logo
A Young Painter Puts Black Nudes Among Old Masters

A Young Painter Puts Black Nudes Among Old Masters

New York Times12-02-2025

When the English artist Somaya Critchlow was at art school around a decade ago, she once showed a tutor a painting she had made of her cousins sitting on a sofa. When the teacher likened it to the glam-realist style of David Hockney, Critchlow was taken aback.
'This sucks,' she recalled thinking. 'That's not what I want to paint.'
Critchlow was developing a deep affinity for the naked form at the time. But that felt at odds with everything she was learning at art school about conceptual art, and everything her feminist mother had taught her about female objectification.
For Critchlow, 31, the shift that happened when modernism took over as the dominant form of artistic expression never resonated. She likes her paintings old — Renaissance era, to be specific. Even Matisse's poetic 'Blue Nudes' series, for example, is not her cup of tea. ('No disrespect to Matisse,' she said.)
This is perhaps why Dulwich Picture Gallery, a London museum known for its collection of over 600 old master paintings, is the perfect place for Critchlow's debut at a major British institution. Her exhibition, 'The Chamber,' running through July 20, is part of the museum's 'Unlocking Painting' program, which puts contemporary painters in dialogue with the works it owns.
Lucy West, a Dulwich Picture Gallery curator who worked on Critchlow's show, said, 'Somaya had so many factors that made her the perfect fit. She grew up close to Dulwich Picture Gallery, so she was a regular visitor as a child. Also, she is a painter who has been endlessly fascinated by the old masters.'
The display features six newly commissioned paintings, all of naked Black women, a signature subject for Critchlow.
The artist said that she was fascinated by the idea of a chamber as a personal room but also a public space. The exhibition title takes its cue from Angela Carter's 'The Bloody Chamber,' a collection of short stories published in 1979. In the title story, a young pianist marries an aristocrat, then later discovers his collection of sadistic pornography and a torture chamber containing the bodies of his three previous wives. Crtichlow said she had long been fascinated by the way in which Carter used volatile stories to explore ideas about 'women with agency.'
Her works were also influenced by Walter Sickert's 1910 essay 'The Naked and the Nude,' Chritchlow said, which draws a distinction between these two states — the former being an art historical trope, and the latter being an intimate expression of the human form.
In one Critchlow painting, a woman perches on a chair, looking backward over her shoulder, with her exposed buttocks as the viewer's focal point. In another, a woman cups her breasts while looking in the mirror.
Critchlow said she had been apprehensive about displaying her mischievous nudes in the Dulwich Picture Gallery's grand spaces, but when she spoke to the curators about it, 'They were just like, 'Oh, we didn't even think about it because we're surrounded by nudes all day in here,'' she said. 'This show really just allowed me to embrace that storytelling and narratives is a big thing.'
She added that she was influenced by the religious stories and myths in works by Peter Paul Rubens and Gerrit Dou, which are displayed alongside her work in the show. She studied those paintings, and others from the Dulwich Picture Gallery collection, while preparing for the commission, she said.
'I got really fixated on oil paint,' she said. 'I ended up doing a lot of research into Goya's palette, Titian's palette, Velázquez's palette.'
In the last five years, Critchlow's nude figures rendered in rich earthy tones have attracted attention and acclaim. Her work has been acquired by major museums in Europe and the United States, including the British Museum, the Institute of Contemporary Art Miami and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.
She started out showing with the New York galleries Fortnight Institute and Efraín López, and had her first British solo show in 2020, at Maximillian William, the London gallery that now represents her. But that show was delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic, and ending up opening in the summer.
'During that time, everything happened with George Floyd, and this moment erupted,' she said. 'My first solo show in London just opened bang in the middle of all that going on.'
With Black Lives Matter driving the news agenda, there was a surge of interest in the work of Black painters, including her own, Critchlow said. 'It put me on the defensive about being included in shows about Blackness. My fears of being reduced were being played out in front of me.'
It wasn't that she believed these shows weren't necessary, she said, but the haste with which institutions rushed to acquire and showcase work by Black artists 'felt like a trend,' she added. 'It didn't feel authentic.'
Easy readings of Critchlow's paintings might throw up buzzwords like reclamation or body positivity, but Critchlow said her work was about neither. 'Because of the politics around being Black and being a woman,' she said, there's some need to see it 'from a purely positive positioning — this need for it to be pure and good.'
Look closely enough, and you'll see that there's a sinister quality to her paintings — a dark humor and absurdity in the way that, at times, the women appear just as menacing as they are beautiful.
There are of course erotic undertones in her work, too. Her figures appear in tantalizing positions, with captivated gazes inspired by Black porn magazines from the 1960s and '70s.
Hilton Als, the New Yorker critic who recently curated an exhibition of Critchlow's drawings at Maximillian William called 'Triple Threat,' is a longtime champion of her work. In an essay for her first solo show at a U.S. institution, at the Flag Art Foundation in 2023, he wrote that 'Critchlow's figures are forceful entities, often alive in their pleasure and the pleasure of being looked at.'
What's clear is that these women are not being voyeuristically observed nor deliberately seductive, but are participants in the act of being seen. 'I paint these women,' Critchlow said, 'but I never feel like they're complacent'
Instead, her paintings seem to be about making the private public, and rebelling against ideas of purity to explore dark curiosities about the body.
Critchlow said that lately, she had been thinking about why Velázquez — the 17th-century Spanish artist with some masterpieces in the Dulwich Picture Gallery collection — didn't paint more conventionally attractive people. 'He looked at the dwarfs in the court,' she said, 'with as much lust and intrigue' as people expect a painter to find in 'more beautiful women.'
'Sometimes, in order to understand something,' she said, 'you almost need to go where it's off limits.'

