Price, and Henry Taylor), the show explores the complexities and richness of Black life through figuration.
Oh, its getting there, he says brightly.
Eshun, it turns out, has perfected the art of waiting optimistically for things to come together.
Toyin Ojih Odutola,The Marchioness, 2016
I first proposed the show to the National Portrait Gallery five years ago, he explains.
I felt we were in an extraordinary period of Black artists working in figuration, depicting the Black body.
Because for hundreds of years, the Black figure has been depicted by white artists.
Amy Sherald,She was learning to love moments, to love moments for themselves, 2017
Im interested in the daily complexity of walking through a world that often seems resistant to your presence.
I think being a writer is quite good training for walking into worlds you dont necessarily understand.
Also, when you work in publishing, you think about words and pictures simultaneously.
Kerry James Marshall,Untitled (Painter), 2009
And you ask questions.
How do you speak of complexity?
How do you speak of beauty?
Lubaina Himid,Le Rodeur: The Exchange, 2016
How do you speak of fraughtness?
Of hurt, of pain, of possibilities?
How do you capture all of that?
Kimathi Donkor,Nanny of the Maroons’ Fifth Act of Mercy, 2012
Its where I first started thinking about how you tell stories visually.
Yet he readily admits that the art world remains very hermetic… We have to acknowledge that society is nuanced and systematically unequal.
Opportunity and access is not the same for everyone.
Wangechi Mutu,This second Dreamer, 2017
Its impossible, then, to refute his position within the upper echelons of the art world.
Rather, he says, Im lucky to be able to bring ideas to fruition.
That process of looking and seeing through the eyes of different people… keeps me on my toes.
Id be doing a disservice to myself and to others if that was the work of ego.
Something tells me he doesnt have anything to worry about.
