Ernie Barnes’ seminal painting, ‘The Sugar Shack’ (1976) just sold at @christiesinc 20th Century auction for $15.3m USD — over 76 times its initial estimate. “For certain segments of America, it’s more famous than the ‘Mona Lisa,’” said Bill Perkins, a Houston-based energy trader who placed the winning bid. The sale is all the more notable considering it was the highlight of a show that also featured the likes of Monet, de Kooning and Cézanne. Without even knowing the name, it’s likely that you’ve seen Barnes’ dynamic paintings. Whether in the ‘The Sugar Shack’, which featured on the album artwork for Marvin Gaye’s “I Want You” or perhaps through his vibrant posters he created for the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Born in the Jim Crow South, Barnes was no stranger to racism but found a refuge by escaping into his many sketchbooks. Although art was an early interest, he would fully revert his attention to playing football. Having received a full scholarship to play at North Carolina Central University, Barnes was drafted by the Baltimore Colts in the 1960 NFL Draft and would go on to play for the now-defunct New York Titans, San Diego Chargers and the Denver Broncos. During his stint with the latter, he was repeatedly fined for sketching during team meetings and between breaks within a game. “Big Rembrandt” as he was known to his Denver teammates, “realized how football and art were one and the same,” said biographer Ron Tate. “Both required rhythm. Both required technique. Passing, pulling, breaking down the field—that was an art.” After retiring from the sport in 1964, Barnes fully returned to art where his imprint would become the stuff of legend. Band marchers and dance halls, raucous stadiums to intimate settings — an aesthetic that was inspired by his own life but was driven through a universality of the human experience. Barnes passed away in 2009, but not long prior, he told the Oakland Tribune that “I paint when ideas come and I see a vision of what I want from our common humanity.” Largely ignored by the art market elites, the ’Sugar Shack’ sale is a fitting passing of the baton for better things to come.