Elizabeth Colomba

Winter, oil on canvas, 72” x 36,” 2017, from Elizabeth Colomba’s Four Seasons series. Photographed by Anton Corbijn for Vogue, October 2018. 

Sometimes research takes one on interesting journeys. It birthed from Mary Ann Caws’ Modern Art Cookbook (a 2013 published book of recipes inspired mostly by white male artists) to dreaming of a cookbook inspired by Black women painters. Do Black women paint food? Was the question valid, appropriate? Enter one of the discovered ladies from that project— Elizabeth Colomba. She is a realist painter gorgeously capturing not only the tone and density of a bowl of succulent fruit, but also the form and gesture of a Black woman metaphorically moving through various histories.

Delilah, oil on canvas, 24” x 30.” Elizabeth Colomba’s official website. 

Elizabeth Colomba was born in Epinay-sur-Seine, France, 1976. She is of Martinique origin (a country in the lower part of France). As a naturally talented girl, she painted watercolors for her parents restaurant growing up, eventually furthering an ardor for art— studying at Ecole Estienne and the Ecole nationale superieure des Beaux-Artes in Paris.

The Library, oil on canvas, 36” x 36,” 2005. Vogue. 

Daphne, oil on canvas, 36” x 24,” Elizabeth Colomba’s official website. 

Colomba’s striking figurative paintings weave Black women into complex arrangements. Highly detailed and symmetrical compositions speak of historical European traditions with a fresh, imaginative twist— these Black women are not models or servants intended for the white gaze (such as Manet’s notably used Laure) painted by white artists. Colomba controls their narratives in a compassionately humanizing approach, giving them a meaningful, full-bodied purpose, an engagement beyond beautiful, exotic prop.

The link between referencing the period and shifting the role of Black women is strongly suggested. They wear fine bodice gowns with their heavy heads of hair unbound and are surrounded in draperies and elegant patterns. Yet they are in carefully modeled rooms of wealth, a wealth of objects and knowledge. The figures themselves are internal, pensive, seeming to always be in deep thought. That in itself is a fascinating feature— for a negative stereotype of Black women is that they are not thinkers, unintelligent, ghetto.

Mary in the Hall, oil on canvas, 30” x 40.” Elizabeth Colomba’s official website. 

Laure (Portrait of a Negresse), oil on canvas, 40” x 40,” 2018. Vogue. 

The power of representation is important. For me, what is foremost is not to erase history but to expand the narrative. It’s important to create a representation of black people which deviates from the expected roles portrayed in Western visual culture. I use aesthetics as a way to raise questions about class and race as defining aspects in a society in which blacks are to be included in the abstract ideals of beauty, freedom, and equality,” Colomba says in response to the hopeful takeaway of her paintings, In Style.

Shekere Girl, watercolor on paper, 11 1/2” x 8 1/2,” 2012. Vogue. 

Colomba defies the way the art world sees Black women. Her portraits incorporate the dignified style   and grace of a specific body whose very skin, features, and hair often duplicated (stolen and replicated often without due credit) cannot be obtained, cannot be captured in shackles. Her patterns, her braids, locs, and thick, heavy mane of curls are eloquently defined in Colombo’s sea of symmetry and iconography. Authority and integrity combine to build up her much needed presence on canvas, a place to find undeniable validity.

Elizabeth Colomba photographed by Carla Phillips for In Style, her Harlem studio, May 2, 2019.

Elizabeth Colomba currently works in New York City and has had work exhibited throughout the globe most recently at Musee D’Orsay in Paris, France. The upcoming CCH Pounder collection opens later this month at the Charles Wright Museum in Detroit, Michigan. She has been featured in The New York Times, Vogue, In Style, and other publications.