Six birds in the Bush

A man, viewed in three-quarter profile and apparently interrupted in his thoughts, is portrayed on a large canvas, projecting an aura of great charisma. Yet this character, like all those painted by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, does not exist. His is an invented face, a fictitious identity created by the artist. "[This] method allows me to think freely about a person, a life, a place or a feeling through the act of painting itself," explains Yiadom-Boakye. In the triptych Vigil for a Horseman, which draws on the motif of the odalisque, a narrative seems to unfold between the three paintings. The titles with multiple meanings, in combination with certain details and accessories, heighten the complexity of these ageless scenes.