95
FIG. 19 (above): Womanology 12 (2014, made in London).
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye (b. 1977, London, U.K.).
Works in London.
Oil on canvas. 184.8 × 164.3 cm.
National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, museum purchase,
inv. 2015-5-1. Photo: Franko Khoury.
NOTES
1. See, e.g.: n.a. Arts connus et méconnus de l’Afrique
noire. Collection Paul Tishman. Paris: Musée de
l’Homme, 1966; n.a., Masterpieces of African Art:
Tishman Collection. Jerusalem: Muze’on Yisira’el, 1967;
Roy Sieber, “Collectors: Paul and Ruth Tishman.” Art
in America 57, no. 2 (March–April 1969): 50–61; n.a.,
Selections from the Paul and Ruth Tishman Collection
of African Sculpture. Cambridge, MA: Hayden Gallery,
1969; n.a., Sculpture of Black Africa: Selections from
the Paul and Ruth Tishman Collection: addendum.
Richmond, VA: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1970; n.a.,
Sculpture of Black Africa: Selections from the Paul and
Ruth Tishman Collection. Guild Hall: East Hampton, NY,
1974; Susan Vogel (ed.), For Spirits and Kings: African
Art from the Paul and Ruth Tishman Collection. New
York: Metropolitan Museum, 1981; Perkins Foss, “African
Art from the Paul and Ruth Tishman Collection.” African
Arts 15, no. 1 (November 1981): 28–36, 86; Carol
Thompson, Art of Two Ancient Kingdoms from the Paul
and Ruth Tishman Collection of African Art. Orlando, FL:
Orlando Museum of Art, 1992; Christine Mullen Kreamer
(ed.), African Vision: The Walt Disney-Tishman African
Art Collection. Washington, DC: National Museum of
African Art/New York: Prestel, 2007.
2. Susan Vogel (ed.), For Spirits and Kings: African Art
from the Paul and Ruth Tishman Collection. New York:
Metropolitan Museum, 1981, p. 168.
3. The museum will be sharing regular insights into the
exhibition through social media with the hashtag
#VisionaryAfrica—and encouraging visitors to join the
discussion.
celebrated British painter of Ghanaian descent,
both concludes Visionary and stands as the signature
image for the entire Visionary installation.
A confi dent woman in a scarlet dress and matching
hat emerges from a swirling background of
blue and black. She holds in her hands a pair of
binoculars as she looks purposefully off into the
distance—unaware or unconcerned that someone
may be looking at her. Yiadom-Boakye’s
large-scale images are not portraits. Rather they
represent characters within an emerging world
developed by the artist, and her titles heighten
the tension between the reality and fi ction of
her subjects. Womanology 12 suggests there
might be earlier works in a series we have yet
to encounter. The artist has dropped us into the
middle of a story for which we must imagine the
past and future.
Together, the perspectives offered by Visionary:
Viewpoints on Africa’s Arts strive to provide
new insights into the National Museum of
African Art’s permanent collection, which has,
for more than half a century, helped to shape
what the world knows and values about Africa’s
arts. Visionary offers a new stage on which to
see Africa’s past and imagine its future.3