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

RAYE Admits She Was ‘Scared' to Work With Mark Ronson Over Amy Winehouse Comparisons
RAYE Admits She Was ‘Scared' to Work With Mark Ronson Over Amy Winehouse Comparisons

Yahoo

time33 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

RAYE Admits She Was ‘Scared' to Work With Mark Ronson Over Amy Winehouse Comparisons

RAYE has a pair of collaborations coming out with Mark Ronson, and the British singer nearly shied away from working with the esteemed producer due to his connection to the late Amy Winehouse, whom RAYE has drawn comparisons to. The first collab is titled 'Suzanne' and is slated to arrive on Friday. People caught up with RAYE backstage at Governors Ball in NYC over the weekend, where she opened up about her initial hesitancy to team up with Ronson, who predominantly produced Winehouse's final album, Back to Black, alongside Salaam Remi in 2006. More from Billboard RAYE Explains Why Covering Adele at the 2025 Oscars Was 'Terrifying' 'Democracy Forward' Compilation Features Tracks From Michael Stipe, Wilco, Brandi Carlile, John Prine and Tyler Childers Gracie Abrams Shares Snippet of New Music & Gets Support From an Excited Olivia Rodrigo 'Honestly, I'm not gonna lie, I actually was quite nervous and scared to work with him,' she admitted. 'I just do want to say that I know I can never, ever, ever, ever, ever attempt to replace or imitate Amy. I'm in awe of her. We all are, and we miss her.' RAYE continued: 'It's quite a tough thing to even allow myself to create so freely with him,' she says. 'But I really just wanted to be like, 'Do you know what? I just need to forget what anyone else is gonna say about this.' I absolutely love this producer. I've always wanted to work with this producer since I was a little girl.' Their second collaboration is set to be released later in June, with 'Grandma Calls the Boy Bad News' slated to land on the F1 soundtrack. 'We've made music together that I'm so proud of, and I love,' she gushed. 'I play it, and it makes me happy and joyful, so I'm proud.' The 'Escapism' singer's next album is starting to take shape, but she's stuck without a title for the project, which follows her acclaimed 2023 LP, My 21st Century Blues. 'I don't have an album title,' RAYE said. 'I'm like, 'What is it gonna be called?' It's stressing me out right now, I can't lie, because I've got the music starting to really come there. I just don't know what this album's gonna be called. In my humble opinion, My 21st Century Blues is such a fire album title, and I can't hand in an album title that's less good than that.' Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart

