The cover of the most recent New Yorker, “A Day at the Beach” by Kadir Nelson:
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Françoise Mouly’s “cover story” from the 4th (in its entirety):
“I grew up close to the shore, and I have always loved spending time at the beach,” the Los Angeles-based artist Kadir Nelson says of his cover for this week’s issue. “When I was young it meant time with my dad, and now that I’m a father myself I relish the long summer days spent with my own children.”
Mouly and Nelson together are deliberately framing the painting as just another depiction of Americans enjoying summer pleasures, of the sort the magazine has done many dozens of over the years. And so it is. But of course it shows a black (or, as Nelson himself would prefer, Black) man and his children enjoying the beach — and in this season of Black Lives Matter, it’s a powerful assertion of the humanity of Black people. In this context, Nelson’s cover is a political statement, entirely in line with the bulk of his work, which affirms the dignity of Black people and celebrates their heroisms.
