Study for Portrait of Oppression (Homage to Black South Africans) 1985

Benny Andrews made this study for a portrait using paint and collage on canvas. Look at how Andrews builds the face with these bold, flat shapes. The black and blue areas give way to these fleshy pinks around the edge. I’m always interested in how artists decide what to leave out, what to render, and what to suggest. There's this ragged white t-shirt, made of actual fabric, glued onto the canvas. Notice the tears and the stains, and the suggestion of an arm rendered in plain canvas beneath. The texture is incredible, right? Then there’s that chain on the left, painted so starkly in black and white. It’s heavy, like it's hanging right there in front of us. Andrews uses these contrasts and materials to give the work a really raw, visceral feel. Thinking about artists who use collage in painting reminds me of Romare Bearden. Like Bearden, Andrews invites us to see the world in fragments, and to find meaning in the juxtaposition of different materials and textures.