Tom Daley on the 'Lonely' Times Behind the Olympic Successes
Tom Daley on the 'Lonely' Times Behind the Olympic Successes

Newsweek

timean hour ago

  • Newsweek

Tom Daley on the 'Lonely' Times Behind the Olympic Successes

Tom Daley photographed for his documentary - Tom Daley - 1.6 Seconds. Tom Daley photographed for his documentary - Tom Daley - 1.6 Seconds. Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc "It was a very lonely period because no one really understood." British diver Tom Daley was thrust onto the world stage at his first Olympic Games in 2008, age 14. What remained hidden from the public was the strain success at a young age put on him. "It was a very lonely period because no one really understood." Daley reflects on his diving career and life in the new documentary Tom Daley: 1.6 Seconds ( "Growing up, you think you know everything.... It's only when you look back, you realize you knew absolutely nothing." Daley also had to contend with losing his father and coming out as gay. "It was quite scary to finally, actually, come out. Because I knew that it wasn't just going to be telling my family. There was going to be public opinion." And he recounts being bullied while growing up. "I almost felt guilty for being bullied at school. I'm really grateful and really lucky to be in the position that I'm in, yet I'm having this really rough time." Though revisiting the past was hard, the keen knitter is proud of his documentary. "It would be really cool for my kids to have something to look back on and see what happened in my diving career." SUBSCRIBE TO THE PARTING SHOT WITH H. ALAN SCOTT ON APPLE PODCASTS OR SPOTIFY AND WATCH ON YOUTUBE Editor's Note: This conversation has been edited and condensed for publication. Tom Daley of Great Britain with his gold medal won with team mate Matty Lee of Great Britain in the Men's Synchronised 10m Platform Diving at the Tokyo Aquatic Centre at the Tokyo 2020 Summer... Tom Daley of Great Britain with his gold medal won with team mate Matty Lee of Great Britain in the Men's Synchronised 10m Platform Diving at the Tokyo Aquatic Centre at the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games on July 26, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. More Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images What struck me watching the doc is how young you were when we all were introduced to you. What was it like seeing a lot of this old footage while doing the documentary? It was the first time that I'd seen most of that footage, if I'm being honest. Obviously, the Olympic stuff I had seen, but the home video stuff and all the footage—I was reacting for the very first time that I'd ever seen that. It was very surreal to look back at my whole life in that way. I remember watching it back the first time—I was very emotional. Because I was like, "Oh my gosh. This is all the stuff that I did and had to go through." And I kind of felt sorry for younger me and how I was thrust into this thing, not really knowing how to deal with any of it. Not really having any advice or knowing anyone that was going through the same thing. Because growing up in a small town of Plymouth, there weren't many people around that had had any similar experience. That's really it, how watching the doc we can feel how much you were thrust into the spotlight. I look back at it now as a parent as well. My oldest son turned 7 at the end of June, and that was the age I started diving. And I look at that, and I think, "Oh my gosh. That was the age where I started doing all of this stuff." I mean, with Robbie, if he wanted to, great. But it seems so young. And I only thought of it as being young now as a parent, because when I was growing up and I was doing it, I was like, I knew everything. I was an old person. As you're growing up, you think you know everything. And then it's only when you look back, you realize that you knew absolutely nothing. And it was a wild ride to go on, I'll tell you that. Queen Elizabeth II meets the Olympic diving team including Tom Daley (R) at a reception held at Buckingham Palace for the 2008 Great Britain Olympic Team on October 16, 2008 in London, England. Queen Elizabeth II meets the Olympic diving team including Tom Daley (R) at a reception held at Buckingham Palace for the 2008 Great Britain Olympic Team on October 16, 2008 in London, England. Tim GrahamWhy did you want to do the documentary now? Once I released my book in 2021, right after the Olympics in Tokyo, they approached me to do a little bit of a retrospective about my whole career and things like that, because there's so much footage out there from various documentaries that I've done in the past. But then it got to a point where they were like, "Oh, do you want to do something where you look back on everything?" And I was like, "Yeah, that would be great. But also, surprise! I'm also going back to dive again for another year." And it was one of those things that just—I don't know—it always feels weird when people approach you to do things like that. Because you're like, "Oh, what? Who would care? Who's interested in any of that?" But then