art.wikisort.org - Artist

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye (born 1977) is a British painter and writer. She is best known for her portraits of imaginary subjects, or ones derived from found objects, who are painted in muted colours. Her work has contributed to the renaissance in painting the Black figure. Her paintings often are presented in solo exhibitions.

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye
Born	1977[1] London, United Kingdom
Nationality	British
Education	Central St. Martins, Falmouth University, Royal Academy of Art
Known for	Painting, writing
Awards	Carnegie Prize

Early life and career

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye was born in London, UK where she currently lives and works.[2] Her parents worked as nurses for the National Health Service after emigrating from Ghana. Yiadom-Boakye attended Central St. Martins College of Art and Design; however, she did not enjoy her time there [3] and so, moved to Falmouth College of Art where she eventually was awarded her undergraduate degree in 2000. She then completed an MA degree at the Royal Academy Schools in 2003.[1]

In 2010, her work was recognised by Okwui Enwezor, who gave her an exhibition at Studio Museum in Harlem.[4] She was among those nominated for a prestigious prize in 2013.[5] In addition to her artwork, Yiadom-Boakye has taught at the Ruskin School of Art, Oxford University where she is a visiting tutor for their Master in Fine Arts programme.[6] Her influence as a painter was recognised in the 2019 Powerlist and she was subsequently listed among the "top 10" of the most influential people of African or African Caribbean heritage in the UK in 2020.[7][8]

Work

Artworks

Yiadom-Boakye's work consists mostly of painted portraits of imaginary Black subjects. Her paintings are predominantly figurative, with raw and muted colours. The characteristic dark palette of her work is known for creating a feeling of stillness that contributes to the timeless nature of her subjects. Her portraits of imaginary individuals feature people reading, lounging, and resting in traditional poses. She brings to the depiction of her subjects contemplative facial expressions and relaxed gestures, making their posture and mood relatable to many viewers. Commentators have attributed some of the acclaim of Yiadom-Boakye’s work to this relatability. She strives to keep her subjects from being associated with a particular decade or time. This results in choices such as not painting shoes on her subjects, as footwear often serves as a time stamp.[9] These figures usually rest in front of ambiguous backgrounds, floating inside monochromatic dark hues. These cryptic, but emotional backdrops remind commentators of old masters such as Velasquez and Degas.[10]

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye's style shifted slightly after the opening of her 2017 show "In Lieu of a Louder Love". The show featured a new, warmer colour scheme. Her subjects in this show included more vibrant details such as a checkered linoleum-floor, a bold headwrap and bathing suit, and a yellow, orange, and green background.[10]

Although each portrait only contains one person, the paintings typically are presented in groups that are arranged as if family portraits.[11] With her expressive representations of the human figure, Yiadom-Boakye examines the formal mechanisms of the medium of painting and reveals political and psychological dimensions in her works, which focus on imaginary characters who exist beyond our world in a different time and in an unknown location.[12] She paints figures who are intentionally removed from time and place, and has stated, “People ask me, ‘Who are they, where are they?’ What they should be asking is ‘what' are they?"[13]

The Tate Museum provides an introduction to her work that is extensive,[14] to accompany a major exhibition of her work held from 2 December 2020 to 9 May 2021.[15]

Writing

For an artist, Yiadom-Boakye is unusual in describing herself as a writer as much as a painter—her short stories and prosy poems frequently appear in her catalogues.[9]

In talks about her work, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye notes that her writing is to her as her painting is, and explains that she "writes the things she doesn't paint and paints all the things she doesn't write". Her paintings are given poetic titles.[16]

Art market

At a 2019 auction at Phillips in London, Yiadom-Boakye’s Leave A Brick Under The Maple (2015), a life-size portrait of a standing man, sold for about $1 million.[17]

Subject for work of others

Painted in 2017, Kehinde Wiley’s Portrait of Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Jacob Morland of Capplethwaite is displayed in the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, CT.[18]

A portrait of Yiadom-Boakye by photographer Sal Idriss is held in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London.[19]

Exhibitions

Yiadom-Boakye has staged numerous solo exhibitions at museums and galleries internationally. Her solo shows include Any Number of Preoccupations (2010), The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York;[20] Verses After Dusk (2015), Serpentine Galleries, London;[21] A Passion To A Principle (2016), Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland;[22] Under-Song For a Cipher (2017), New Museum, New York;[23][24][25] and Fly In Leave With The Night (2020), Tate Britain, London.[26]

She has also participated in a number of group shows and exhibitions, including the 55th Venice Biennale (2013), Sharjah Biennial (2015),[27] 58th Venice Biennale (2019),[2][28] and Afro-Atlantic Histories (2021-2022).[29]

Awards

Yiadom-Boakye has been widely hailed for her work, winning accolades including The Arts Foundation fellowship for painting (2006), the Turner Prize shortlist (2013),[1][30] and the Carnegie Prize (2018).[10]

Notable works in public collections

References

Further reading

• Orlando Reade, "Life Outside the Manet Paradise Resort: On the Paintings of Lynette Yiadom-Boakye", The White Review, November 2012.
• Eddie Chambers, "Black British artists who should be better known", The IB Tauris Blog, 7 August 2014.
• Smith, Zadie (19 June 2017). "A bird of few words : narrative mysteries in the paintings of Lynette Yiadom-Boakye". Onward and Upward with the Arts. The New Yorker. 93 (17): 48–53.[1]
• Portraits of Lynette Yiadom-Boakye at the National Portrait Gallery, London

На других языках

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[de] Lynette Yiadom-Boakye

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye (* 1977 in London, England) ist eine ghanisch-britische Künstlerin, Autorin und Malerin. Sie ist vor allem für ihre Porträts von imaginären oder aus gefundenen Gegenständen abgeleiteten Personen bekannt, die in gedeckten Farben gemalt sind. Ihr Werk hat zur Renaissance der Malerei der Schwarzen Figur beigetragen. Ihre Bilder werden regelmäßig international in Einzelausstellungen präsentiert.

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- [en] Lynette Yiadom-Boakye

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[es] Lynette Yiadom-Boakye

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye (1977) es una pintora y escritora británica, conocida por sus retratos de sujetos imaginarios, o derivados de objetos encontrados, pintados en colores apagados. Su obra ha contribuido al renacimiento de la figura negra en la pintura.

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