A couple of years ago I discovered lyric singer Nat King Cole and looked through a lot of black and white photographs from that period. One of them shows him with a pale face in the video. It was revealed to be the singer’s confusing make-up during the segregation period. This was the starting point of my search.
An important part of American history was introduced to me by the Great Migration of 1910-1970 and immigration to America, class inequality and the struggle for the rights of African Americans, industrialization and displacement from overcrowd-ed cities to the suburbs, the Great Depression and much more. Where decades later, American culture and demographics reflect the influence of this historical period. I wanted my painting to be a general reminder of those events.
The composition of the painting looks like one story, but in fact it is a complex collage of documentary photographs of the past. My monochrome picture is mixed with the moods, events and sentimentality of the lyrics in my black and white reportage.
Medium
Oil on canvas
Size (h x w)
70 x 100 centimetres
Price
£1,100
