Benny AndrewsShadow Over the Land

painting of large man on a box surrounded by bodies of water and land with multiple nude figures that are in smaller scale sittnig on land and water
Benny Andrews, Shadows Over the Land, 1966. Oil and collage on canvas, 59 1/2 x 50 1/2 inches. San José Museum of Art. Gift of the Benny Andrews Estate, 2010.18. Photograph by Douglas Sandberg. © Benny Andrews Estate. Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

In his painting Shadow Over the Land (1966), Benny Andrews depicted a watery dreamscape filled with tiny cavorting white nudes, reminiscent of Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights (ca. 1504). A young Black man sits hunched over, larger than his surroundings, solitary, and contemplative. Characteristic of Andrews work, this central figure is expressive and empathetic. Though not explicit portraits, his figures have histories and palpable emotions. As the artist explained of his practice: “Faces talk to me too. I get my painting started and this face is telling me something. . . . I look in the face and I slowly start feeling what this person is supposed to be doing and it guides me.”1

  1. Benny Andrews, in trailer for The Visible Man, L&S Video, posted March 17, 2009, video, 1:00 minute, available at youtube.com/watch?v=umJ0rt3IKbw. ↩︎