Rose Nether Poetry depicts a lone figure in darkened, anonymous surroundings. Lynette Yiadom-Boakye's paintings have been described as ‘imaginary’ or ‘fictitious’ portraits; they do not represent any specific, identifiable individual. The figure, perhaps identified by the title as ‘Rose’, turns her gaze to engage the viewer. Her eyes are bright, her expression smiling but oblique. She is seated at an angle to the picture plane and twists her torso away from us, raising her left shoulder even as she turns her head to look outwards. Such richness of characterisation is essential to Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s picture-making. When asked why some of her figures turn away from the viewer, the artist has said:
‘they don’t always want to give you everything’.
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The figure’s feet are cropped from view and the artist has stated that she prefers not to picture her subjects wearing shoes, as shoes unavoidably evoke narrow historical parameters that she would rather avoid. To date, her pictures have represented only black figures, and through her work she responds to the historic underrepresentation of black people in Western painting. When asked about the relationship between racial politics and the content of her work, she has stated that ‘I’ve never distinguished my politics from my life. It's in the fabric of what I'm doing.’
Rose Nether Poetry, as with other confident examples of the artist’s mature work, represents its subject on a scale that reflects the grandeur of Yiadom-Boakye’s vision.
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Lynette Yiadom-Boakye (b. 1977)
Rose Nether Poetry, 2012
Oil on canvas
180.3 x 160 cm | 71 x 63 in
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