Ernie Barnes

"Olympic Finish" by Ernie Barnes

Presenting paintings that use elongated figures, the paintings of Ernie Barnes come to life with their representations of athletic competition. One cannot help but take notice to the colorful portrayals of sports presented by the former pro-football lineman himself. The Academy’s two-time Sport Artist of the Year deserves much recognition.

Barnes grew up on a dirt street in Durham, North Carolina and from there evolved into a pro-football lineman. He held a cumulative six-year National Football League career with the Denver Broncos and the San Diego Chargers.

After Barnes traded in his football career, he moved to Los Angeles in 1967 and opened his own studio. In 1973, the High Memorial Museum of Art in Atlanta honored him with his one-man show, followed by the North Carolina Museum of Art in 1974.

It was his incredible devotion, persistence and support that first won him the highly famed honor as ASAMA’s first Sport Artist of the Year and Official Artist of the 1984 XXIII Olympiad. His latest work, “Olympic Finish,” won in the graphics category in November 2003 in the United States Olympic Committee’s Sport Art Competition, held locally at the Academy in Daphne, Alabama. This spring, he will compete in the International Olympic Committee’s competition in Lausanne, Switzerland.

As a result of Barnes’ victory in the USOC Sport Art Competition, the Board of Trustees of the Academy thought it was appropriate to review honorees from the past 20 years. The impact of Barnes’ art over the past twenty years, along with his impressive USOC Sport Art Competition win, motivated the Academy’s Board to name Barnes again this year, thus truly making him “America’s Best Painter of Sports.”

Sergey Eylanbekov

"Five Continents" by Sergey Eylanbekov

Russian sculptor, Sergey Eylanbekov celebrates sports through his sculptures. Most recently, his three-dimensional work “The Five Continents,” won in the United States Olympic Committee’s Olympic Sport Art Competition (USOC) held November 2003 at the Academy in Daphne, Alabama. Eylanbekov’s sculpture will compete this spring in the International Olympic Committee competition in Lausanne, Switzerland.

As an established sculptor, he worked mainly with bronze and was highly skilled in the manipulation of light and shadow through the distribution of masses and volumes and the creation of negative space. Eylanbekov gained inspiration from the art of Frederick Hart, who pioneered the use of acrylic in sculpting. It was in the mid-1990s that he first began to experiment with acrylic forms.

At seventeen, Sergey was accepted into the Moscow Surikov Academy of Fine Arts, which is one of the two most prestigious art schools in the entire Soviet Union. While at the school, their method of teaching was to have students rigorously practice their technique by sculpting six to seven hours daily. After six years at the school, Eylanbekov was forced to serve two years in the Russian Army.

Following his tenure in the military, a few of Eylanbekov’s works were acquired by Russian museums in 1987. But in 1989, the government closed his studio. It was in that same year, he was fortunate enough to make his way to the United States and fulfill his true dream of being an artist.

At the age of 30, he was elected to professional membership in the eminent National Sculpture Society. Just five years later he became a Fellow of the organization, an honor that is usually reserved for much older sculptors.

“Every good sculpture should possess some concealed energy within, the kind of energy that is felt beyond the physical limits of the work,” commented Eylanbekov. “I am fascinated by acrylic. Its transparency opens the door to a whole new world of the visible and the invisible in three dimensions.”

He is proud to have immigrated to America. Ten years of being in the public eye have not caused any noticeable changes in Eylanbekov. He now leads a quiet life with his family in a small village on Long Island where he sculpts each day.

2002, Mina Papatheodorou-Valyraki