Lynette Yiadom-Boakye is a highly regarded London born and based artist. Her subjects explore her Ghanaian heritage, and she is celebrated for her role in what has come to be regarded as the renaissance in painting the Black figure.
Poetic in nature, Yiadom-Boakye’s fictional protagonists exist in undefined settings and her work is known for being enigmatically atmospheric. Characterised by a marriage of contemporary figurative subjects portrayed in a traditional formal manner, Yiadon-Boakye - who trained at Falmouth University, the Royal College of Art and Central St Martins - utilises traditional media including oils and, as here, etching techniques, with a high degree of technical skill.
Since 2009 she has explored thematic titles which allude to birds and flight; titles including ‘Paridae', 'Siskin’, ‘Wren’ and ‘Skylark’. Since 2012, she has periodically produced suites of etchings, linked by this theme and depicting similar subjects: male heads from different angles and in differing emotional states, unified by the surreal addition of feathered collars.
