Lynette Yiadom-Boakye

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye (born 1977)[1] is a British painter and writer. She is best known for her portraits of fictitious subjects painted in muted colours. Her work has contributed to the renaissance in painting the black figure.

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye
Born1977
London, United Kingdom
NationalityBritish
EducationCentral St. Martins, Falmouth University, Royal Academy of Art
Known forPainting
AwardsPinchuk Foundation Future Generation 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 did not enjoy her time there [3] and so moved to Falmouth College of Art where she eventually graduated in 2000, and 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]. 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. [5] Her influence as an Artist was recognised in the 2019 Powerlist and she was subsequently listed in the Top 10 of the most influential people of African or African Caribbean heritage in the UK in 2020. [6][7]

Work

Artworks

Yiadom-Boakye's work consists mostly of painted portraits of fictional 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 fictional 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 its relatability. The artist strives to keep her subjects from being associated with a particular decade or time. This results in choices like not painting shoes on her subjects as footwear often serves as a time stamp.[8] These figures usually rest in front of ambiguous backgrounds, floating inside monochromatic dark hues. These cryptic but emotional backdrops remind commentators of old masters like Velasquez and Degas.[9]

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.[9]

Though each portrait generally only contains one person, they are typically presented in groups arranged like family portraits.[10] With her expressive representations of the human figure, the artist examines the formal mechanisms of the medium of painting and reveals political and psychological dimensions in her works, which focus on fictional characters who exist beyond our world in a different time and in an unknown location.[11] She paints figures that 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?’ ”[12]

Writing

For an artist, she is unusual in describing herself as a writer as much as a painter—her short stories and prosy poems frequently appear in her catalogues.[8]

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye's talks about her writing is to her as her painting and explains that "she writes the things she doesn't paint and paint all the things she doesn't write." Her paintings have artist poetic names.[13]

Selected exhibitions
  • 2005: Flowers Gallery included Yiadom-Boakye in its long-running West End exhibition programme "Artist of the Day", where works have been selected by leading contemporary artists since 1983.[14] The fast-paced, revolving two week exhibition schedule provides a platform for a selected group of artists each year, each presenting a one day solo exhibition at Flowers Gallery’s Mayfair location. Yiadom-Boakye was selected by Martin Maloney.
  • 2010: Any Number of Preoccupations, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York[15]
  • 2011: Notes and Letters, Corvi-Mora, London (solo)[16]
  • 2011: Make Believe, Galleri Magnus Karlsson, Stockholm[16]
  • 2011: 11th Lyon Biennial of Contemporary Art, France[16]
  • 2012: participated in the 11th Lyon Biennial of Contemporary Art, France[17]
  • 2012: Extracts and Versus, Chisenhale Gallery in London[15]
  • 2013: The Encyclopedic Palace, exhibited in The Central Pavilion at the 55th International Venice Biennale[2][18]
  • 2015:Verses After Dusk, a solo exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery in London[19]
  • 2015: participated in the 12th Sharjah Biennial in the UAE[20]
  • 2015: Capsule 03: Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, at the Hause der Kunst in Munich[15]
  • 2015: Verses After Dark, at the Serpentine Gallery in London[15]
  • 2016: A Passion To A Principle, a solo exhibitions at Kunsthalle Basel[21]
  • 2016: Sorrow for A Cipher, a solo exhibition at Corvi-Mora[22]
  • 2016: In Lieu of a Louder Love, at New York’s Jack Shainman Gallery, it featured 26 paintings and is named after one of the artist’s poems.
  • 2016: Stranger, Cleveland's Museum of Contemporary Art[15]
  • 2017: Under-Song For a Cipher, a solo show at the New Museum of Contemporary Art[23] The show opened in May 2017, and ran through September 3rd, 2017.[24] The show was profiled by Zadie Smith for The New Yorker in its June 2017 issue.[25]
  • 2017: Unfinished Conversations: New Work from the Collection, a group exhibition at the Museum of Modern art in New York[15]
  • 2019: In Lieu Of A Louder Love, a solo show at Jack Shainman Gallery[26]
  • 2019: Ghana Freedom, Artiglierie section of the Arsenale in Venice, 58th International Venice Biennale[27]
  • 2019: The Hilton Als Series: Lynette Yiadom-Boakye at the Yale Center for British Art from September 12, 2019 to December 15, 2019[28][29]