I actually thought about my kids in that moment. Like, you know what? It would be really cool for my kids to be able to have something to look back on and see what all happened in my diving career. So, if anything, it's like a token—a thing for them, really. The doc also reveals things that I don't think a lot of us knew, like your experience with going back to school after the Olympics, and the bullying you were subjected to. What was it like watching all of that? Very lonely, honestly. It was a very lonely period because no one really understood. I had my best friends—Sophie, who is still my best friend today, who I never spoke to about diving. She's there to be, like, "Yay! That was great." But she doesn't have any interest in knowing what's going on within it. Well, maybe she does have interest. But she doesn't see me just as a diver. She's my best friend. So I think that's something that's really quite nice to have, and I'm really grateful for her. Obviously, I had my parents and my diving teammates, but no one really understood what it was like to be that young when I was going away on team competitions, because they were all so much older than I was at the time. So there was nothing that we had ever in common. So it was a very lonely existence. I almost felt guilty for being bullied at school, because I was like, I never want to bother anyone about this. I'm really grateful and really lucky to be in the position that I'm in, yet I'm having this really rough time. It was like being pulled from one side to the other of like, "Yay, great. I'm succeeding in this." But then, "Oh no, I'm being pulled this way." It was this constant back and forth. It was quite difficult to have that moment where I was just like, "You know what? I feel very alone. I don't really know what to do." That's part of the reason why I think I kept finding myself putting on this other personality to be able to hide from that bit of me that was really struggling. Because I never really wanted to confront it, whether that was being gay, being bullied, knowing that my dad was terminally ill, and having all these things that I had to deal with. I never wanted to come across as the person that felt sorry for himself, because I felt so grateful and lucky to be in the position I was and I didn't ever feel like I was in a position to ever complain about that. How was it grappling with your own sexuality while dealing with all of that at that time? It's really difficult. Going through childhood and growing up is difficult anyway, for anyone. We have all of these things pulling us in different directions, telling us what we should be, shouldn't be, how we should portray ourselves. But it was very difficult to explore who I was sexually because I was always really worried about being caught. Because you know what society says that you should be. So then when there's something wrong with you or you're slightly different, you feel like, "Oh, gosh, I can never actually explore that side of me, because I don't want things to go wrong." And then I was getting advice from different people where it was—it just felt very lonely and a very difficult thing to have to go through and navigate. It was also one of those things that I couldn't tell anyone that I was struggling with that side of things, because as soon as I told someone, that meant I came out, and I wasn't ready to do that. So it was quite scary to finally, actually, come out. Because I knew that it wasn't just going to be telling my family. There was going to be public opinion, and it was scary. But [I'm] very grateful and lucky that it did go way better than I had expected. It's touching in the doc to see the impact your father had on you, and the impact of his passing at such a young age. How hard was it looking at that old footage, and what impact do you think he had on your Olympic success? My dad was a great guy, and he taught me so many valuable lessons I didn't even know he was teaching me at the time. Mainly to not care what anyone else thinks. As long as the people around you are happy and healthy and you're not hurting anyone, you're doing well. And he taught me so much about perspective. But seeing those videos back for the first time when they first came up, oh my gosh, it took me out. I was not ready to be hit with that straight away. I don't know if anyone else feels the same as me, but I feel guilty sometimes about the fact that, as I'm getting older—I lost my dad when I was 17, and of course, I like to think that he comes into my head every single day. But then there's some times where he doesn't—then I'm like, I don't want to forget about him, but I don't know how to feel about it being so present all the time. And just seeing that documentary and knowing that that's there for me to be able to always look back on and cherish those memories is pretty special. Tom Daley (L) and Dustin Lance Black pose at the PFLAG 50th Anniversary Gala at The New York Marriott Marquis on March 3, 2023 in New York City. Tom Daley (L) and Dustin Lance Black pose at the PFLAG 50th Anniversary Gala at The New York Marriott Marquis on March 3, 2023 in New York