Visit shop: limited edition Carlos Acosta prints

The portrait Carlos Acosta is my emotional response to meeting Carlos Acosta, world-renowned ballet dancer and newly appointed Director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet. I created the portrait in the context of winning Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2020, a televised portraiture competition in the UK. The prize was a commission to produce a portrait of Carlos for the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery.

During the summer of 2020 I met with Carlos for series of sittings. The purpose was to get to know him and to do some initial sketches and studies. During this short time, we formed a very genuine and personal connection. We discovered that our lives drew unexpected parallels and our meeting came at a time when we were both embarking on exciting new creative adventures.

Carlos was open, warm-hearted and straight-talking. He generously shared stories of his challenging early life in Cuba and his journey into dance. His story is extraordinary. As a Black man with raw talent who came from humble beginnings, his rise to the top of the ballet world is as inspirational as it is unexpected.

Carlos posed and danced while I sketched him. His athleticism and power are impressive, and the poetic way in which he moves his body is ethereal and captivating. He glows. To Carlos, moving is like breathing, instinctive and effortless. He talked passionately about his love for all forms of dance: ballet, contemporary dance and breakdancing. It was important to me that the portrait celebrated Carlos’s magical ability for movement, an innate gift that has been so influential in shaping the direction of his life.

Aside from Carlos’s formidable physical ability, his emotional tenacity, humbleness and willingness to be vulnerable made a deeper impression on me. He is a person who is open to ideas, brave enough to take risks and confident in his own skin. These are attributes that he is drawing on more than ever in this moment as he explores his new role as the Director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet. The portrait needed to reveal this side of Carlos; a complex, thoughtful and imaginative artist behind the leading man image that is presented on stage.

The portrait was commissioned by the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. I felt an immediate affinity with the institution due to many happy childhood summers spent with my family in the city. The museum is also home to one of the most important collections of Pre-Raphaelite art anywhere in the world. This movement has always been a great source of inspiration to me. Scratch the surface of the decorative, floral arrangement of their works and a more complex story is revealed.

I wanted to express the complexities of Carlos and his experiences through a similar layering of narratives. While visiting the museum I was inspired by a collection of Six Studies for the Briar Rose Series: ‘The Garden Court’ by Edward Burnes-Jones. They depict six young women sleeping in graceful and varied poses in the court of palace of the Sleeping Beauty. As they sleep peacefully under an enchantment, these figures represent to me the promise of awakening, the hope of overcoming adversity and the possibility of what is yet to come.

The ideas that formed while meeting Carlos and visiting the museum were influential in the creation of the final work. The portrait shows Carlos awakening in a dream-like state. It is a moment in time in which the impossible is possible. He is completely absorbed in the unfolding movement of his arms because at his very core is the intuitive and instinctive language of dance.