Verbal Description Transcript: Self Portrait – Masked, painted in 2020. Oil on paper. About 3 feet 3 inches high by 2 feet 4 inches wide. This painting shows just the head and neck of a Black man, the artist, wearing a Covid-style face mask. The mask covers the lower part of his face, from the bridge of the nose down. Above the mask, his eyes look directly out at the viewer. His head is tipped slightly to his right – that’s our left as we face the picture. His dreadlocked deep brown hair is pulled into a knot on the top of his head; the top of the knot is cut off by the upper edge of the paper. The hair above his ears appears to be shaved. The mask itself is printed with the same pattern that appears in several other works in the exhibition. It is a pattern of tulip-like flowers in dark reddish brown, with twisting green stems and leaves. The pattern repeats against an off-white background. The straight upper edge of the mask has a dark brown border. The artist’s signature appears on the lower part of the mask. The bare neck beneath the mask has been rounded off at the base of the throat. This gives the impression of a crewneck shirt collar, though no shirt or body is shown below the neck. The disembodied head and neck float against a white background, with hints of gray in the brushwork. The skin is created in Boafo’s signature style, with thick smears and streaks of paint, in contrast to the flatter texture of the patterned mask and background.