spanning the Black Power movement of the 1960s to the election of the United States' first Black president in 2009 to the current moment in our traveling exhibition “Black Refractions”. ⠀ "Lawdy Mama", one of Hendricks's earliest portraits, imbues the Black feminine form with integrity while also alluding to Byzantine and medieval religious icons. The artist draws a visual comparison between his sitter and iconic depictions of Kathleen Cleaver, Angela Davis, and other women of the Black Power movement.⠀ ⠀ The artwork is on view in "Black Refractions" at Frye Art Museum in Seattle, WA, through August 15th, 2021.⠀ — Barkley L. Hendricks (1945–2017), "Lawdy Mama", 1969. Oil and gold leaf on canvas, 53 3/4 × 36 1/4 in. The Studio Museum in Harlem; gift of Stuart Liebman, in memory of Joseph B. Liebman 1983.25⠀ ⠀ #St...