Collections

Awards
  • 2006: The Arts Foundation Fellowship for Painting.
  • 2012: Pinchuk Foundation Future Generation Prize.
  • 2013: Shortlisted for the Turner Prize for her exhibition at Chisenhale Gallery[1][33]
  • 2018: Carnegie Prize at awarded at Carnegie International in Pittsburgh. Among the oldest and most prestigious awards in art, the Carnegie Prize honors the top paintings of the year.[9]

Subject of Other Artist

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.[34]

References
  1. Wright, Karen (8 November 2013). "In the studio: Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, painter". The Independent. Retrieved 30 December 2013.
  2. "LYNETTE YIADOM-BOAKYE: The Love Within | Contemporary And". www.contemporaryand.com (in German). Retrieved 2018-03-26.
  3. Cooke, Rachel (31 May 2015). "Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: artist in search of the mystery figure". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  4. Kazanjian, Dodie. "How British-Ghanaian Artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye Portrays Black Lives in Her Paintings". Vogue. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
  5. "The Ruskin School of Art - Lynette Yiadom Boakye". www.rsa.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
  6. "Who are the influential Black Britons honoured in Powerlist 2019?". Melan Magazine. 27 October 2018. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
  7. "Who's on the list of the most influential black people?". BBC News. 25 October 2019. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
  8. Smith, Zadie (2017-06-12). "Lynette Yiadom-Boakye's Imaginary Portraits". ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
  9. "LYNETTE YIADOM-BOAKYE'S LOVELY, 'LOUDER' NEW PAINTINGS". AFROPUNK. 2019-01-16. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
  10. "What to See in New York Art Galleries This Week". The New York Times. 2019-01-08. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
  11. "Haus der Kunst - Detail". www.hausderkunst.de. Retrieved 11 March 2017.
  12. Bollen, Christopher (2012-11-27). "Galleries - Interview Magazine". www.interviewmagazine.com. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  13. "Lynette Yiadom-Boakye". Tate.
  15. Lynette Yiadom-Boyake. Under-song for a cipher. New York: New Museum New York. 2017. ISBN 9780915557141. OCLC 992527373.
  16. "Lynette Yiadom-Boakye".
  17. "Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. Verses After Dusk". Wall Street International. 2015-05-07. Retrieved 2018-03-26.
  18. Hirsch, Faye (2015-06-25). "Lynette Yiadom-Boakye". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
  19. "Lynette Yiadom-Boakye in conversation with Hans Ulrich Obrist (1 June 2015)", Serpentine UK.
  20. "GIBCA • Lynette Yiadom-Boakye". www.gibca.se (in Swedish). Retrieved 2018-03-26.
  21. "A Passion To A Principle • Kunsthalle Basel". Kunsthalle Basel. Retrieved 11 March 2017.
  22. Alice, Primrose (9 September 2016). "Our pick of this week's art events: 9 – 15 September". Royal Academy. The Royal Academy of Arts, London. Retrieved 1 December 2017. Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: Sorrow for a Cipher, Corvi-Mora Gallery, London, until 8 October
  23. Bell, Natalie (4 March 2017). "Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: Under-Song For A Cipher". New Museum. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
  24. "Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: Under-Song For A Cipher". www.newmuseum.org. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
  25. Smith, Zadie. "Lynette Yiadom-Boakye's Imaginary Portraits". The New Yorker. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
  26. "JACK SHAINMAN GALLERY". www.jackshainman.com. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
  27. Russeth, Andrew (2019-02-24). "Ghana Plans Venice Biennale Debut, with El Anatsui, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, More". ARTnews. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
  28. "The Hilton Als Series: Lynette Yiadom-Boakye". Yale Center for British Art. Retrieved 2019-12-08.
  29. "The Hilton Als Series: Lynette Yiadom-Boakye". Fine Art Connoisseur. 2019-09-18. Retrieved 2019-12-08.
  30. "Lynette Yiadom-Boakye".
  31. "Lynette Yiadom-Boakye – Artists – eMuseum".
  32. "Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: Verses After Dusk". Serpentine Galleries. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  33. Extracts and Verses.
  34. "Art in Context : Kehinde Wiley's "Portrait of Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Jacob Morland of Capplethwaite"". Yale Center for British Art. Retrieved 2019-12-08.

Further reading
  1. Online version is titled "Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s imaginary portraits".
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.