Esteemed Alumna Exhibiting at TATE Britain

Lynette Yiadom Boakye is a British/Ghanaian painter and writer, renowned for her innovative portraits of fictitious black characters. She graduated from BA(Hons) Fine Art in 2000, was the recipient of the Pinchuk Foundation Future Generation Prize in 2012, was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 2013 and is now preparing to exhibit at the TATE Britain.

The exhibition is part of the #5WomenArtists campaign, organised by the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C. to coincide with Women’s History Month. The TATE will be holding five large-scale solo exhibitions of women artists throughout 2020 and 2021, including Lynette who will be exhibiting her work in May 2020.

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BA(Hons) Fine Art

Lynette’s paintings have contributed to the renaissance in painting the black figure and this exhibition at the TATE will be the first major survey of her work.

An article in the New York Times described her work: “As opposed to the black sitters cast by old and modern “master” painters as noble savages and enlightened exceptions, Yiadom-Boakye’s characters exemplify a condition more ordinary and multifaceted – call it human, as many observers do. She offers a wide range of personages, including two that recur: a man in a white shirt, another in stripes.”

The TATE Britain said of her work: “Yiadom-Boakye’s intriguing paintings appear traditional but are in fact much more innovative. Her portraits of imaginary people use invested pre-histories and raise pertinent questions about how we read pictures in general, particularly with regard to black subjects.” 

For more information on the #5WomenArtists exhibition, please click here.

Photo credits: 
Courtesy: The Artist, Corvi-Mora, London and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York