Let’s Braid 2020

Cornelius Annor made ‘Let’s Braid’ with what looks like oil paint on canvas. The warm browns and yellows create a grounding backdrop to the cool pinks, yellows, and blues in the foreground. I like to imagine the artist starting with loose washes of color, almost stained into the canvas, before building up the figures. I think about how the material and the textures are laid down. Look closely at the girl’s pink shirt and notice how Annor has softened the edges, blending one plane of color into another. I can imagine Annor thinking about Barkley Hendricks when he painted this, maybe even Alice Neel, or Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. What do all of these artists have in common? Maybe it’s a devotion to the figure as a site of inquiry, or even love. It is so interesting to see how artists are in an ongoing conversation and exchange of ideas across time, inspiring one another’s creativity.