Meet Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, The Painter Who Inspired Solange’s “Don’t Touch My Hair” Video
The renowned painter’s work left an impression on her new video.
Solange's video for "Don't Touch My Hair," co-directed by the artist herself and her husband Alan Ferguson, is a series of stunning, immaculately styled and choreographed tableaux featuring uniformly dressed black people. Solange cited the work of Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, a British-Ghanian painter who was shortlisted for the 2013 Turner Prize, as an influence on her new album A Seat At The Table. As Twitter user @joshjenks and W Magazine have pointed out, the video for "Don't Touch My Hair" resembles Yiadom-Boakye's work.
Yiadom-Boakye's portraiture has been shown across the United States and Europe. Her rough, sketch-like brushes are one of the signature elements of her style — a deliberate choice, she has said, to "make people intelligible through paint." The video for "Don't Touch My Hair" aims for a more traditional majesty, with cinematography that's part Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon and part Fashion Week. Take a look at some comparisons below.