Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s Bold Portraits Return to Tate Britain

Intimate, mysterious, direct: Lynette Yiadom-Boakye‘s portraits demand our gaze.

The moody colour palettes and instinctive brushstrokes that form Yiadom-Boakye’s paintings establish a bold presence that suspend her fictitious figures in an ambiguous mise en scène.

In A Passion Like No Other (2012), Yiadom-Boakye depicts a young man wearing a ruff. He gazes solemnly from the canvas, framed by dramatic shadows of black paint across the left side of his figure. His ruff absorbs streaks of radiant deep green light that seeps through the right of the canvas.

Much like her other paintings, A Passion Like No Other (2012) emits a powerful energy that conveys the troubled emotion of her imaginary sitter. Despite being figures formed from her imagination, Yiadom-Boakye’s portrayals of Black people draw attention to existing complex narratives that capture the urgency and intensity of real life.

The most substantial presentation of her work to date, Fly In League With The Night (24 November 2022–26 February 2023) is now showing at Tate Britain until 26 February 2023.

Main image: Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, A Passion Like No Other (2012). Collection Lonti Ebers. Courtesy © Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. Exhibition View: Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Fly In League With The Night, Tate Britain, London (24 November 2022–26 February 2023). Courtesy Ocula. Photo: Annabel Downes, Ocula Advisory.