“Ever since I first stumbled across Peter’s portraits on Twitter, I’ve been captivated by his sharp wit, innovative costuming, rich range of visual reference, and the sheer joy of each image. This is a book that will enchant and intrigue and educate. I’m thrilled by the beauty and fun and history on every page.”
—Samira Ahmed, BBC broadcaster
“This highly entertaining book is a breathtaking visual explosion in which Brathwaite reimagines a wide variety of portraits of Black people in a stunningly creative way. This brilliant concept is not only an original visual treat but also an important historical work that focuses on Black portraiture across the centuries.”
—Baroness Floella Benjamin DBE, actress, presenter, broadcaster, and parliamentarian
“Brathwaite brings a novel innovative way into considering the Black presence in art, creating another dimension to consider and reflect on the original work, helping us not just to engage more deeply with the composition and its subject but bringing the Black presence to life, re-creating it for us today in a thoroughly modern and highly relevant manner—an exciting Black visual tour de force!”
—Michael I. Ohajuru FRSA
“A truly compelling visual feast that reanimates the archives of Black portraiture in the present. Brathwaite brings lost souls back into view in a meditation on Black presence within art’s histories. Accompanied by a moving commentary on his own experiences as what he terms ‘a rare breed’ of Black British opera singer encountering career-long racism, Brathwaite retells narratives of Black historical subjects in order to return dignity and agency to their otherwise so-often ‘submerged lives’. Essays from renowned scholars Cheryl Finley, Temi Odumosu and Mark Sealy amplify Brathwaite’s sensitive and poetic narrative account, as well as the extraordinarily vibrant and ambitious photographic reconstructions of historic artworks reproduced here in glorious colour. This is one of the most moving and joyous aesthetic legacies of Covid times and a triumph of creative endeavour.”
—Professor Dorothy Price FBA, Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art and Critical Race Art History, Courtauld Institute of Art
“Peter Brathwaite’s oeuvre defies neat categorization: Is it art, performance, autobiography, or art historical essay? He has blended these modes to make work that is joyful, original, and poignant. It is important and timely. To restage Black portraiture, from the Domesday Book to Kehinde Wiley, Brathwaite gets inside the lives and worlds of each sitter and brilliantly rediscovers, reclaims, and re-presents Black (art) history for modern audiences. His empathetic performances give agency to the people portrayed and breathe warmth and life into what was previously frozen; he reminds us that Black historical lives matter too.”
—Lucy Peltz, Head of Collections Displays (Tudor to Regency) and Senior Curator, 18th Century Collections, National Portrait Gallery
“Rediscovering Black Portraiture is a delight to browse through and instructively thought-provoking for readers with an interest in Black Pop Culture Artwork and Photography.”
“This publication will captivate readers and inspire meaningful dialogue about the transformative potential of art in shaping our understanding of the world.”
