I’ve been posting drawings with hands as expressive elements. Today a work by Prinston Nnanna appeared in my inbox. Prinston is a Brooklyn-based artist who works with charcoal, coffee, and acrylic inks. According to his website, his goal is to “depict the elegance of the Black figure at the same time as reconstructing the image in which society has painted people of colour.”
Prinston Nnanna ‘‘Invisibility Cloak’’ (Something For My Niece’s to Look After), 2020 Charcoal, acrylic, ink, gouache, glitter, clear and gloss medium on hand toned paper 69 1/2 × 44 in
Nnanna’s painting reminds of a few other paintings you might recognize. The first is Klimt’s painting “The Kiss” or “Lovers” of which the full composition is this:
…but Klimt’s painting is often cropped and saturated, so we often see it like this, which more closely resembles Nnanna’s painting:
The heads and hands appear as cut out pieces of a drawing, while the fabric is a flat geometric pattern, similar to Klimt’s.
Nnanna’s figures are separated from the monochromatic background and fabric by their smooth grey shading, tones that talk not just about skin color, but also about drawing and painting as a craft. As I’m sure you know, hands and faces take some skill to create. (We have a class or two that will teach you.) The quilt, suggestive of folkart patterns, has been all but flattened into an abstract mountain shape, upon which the pieces of the figure’s head and arms emerge. The shape upon which perch this disembodied head and arms reminds me of the portrait of Michelle Obama by Amy Sherald. In this, it is as if one of the artist’s tools was scissors.
Amy Sherald’s “Michelle Obama” (cropped)
Taking another look at the artwork, I see there is a delicate halo around the figure’s head, referencing Byzantine Madonna and child icons, and Barkley L. Hendricks’ painting Lawdy Mama from 1969. (Thank you to Suzanne Walker, the League’s Art Historian for remembering the names and references I had forgotten.)
Byzantine Madonna and child; Berlinghiero BerlinghieriBarkley L. Hendricks Lawdy Mama, 1969
Speaking of scissors, there might even be a piece of Romare Bearden’s collages in the way odd pieces peek out from the blanket.
Romare Bearden
I found Prinston has done a handsome collection of portraits. I won’t be able to post them all, but you can find them on his website.
[vc_row type=”in_container” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ width=”1/1″][vc_video link=”https://youtu.be/kIDKcktUewI”][vc_column_text]PROCESS UPDATE: It has been a delight to have our official “Artist Not In Residence” Patty Haller around the studios. She has been at the studio almost every day, and openly sharing her process with students and guests. Today, NPR news is playing from a …
[vc_row type=”in_container” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ width=”1/1″][vc_column_text] R. B. Kitaj 1932 – 2007 Edited from https://artbios.net/5-en.html R.B. Kitaj was an American artist who championed figuration in the aftermath of expressionism. Kitaj was an influential figure in the London art scene and was intimate with Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon, coining the term “London School” …
“No one did more to reanimate the tired old genre of still life painting in the last half century than did Mr Thiebaud with his paintings of industrially regimented food products.” (NYT, 2004) In 2000, Thiebaud told PBS’ NewsHour with Jim Lehrer that the subject of food was “fun and humorous, and that’s dangerous in …
The Seattle Artist League is opening a clay studio and will be offering IN PERSON pottery classes in South Seattle this summer. In addition to our drawing and painting classes both online and in person, we will be offering classes in wheel throwing and handbuilding clay forms. I am tremendously excited about this. When I …
Drawing Hands: Prinston Nnanna
I’ve been posting drawings with hands as expressive elements. Today a work by Prinston Nnanna appeared in my inbox. Prinston is a Brooklyn-based artist who works with charcoal, coffee, and acrylic inks. According to his website, his goal is to “depict the elegance of the Black figure at the same time as reconstructing the image in which society has painted people of colour.”
Charcoal, acrylic, ink, gouache, glitter, clear and gloss medium on hand toned paper
69 1/2 × 44 in
Nnanna’s painting reminds of a few other paintings you might recognize. The first is Klimt’s painting “The Kiss” or “Lovers” of which the full composition is this:
…but Klimt’s painting is often cropped and saturated, so we often see it like this, which more closely resembles Nnanna’s painting:
The heads and hands appear as cut out pieces of a drawing, while the fabric is a flat geometric pattern, similar to Klimt’s.
Nnanna’s figures are separated from the monochromatic background and fabric by their smooth grey shading, tones that talk not just about skin color, but also about drawing and painting as a craft. As I’m sure you know, hands and faces take some skill to create. (We have a class or two that will teach you.) The quilt, suggestive of folkart patterns, has been all but flattened into an abstract mountain shape, upon which the pieces of the figure’s head and arms emerge. The shape upon which perch this disembodied head and arms reminds me of the portrait of Michelle Obama by Amy Sherald. In this, it is as if one of the artist’s tools was scissors.
Taking another look at the artwork, I see there is a delicate halo around the figure’s head, referencing Byzantine Madonna and child icons, and Barkley L. Hendricks’ painting Lawdy Mama from 1969. (Thank you to Suzanne Walker, the League’s Art Historian for remembering the names and references I had forgotten.)
Speaking of scissors, there might even be a piece of Romare Bearden’s collages in the way odd pieces peek out from the blanket.
I found Prinston has done a handsome collection of portraits. I won’t be able to post them all, but you can find them on his website.
Related Classes
Expressive Portraits starts 9/18
WTF Art History: Revenge of the Figure Painters starts 9/22
Head & Hands starts 9/25
Beginning Figure Drawing starts 9/30
Woodblock Portraits starts 10/19
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[vc_row type=”in_container” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ width=”1/1″][vc_video link=”https://youtu.be/kIDKcktUewI”][vc_column_text]PROCESS UPDATE: It has been a delight to have our official “Artist Not In Residence” Patty Haller around the studios. She has been at the studio almost every day, and openly sharing her process with students and guests. Today, NPR news is playing from a …
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Ceramics, Pottery, Potties, and Clay
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