For startling portraits that combine artistic brilliance with a possible invitation to self-reflection, pop into Lower Belvedere for the excellent solo exhibition for Amoako Boafo.
- Captivating paintings in Boafo’s unique style
- Over 50 works, including several self-portraits
- One of my favourite recent exhibitions
- Runs Oct 25, 2024 – Jan 12, 2025
- Book Lower Belvedere tickets*
- See also:
Proper Love
(Amoako Boafo, Enyonam’s Black Shawl, 2020; photo by Mariane Ibrahim © 2024 Amoako Boafo / licensed by Bildrecht, Vienna)
I do love it when artworks slap you out of whatever reverie you might be in with a startling pull and presence.
Take Amoako Boafo’s paintings, for example, at Lower Belvedere’s solo exhibition for the Ghana-born artist. Proper Love presents his portraits and self-portraits from the last eight years or so.
Enter the first gallery, and the dark fingerpainted skin of Boafo’s subjects exude a remarkable vibrancy that create the proverbial wow effect.
Part of that dramatic impact comes from an accentuated contrast to the unobtrusive backgrounds and flatter presentation of clothes using single colours or print patterns.
I first encountered Boafo’s work in the 2024 The Beauty of Diversity at the Albertina Modern, which reinforced the value of shifting away from a narrow view of who creates art.
That exhibition was worth it alone for Sungi Mlengeya’s wonderful dark figures in white: an approach shared in some of Boafo’s art.
Boafo’s had major exhibitions in the USA, and his works now appear in such collections as the Centre Pompidou or the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. But this is the first museal solo exhibition in Europe.
(A view of the exhibition; press photo by Johannes Stoll / Belvedere, Vienna)
Wandering around the exhibition offers two experiences.
First, the purely artistic: a chance to enjoy Boafo’s distinctive painting style, which offers a strong nod to artists like Schiele, Klimt and others of that era.
The Ghana-born artist actually studied at Vienna’s Academy of Fine Art and the curators demonstrate the stylistic parallels by juxtaposing works by Klimt and Schiele with relevant portraits.
Enyonam’s Black Shawl, for example, parallels Klimt’s 1917/1918 portrait of Johann Staude. And Jean-Michel Basquiat IV recalls Schiele’s 1910 portrait of Eduard Kosmack.
Second, the representations feel like both a response and a challenge to the preconceptions and prejudices found in a white, Eurocentric world.
As a response, you see authentic, often celebratory, contemporary portrayals of people of colour as they are…and not as defined by external media or biased observers.
Boafo’s subjects generally form eye contact with the viewer, encouraging engagement with the work. The look is neither arrogant nor demurring, but simply one of self-assurance.
(Amoako Boafo, Sunflower Field, 2022; photo by Mariane Ibrahim © 2024 Amoako Boafo / licensed by Bildrecht, Vienna)
Notably, for example, Boafo’s black men (including himself) diverge from racial and gender stereotypes. Vulnerable, slim, complex, sensitive, intellectual. Perhaps reading a book or holding a flower.
This normalisation, perhaps a withdrawal into the reality of the black community, arose as a response to Boafo’s initial treatment in Vienna. The city contributed significantly to his artistic growth and style, but its role is nuanced.
Sometimes that influence arose in a positive context, for example through Boafo’s art studies here and his interaction with the art of the Klimt era.
Sometimes, though, the context was a negative one…a fresh view of your art as a reaction to the bigotry endured, particularly in sections of the art world.
The challenge element is to the vistor, if you’re courageous enough to indulge in some self-reflection. Anytime you might begin to feel discomforted or start to question elements of Boafo’s representations, that’s when you need to ask why.
Is that discomfort or questioning a purely artistic reaction: a question of taste? Or does it reveal our own latent biases and prejudices?
One 2017 painting right at the end of the exhibition, for example, makes the point explicitly. It actually carries the title Why Do You Only Paint Black People…
Dates, tickets & tips
Enjoy the genius of Amoako Boafo from October 25th, 2024 to January 12th, 2025. An entrance ticket from or for Lower Belvedere includes the exhibition.
(Booking service provided by Tiqets.com*, who I am an affiliate of)
If you want see more of Boafo’s local influences, then pop up to Upper Belvedere for the Vienna 1900 permanent exhibition. Three of Boafo’s works currently sit in the display there to again highlight the context of his artistic evolution.
How to get to Proper Love
Just follow the travel tips given in the Lower Belvedere article.
Address: Rennweg 6, 1030 Vienna