Born in London, UK (b. 1977)

Lynette Yiadom-­Boakye

Afterword, 2019

Oil on linen
© Lynette Yiadom-Boakye; courtesy the artist, Corvi-Mora, London, and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Photo by Ian Reeves.

Inhabiting a world of their own, Yiadom-­ Boakye’s figures are deliberately undefined by their surroundings and are difficult to locate in time or place. The artist rarely includes details that might suggest the fashions of a particular culture or period, and the dark, ambiguous backgrounds are largely devoid of material or architectural references. Her characters appear content and at ease in settings imbued with a calm sense of inaction. Yiadom-­ Boakye has revealed that she sees them as unburdened by the modern world: “They don’t share our concerns or anxieties. They are somewhere else altogether.” Indeed, Afterword, featuring a lone, contemplative figure seated at a table bearing a fruit bowl evocative of Paul Cézanne’s iconic still lifes, projects a profound sense of time-lessness and ambiguity.

Lynette Yiadom-­Boakye. Photo by Sergey Illin. Courtesy of the Pinchuck Art Centre

“For me the political is as much in the making of it, in the painting of it, in the fact of doing it, rather than anything very specific about race or even about celebration. I don’t see what I do as at all celebratory, because to me it just is. The fact that they are all black is double edged as well.”

—Lynette Yiadom-­Boakye