The Fondness

Artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye (English, born 1977)

Date2010

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsOverall: 81 1/8 × 49 × 2 1/2 inches (206.06 × 124.46 × 6.35 cm)

Credit LineGift of William and Christena Gautreaux

Object number2023.42

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

Contemporary Art

Terms

DescriptionThis painting depicts a black person wearing a light colored long sleeve shirt, standing with the hands on the hips in what is essentially a three quarter view. The figure looks to the proper right. The background is ambiguous with no horizontal line or other detail to give a sense of place except for two green plants growing on either side of the figure.Gallery Label

Gallery Label

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye is a British-Ghanaian artist and writer. Yiadom-Boakye often makes one painting each day; the speed of her technique results in loosely constructed works with streaks and soft edges, producing a dream-like quality.

The material and historical aspects of painting are essential to her practice. She describes oil paint as "fleshy and unpredictable—it has a kind of human quality to it." Products of her imagination, these figures "exist entirely in paint." They are created from a combination of different sources: scrapbooks, drawings, and photographs. She has stripped away any clues that might reveal the figure’s identity, history, or environment. Within the picture plane, the figure is allowed to just be—natural and ethereal.

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