Lynette Yiadom-Boakye - Contemporary Art Day Sale London Monday, February 10, 2014 | Phillips
  • Provenance

    Acquired directly from the artist

  • Exhibited

    Liverpool, The Coach Shed, Bloomberg New Contemporaries,18 September – 23 October 2004
    London, Barbican Art Gallery, Bloomberg New Contemporaries, 17 November – 15 January 2005

  • Literature

    exh. cat., Bloomberg New Contemporaries, London, 2004 (illustrated)
    This work will be featured in the forthcoming book, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, with contributions from Naomi Beckwith, Donatien Grau, Jennifer Higgie and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Prestel, London, p.100 (figure illustration)
    Naomi Beckwith et al, exh. cat., Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: Any Number of Preoccupations, The Studio Museum in Harlem, 1st edition, 2010, p.22 (illustrated)

  • Catalogue Essay

    A half dressed figure, draped in a red night gown, leers directly out from the murky depths of the canvas. Legs apart and with his left hand on hip, toying with the belt which falls from his waist, he is both an assertive and somewhat suggestive presence.

    Constructing her work from memory, imagination and real-life, Yiadom-Boakye’s figures are neither clear portraits, nor caricatures. The works draw heavily from the scale and composition of the western figurative tradition, with the artist purposefully maintaining core elements from the works she is interested in. The present lot, which is based on John Singer Sargent’s Dr Pozzi at Home (1881), is no exception. The work maintains the noble pose and voluminous gown of Sargent’s muse; however, the figure has been interchanged or a black model whose powerful gaze locks in the viewer. This challenging exploration into historical western portraiture, and its fusion with the artist’s contemporary outlook, is a core theme to Yiadom-Boakye’s work.

  • Artist Biography

    Lynette Yiadom-Boakye

    British • 1977

    Lynette Yiadom-Boakye is a British painter who is a leader in the contemporary renaissance of portraiture. Her subjects are typically depicted with loose brushwork, floating against muted, ambiguous backgrounds that contribute to a sense of timelessness. Known for the speed of her work, she often completes a canvas in a single day and considers the physical properties of paint to be at the core of her practice. 

    Yiadom-Boakye was born to Ghanaian parents in London, where she continues to live and work today. In 2013, she was a finalist for the Turner Prize and she was selected for participation in the 55th Venice Biennale. In 2018, the artist won the Carnegie Prize for painting. Her work can be found in the permanent collections at the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Studio Museum and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among many others. 

    View More Works

128

First

2003
oil on canvas
214.5 x 162.5 cm. (84 1/2 x 63 7/8 in.)
Signed, titled and dated 'Lynette Yiadom-Boakye 2003 "First"' on the reverse.

Estimate
£40,000 - 60,000 

Sold for £52,500

Contact Specialist
Henry Highley
Head of Sale
hhighley@phillips.com
+ 44 20 7318 4061

Contemporary Art Day Sale

London Day Sale 11 February 2014 2pm