Ernie Eugene Barnes, Jr.

Painter Ernie Barnes was born July 15, 1938 in Durham, North Carolina during the height of the Jim Crow Era.  He lived in a section of the city called “The Bottom” with his parents and younger brother, James. His father, Ernest Barnes, Sr. was a shipping clerk for Liggett & Myers tobacco company.  His mother, Fannie Geer, supervised the household for a prominent attorney who shared his extensive art book collection with the young “June” Barnes.  By the time he began elementary school, Barnes was familiar with the Master artists.