City. Bruce Glikas/WireImage There's also the impact of your husband, Dustin Lance Black. From the doc it does feel like so much of your life aligned after meeting him, from your marriage to even your Olympic games. Yeah, it gave me a sense of perspective. Of realizing that I'm more than just a diver. That diving isn't what matters most in life. It's all of the stuff on the outside. It's your friends, it's your family, it's feeling loved and supported. And without that, it's really difficult to succeed and not put the tons and tons of pressure on yourself. But when you go into a competition knowing that you're going to be loved and supported regardless of how you do, it's so incredibly freeing, and allows you just to be able to fly in the way that you never thought that you even possibly could. You've accomplished so much at such a young age. What do you do now? Honestly, I spend all my time knitting. There's lots of knitting that happens, which is great. Made with Love, my knitting business, is where my passion lies, and I want to keep expanding. But I also have done different TV hosting things. I just finished shooting a TV show in the U.K. called Game of Wool, which is basically like the knitting version of [The Great British] Bake Off. It's like a competition show. I'm hosting, and then there's two judges, 10 contestants. Each week, someone gets cast off—if you're a knitter, that is a knitting pun, when you cast off your work from your needles. It has been really fun. There's lots of things that we've been doing and working on with that. So yeah, we'll see what comes from that. But ideally, to work in TV hosting and expand my Made with Love passion. Britain's Tom Daley (L) knits in the stands next to Lois Toulson during the men's 3m springboard diving semi-final during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Aquatics Centre in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, on... Britain's Tom Daley (L) knits in the stands next to Lois Toulson during the men's 3m springboard diving semi-final during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Aquatics Centre in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, on August 7, 2024. More OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images How often do people ask you to randomly knit them things? Oh, all the time. I get asked to knit things all the time. And if I knit you something, that means that you're really important. Because I'm so busy with knitting things all the time for different people and different things. I do just genuinely love it. An ideal day would literally just be sitting by a pool—actually, I've done that my whole life—maybe on the beach, let's say. And just knitting the whole day. It's just so therapeutic to me. I often look forward to going on long-haul flights just to be able to have uninterrupted knitting time. Wow. You are going to be a great senior citizen. I know! I'm so ready for being a senior citizen. Well, kind of. Not really. But yeah, I feel like I'm going to be able to pass the time. As long as my hands are still working nicely as I get older. What do you ultimately hope people take from this documentary? I mean, there's so many different things. I think, obviously, never giving up on your dreams and working as hard as you possibly can toward them. But also accepting help, keeping people around you and being able to keep those open lines of communication. Being able to really have a support system around you—whether that's family, whether that's friends—and realize a sense of perspective that you're more than just what you do. And if you take a step back or take a break from what you do, and you see it from a different perspective, it really allows your perspective to shift when you go back into it. So I think that's one thing that I hope people take away from the documentary.

Special item returns to Wetherspoon pubs for Father's Day
Special item returns to Wetherspoon pubs for Father's Day

Yahoo

time5 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Special item returns to Wetherspoon pubs for Father's Day

Wetherspoon pubs in Wiltshire are bringing back a special menu item for Father's Day weekend. The Savoy in Regent Street, The Sir Daniel Arms in Fleet Street, and The Dockle Farmhouse in Bridge End Road will be serving the Brunch Burger from Friday, June 13, until Sunday, June 15. The burger is made with a 6oz British beef patty, American-style cheese, maple-cured bacon, a free-range fried egg, and a British potato hash brown. Read more: Swindon restaurant to reopen after blaze forced diners to flee It will be served with chips, six beer-battered onion rings, and a choice of more than 150 drinks, including regional craft beers. For those choosing a soft or non-alcoholic drink, the meal costs £9.99, while opting for an alcoholic drink will see the price rise to £11.52. Kelly Wood, manager of The Savoy, said: "I am confident that the pub's customers will welcome the return of the Brunch Burger for three days to mark Father's Day weekend." The burger will be available for three days only.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store