"Blackness has never been other to me. Therefore, I've never felt the the need to explain its presence in the work any more than I've felt the need to explain my presence in the world, however often I'm asked. I've never liked being told who I am, how I should speak, what to think and how to think it. I've never needed telling... Following my own nose and doing as I damned well pleased always seemed to me to be the most radical thing I could do. It isn't so much about placing black people in the canon as it is about saying that we've always been here, we've always existed, self-sufficient, outside of nightmares and imaginations, pre and post "discovery", and in no way defined or limited by who sees us." - Lynette Yiadom-Boakye.
I was really happy to catch this exhibition on this, it's second staging at Tate Britain. The original display in 2020 was cut short due to the covid lockdowns. I find the artists work really interesting in that every canvas is unapologetically inhabited by black characters engaged in everyday activities. There is not a single white face to be found, which seems very unusual given the paucity of black faces in the paintings of the permanent collection at Tate Britain in other galleries in the institution. In her own way Yiadom-Boakye appears to be redressing the balance. Black figures loom large, emerging out of the gloom of the artists largely dark palette, contemplative, occupied in their own thoughts, engaged in theatrical gestures and dance poses, or conspiratorially with others in group portraits. Another point of interest in Yiadom-Boakye's portraits is that none of the people or landscapes they inhabit in her paintings are actually real. They are all the product of her rich and fertile imagination. This is an intriguing approach to take, and it doesn't always pay off as not all of the paintings displayed are successful. Certain shortcomings in working from the imagination rather than studied observation in the artists painting techniques are definately exposed. These figurative paintings like those of Freud seem somehow out of step with modernism. They appear to belong to a different age, say perhaps the mid-20th century. Some appear like formal society portraits. These may be unconscious or conscious references to the art of past masters. One can certainly elicit this in the chiaroscuro of her palette and the costume of certain characters within the paintings. I could detect references to the art of Goya and Manet. Perhaps most obvious to me though, were references to the work of Degas. The pictures of dancers going through their paces at rehearsal, as well as those wearing ruffs and dance costume are very close in spirit to Degas' famed ballet pictures. Most obvious to me however was the painting of a woman in a singlet leaning with her hands on a surface. The orange background and the figures pose were really suggestive of Degas' paintings and pastels of women at work combing hair, or in the act of completing laundry chores. I look forward to seeing how Yiadom-Boakye's develops.
