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Lynette Yiadom-Boakye

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Lynette Yiadom-Boakye
Born1977[1]
London, United Kingdom
NationalityBritish
EducationCentral St. Martins, Falmouth University, Royal Academy of Art
Known forPainting, writing
AwardsPinchuk Foundation Future Generation Prize

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.

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 generally, 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]

Selected exhibitions

  • 2005: Flowers Gallery included in "Artist of the Day" exhibition.[17]
  • 2010: Any Number of Preoccupations, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York[18]
  • 2011: Notes and Letters, Corvi-Mora, London (solo)[19]
  • 2011: Make Believe, Galleri Magnus Karlsson, Stockholm[19]
  • 2011: 11th Lyon Biennial of Contemporary Art, France[19]
  • 2012: participated in the 11th Lyon Biennial of Contemporary Art, France[20]
  • 2012: Extracts and Versus, Chisenhale Gallery in London[18]
  • 2013: The Encyclopedic Palace, exhibited in The Central Pavilion at the 55th International Venice Biennale[2][21]
  • 2015:Verses After Dusk, a solo exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery in London[22]
  • 2015: participated in the 12th Sharjah Biennial in the UAE[23]
  • 2015: Capsule 03: Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, at the Hause der Kunst in Munich[18]
  • 2015: Verses After Dark, at the Serpentine Gallery in London[18]
  • 2016: A Passion To A Principle, a solo exhibition at Kunsthalle Basel[24]
  • 2016: Sorrow for A Cipher, a solo exhibition at Corvi-Mora[25]
  • 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[18]
  • 2017: Under-Song For a Cipher, a solo show at the New Museum of Contemporary Art[26] The show opened in May 2017, and ran until 3 September 2017.[27] The show was profiled by Zadie Smith for The New Yorker in its June 2017 issue.[28]
  • 2017: Unfinished Conversations: New Work from the Collection, a group exhibition at the Museum of Modern art in New York[18]
  • 2019: In Lieu Of A Louder Love, a solo show at Jack Shainman Gallery[29]
  • 2019: Ghana Freedom, Artiglierie section of the Arsenale in Venice, 58th International Venice Biennale[30]
  • 2019: The Hilton Als Series: Lynette Yiadom-Boakye at the Yale Center for British Art from 12 September 2019 to 15 December 2019[31][32]
  • 2020: Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: Fly In League With The Night at Tate Britain [33]

In 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][41]
  • 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 [10]

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.[42]

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.[43]

A portrait of Yiadom-Boakye by photographer Sal Idriss is held in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London.[44]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wright, Karen (8 November 2013). "In the studio: Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, painter". The Independent. Retrieved 30 December 2013.
  2. ^ a b "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. ^ McGreevy, Nora, Stunning Paintings of Fictitious Black Figures Subvert Traditional Portraiture, Smithsonian, December 3, 2020, with slide show and video link
  6. ^ "The Ruskin School of Art - Lynette Yiadom Boakye". www.rsa.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
  7. ^ "Who are the influential Black Britons honoured in Powerlist 2019?". Melan Magazine. 27 October 2018. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
  8. ^ "Who's on the list of the most influential black people?". BBC News. 25 October 2019. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
  9. ^ a b Smith, Zadie (2017-06-12). "Lynette Yiadom-Boakye's Imaginary Portraits". ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
  10. ^ a b c "LYNETTE YIADOM-BOAKYE'S LOVELY, 'LOUDER' NEW PAINTINGS". AFROPUNK. 2019-01-16. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
  11. ^ "What to See in New York Art Galleries This Week". The New York Times. 2019-01-08. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
  12. ^ "Haus der Kunst - Detail". www.hausderkunst.de. Retrieved 11 March 2017.
  13. ^ Bollen, Christopher (2012-11-27). "Galleries - Interview Magazine". www.interviewmagazine.com. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  14. ^ An Introduction to Lynette Yiadom-Boakye From her imagined figures to her poetic titles, discover this figurative painter’s work, Tate Museum, accessed December 5, 2020
  15. ^ Exhibition Announcement, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye Fly In League With The Night - The first major survey of one of the most important painters working today, Tate Museum, December 2020
  16. ^ "Lynette Yiadom-Boakye". Tate.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  17. ^ [1]
  18. ^ a b c d e f Lynette Yiadom-Boyake. Under-song for a cipher. New York: New Museum New York. 2017. ISBN 9780915557141. OCLC 992527373.
  19. ^ a b c "Lynette Yiadom-Boakye".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  20. ^ "Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. Verses After Dusk". Wall Street International. 2015-05-07. Retrieved 2018-03-26.
  21. ^ Hirsch, Faye (2015-06-25). "Lynette Yiadom-Boakye". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
  22. ^ "Lynette Yiadom-Boakye in conversation with Hans Ulrich Obrist (1 June 2015)", Serpentine UK.
  23. ^ "GIBCA • Lynette Yiadom-Boakye". www.gibca.se (in Swedish). Retrieved 2018-03-26.
  24. ^ "A Passion To A Principle • Kunsthalle Basel". Kunsthalle Basel. Retrieved 11 March 2017.
  25. ^ 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
  26. ^ Bell, Natalie (4 March 2017). "Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: Under-Song For A Cipher". New Museum. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
  27. ^ "Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: Under-Song For A Cipher". www.newmuseum.org. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
  28. ^ Smith, Zadie. "Lynette Yiadom-Boakye's Imaginary Portraits". The New Yorker. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
  29. ^ "JACK SHAINMAN GALLERY". www.jackshainman.com. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
  30. ^ Russeth, Andrew (2019-02-24). "Ghana Plans Venice Biennale Debut, with El Anatsui, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, More". ARTnews. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
  31. ^ "The Hilton Als Series: Lynette Yiadom-Boakye". Yale Center for British Art. Retrieved 2019-12-08.
  32. ^ "The Hilton Als Series: Lynette Yiadom-Boakye". Fine Art Connoisseur. 2019-09-18. Retrieved 2019-12-08.
  33. ^ Tate. "Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: Fly In League With The Night – Exhibition at Tate Britain". Tate. Retrieved 2020-12-17.
  34. ^ "Lynette Yiadom-Boakye born 1977". Tate.
  35. ^ "Siskin | Yiadom-Boakye, Lynette | V&A Search the Collections". V and A Collections. 25 August 2020.
  36. ^ "King for an Hour". www.pamm.org.
  37. ^ "Lynette Yiadom-Boakye".
  38. ^ "Appreciation of the Inches". SFMOMA.
  39. ^ "Lynette Yiadom-Boakye – Artists – eMuseum".
  40. ^ "Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: Verses After Dusk". Serpentine Galleries. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  41. ^ Extracts and Verses
  42. ^ Scott Reyburn (June 27, 2019), Female Artists With African Backgrounds Are Winners at Phillips Auction in London New York Times
  43. ^ "Art in Context : Kehinde Wiley's "Portrait of Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Jacob Morland of Capplethwaite"". Yale Center for British Art. Retrieved 2019-12-08.
  44. ^ "Lynette Yiadom-Boakye - Portrait". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 2020-12-03.

Further reading

  1. ^ Online version is entitled "Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s imaginary portraits".
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