The first thing you see when you walk into Lyndon J. Barrois Sr. and Janine Sherman Barrois’s house in L.A.’s Lafayette Square is a pair of paintings by Kehinde Wiley and Henry Taylor, icons of contemporary Black portraiture. From there, the couple’s art collection spans every nook of their multiple-structure compound. Works are hung salon-style in narrow hallways and even on the ceiling, as is the case with the enormous Shantell Martin drawing mounted above the living room. “Every time we think we don’t have any more wall space, our installer comes by and finds it,” says Lyndon, gesturing toward a painting they’ve hung directly over a window. “A lot of people have blank walls because there’s this idea that your eyes should rest,” adds Janine. “We would disagree.”
Janine, a TV writer and showrunner, and Lyndon, a visual artist and animation director, have been passionate about art since they met. On their very first date, they had a dispute about whether Lyndon had actually seen the Harlem Renaissance show at LACMA, in 1998. (Janine thought he was simply trying to impress her; ultimately, he did.) In the decades that followed, Janine says, they’ve collected art they recognize as “reflections of us—how we, as African Americans, are seen in the world”: an array of blue-chip superstars like Shinique Smith, Theaster Gates, and Fred Eversley, plus one-of-a-kind acquisitions from early on, when their budget was smaller and neither Black artists nor collectors were really visible in the art world. Deep cuts include a small, spectacular collage of Muhammad Ali layered inside 12 panes of glass, a 1975 work by Harry O. Henry. Another is a black and white photograph by Ming Smith they bought 25 years ago, which has since begun to yellow. The artist recently offered to reprint it, “but we said, ‘We love it, Ming,’ ” says Lyndon. “It looks like it was meant to be that way.”
Early on, Janine dreamt of filling a home with posters from important Black films like Imitation of Life. But as their careers progressed, the couple became more ambitious in terms of the work they could buy and the impact they could make as patrons of the arts. L.A.’s existing generation of Black collectors, including C.C.H. Pounder, Eileen Harris Norton, and Joy Simmons, had set an example. Janine met Simmons at their mutual hairstylist more than 20 years ago, and “I remember thinking, Who is this beautiful, dynamic woman?” she says. “Going to Joy’s home and seeing her live with art was just something to aspire to.”
Read the full article here: W Magazine
