I feel like I always missed out on seeing classical paintings with Black women. I think, subconsciously, I always wanted to see it. So I was like, ‘Why not paint it?
Danielle Mckinney
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In Sandman, Danielle Mckinney explores the transformative power of dreams.
To Danielle, rest is sacred — particularly for the Black women who inhabit her paintings. Her edition’s title, Sandman, refers to a figure in European folklore that brings sleep and pleasant dreams by sprinkling magical sand in people’s eyes. Channeling this mythical figure, Danielle asks who deserves rest, and who is allowed to dream.
At the centre of the print is Danielle’s interpretation of Le Rêve, Picasso’s 1932 painting of his sleeping young mistress. The colour-blocked cubism stands out within Danielle’s earth-toned interior. Underneath the framed Picasso, another sleeping woman sinks into an olive green couch. Although she is fully nude, her depiction seems less voyeuristic than the exposed breast of Picasso’s subject. By including Le Rêve in Sandman, Danielle emancipates the image of the sleeping woman from the white male gaze of art history.
Danielle Mckinney3 collaborationsIntimate and contemplative, Danielle Mckinney paints moments of female solitude. Using acrylic paint on canvas, she puts single figures in homely places. They’re always occupied, whether smoking a cigarette or sitting deep in thought. She draws attention to physical details, using luminous colours. The photographic backgrounds, faces and fingernails are often highlighted in bright orange. She says, "I can’t undo that photographic training – it’s embedded in how I begin a painting". She uses photos of Art Deco interiors from Pinterest and Instagram as a starting point. American painters Barkley L. Hendricks and Kerry James Marshall inspire her. Both had a huge influence on Black American portraiture.
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