Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Tate Britain 2020

Yiadom-Boakye depicts black subjects out of time and context, pulled from a combination of her imagination and found images and many of her paintings could represent people from 100 years ago or more. She often omits items of clothing, such as shoes, so that her figures cannot be placed too firmly in any single decade, and because so little is revealed about individuals in her in paintings we, the viewer, are encouraged to spin our own narratives.

Speaking of her practice, Yiadom-Boakye says: “I write about the things I can’t paint and paint the things I can’t write about.” The written word plays a huge part in her life and work and the enigmatic titles she chooses for her paints only strengthens the mystery. This exhibition will surely prove a captivating one and is set to be one of the hottest offerings of spring 2020.