ART DESCRIPTION
This piece is a work on paper from the major portraiture series of 2006-11 entitled ‘Is Is It’, a radical exploration into portraiture. The composition from this work is based on The Portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan by Giovanni Bellini which Barry often visited at The National Gallery, London. This work is signed using a circular Plaster motif that begins to function as a signature from this date on.
These works are a celebration of the stance, power, pomp and ceremony that we see in traditional portraiture. This is also where Kamen begins to reconfigure these traditional portrait styles to include the Black experience (something that had been begun in fashion with Buffalo). Later, this theme would become a central concern of some of the most important contemporary portraitists of our time, including Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald, with radical results.
These works are also a precursor for some of Kamen’s most creative styling, in which he mixes Tudor imagery such as ruffs, chainmail and other historical pieces of ceremonial clothing with streetwear and couture. Styling from this period can be seen in the influential 'Monarchy in the UK' series, shot by Jamie Morgan, for Arena Homme+ magazine (Fall/Winter 2009).
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