![]() ![]() The subject of this particular image is Akunyili Crosby’s mother as a young student, smiling as she sits on what is presumably the stoop of a school. The title of the series, “The Beautyful Ones,” is borrowed from the 1968 novel The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born by Ghanaian writer Ayi Kwei Armah. ![]() This painting belongs to an ongoing series of portraits of the artist’s family members. The resulting compositions are typically autobiographical, plumbing her fears, her pride, her loves, her memories, and her sense of belonging or not belonging. Alongside photo-transfers of her own snapshots, family photos, and clippings from Nigerian fashion and news magazines, the artist employs commemorative fabrics and deft figure drawings. Njideka Akunyili Crosby’s work draws from a wide array of influences, including the aesthetics and culture of Nigeria, where she lived until she was sixteen an analytic mind and love of science (she started college as a Biology major) and an engagement with the history of art, especially traditional figurative drawing. ![]()
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