“People are tempted to politicize the fact that I paint black figures, and the complexity of this is an essential part of the work. But my starting point is always the language of painting itself and how that relates to the subject matter.” PeopleLanguageBlackPaintingPaintComplexity Author:Lynette Yiadom-Boakye
“When people ask about the aspect of race in the work, they are looking for very simple or easy answers. Part of it is when you think other people are so different than yourself, you imagine that their thoughts aren't the same. When I think about thought, I think about how much there is that is common.” PeopleThinkingDifferentEasySimpleCommonImagineImagine That Author:Lynette Yiadom-Boakye
“It's hard to pin down what the politics would be, in a way. For me the politics are very visual and felt, thought, seen, but not necessarily put into words. The confusions and conditions within the work are the politics. The fact that a lot of the time the first thing people want to talk to me about is the racial angle, which is a part of the work and I am happy to talk about it, but it's not necessarily the first thing on my mind when I am making something.” PeopleMindConfusionTalk To Me Author:Lynette Yiadom-Boakye
“Painting from life was incredibly important for me because it allowed me to train my eyes to see everything that is there. But I realized early on that painting from life wasn't something that I was all that invested in. I was always more interested in the painting than I was the people. For me, removing that as a compulsion offered me a lot more freedom to actually paint and think about color, form, movement, and light.” PeopleThinkingImportantEyePaintingTrainPaintI Realized Author:Lynette Yiadom-Boakye
