After centuries of portraiture almost exclusively reflecting whiteness, Black painters and their models are finally getting their moment. These artworks centre the experiences of African and African diaspora people, elevating Black self-representation and self-expression. Contemporary Black portraiture has increasingly appeared at auction to outstanding prices, reflecting the high demand these artists are receiving, albeit long overdue. Institutions are catching on as well, such as at Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town, where the current exhibition When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration Painting explores this important, evolving genre.
African American artists like Kehinde Whiley and Kerry James Marshall have been leading the charge; their stately portraits and epic paintings now hang in the hallowed halls of major museums in the United States and Europe, allowing these communities to finally see themselves represented front and centre on canvas. More recently, a new generation of Black figurative painters have been making a name for themselves, especially those from developing art hubs across Africa.
Mustard is proud to offer work by some of these exciting artists, such as Ghanaian painters Isshaq Ismail and Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe.
Isshaq Ismail was born in 1989 in Accra and continues to live and work in the Ghanaian capital. His practice subverts and questions ideals of beauty and aesthetics in the canon through highly stylised and abstracted portraits, which he calls “infantile semi-abstraction”. Using impasto brushstrokes, the artist takes a sculptural approach to painting. Fati (2022) is a rare example of Ismail branching out from acrylic paintings to actual sculpture.
Ismail’s paintings have proven popular at auction, first appearing with Self 15 (2019) at Christie’s New York in 2020 and selling regularly since in salerooms internationally. Ismail’s work is most popular on the London market. His record price to date, however, was reached at auction in Guangzhou, China in 2022, with Epoch 1 (2018) achieving 2 million CNY, or about £245,000. Ismail’s paintings are featured in various private collections, and he exhibits regularly across the globe.
Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe, The Rancher, 2021
Also hailing from Accra, Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe was born there in 1988 and now lives stateside in Portland, Oregon. While exploring his identity as a West African immigrant in the United States, Quaicoe has become especially interested in depicting the Black American cowboy, such as in prints like The Rancher (2021) above. His work has featured in solo exhibitions in Miami, Brussels, Los Angeles, and Portland, and he has completed a residency at the Rubell Museum, Miami. The artist’s auction debut in 2020 achieved his highest price to date, with Shade of Black (2018) hammering for $200,000 at Phillips, New York.
Quaicoe’s paintings exemplify African empowerment, featuring dignified sitters painted in greyscale against vivid, colourful backgrounds. In View of Yoei William (2021), the pose is reminiscent of Malian photographer Seydou Keita’s 1958 picture of a well-dressed, bespeckled man also holding a delicate flower. Quaicoe may therefore be looking not only to contemporary Black figuration but also to its predecessor of mid-century, portrait photography in West Africa.