Danielle Mckinney Beyond the Brushstroke

Introducing – Danielle Mckinney Beyond the Brushstroke

This innovative debut book on the artist presents 50 paintings, along with 50 prompts for self-reflection, written by her mother, with journal pages at the back of the book for readers to respond.

Beyond the Brushstroke is a small-sized artist monograph with a big difference. A new kind of hybrid deep dive into an artist, which showcases young rising star Danielle Mckinney’s powerful renderings of inner lives while encouraging readers to explore and nurture their own.

Mckinney’s mother Barbara has written fifty prompts for reflection (each includes a key word, inspirational text, and question) to accompany the fifty featured paintings in the book, but there is also a 48-page journal section at the back for readers to write their own responses.

Introducing – Danielle Mckinney Beyond the Brushstroke

The modest size of the book speaks to the size of the artist’s work - many of McKinney’s paintings are around 20-inches tall, only slightly larger than the book, allowing it to be easily carried and used as a journal. The cover features an image featured on a 2024 Lady Dior bag.

Introducing – Danielle Mckinney Beyond the Brushstroke

Born in Montgomery, AL in 1981, Danielle Mckinney is a rising star in the art world. Her cinematic paintings of the inner worlds of Black women - in moments of rest or contemplation - quickly garnered her a devoted following on social media and subsequent representation by Marianne Boesky Gallery.

Introducing – Danielle Mckinney Beyond the Brushstroke

In terms of composition and technique, her work references the Dutch Old Masters and giants of the twentieth century. Mckinney evokes the work of Matisse while the striking quality of light in her scenes - and its narrative implications - echo the paintings of Vermeer. Her work also addresses a significant gap in representation.

Introducing – Danielle Mckinney Beyond the Brushstroke

Set in dream-like domestic interiors, Mckinney's figures sprawl across unmade beds, lounge in overstuffed armchairs, and splay on the floor in various stages of undress. They smoke, read, and nap; immersed in their own worlds, ensconced in their own space, consumed with rest, pleasure, leisure, and being.

Introducing – Danielle Mckinney Beyond the Brushstroke

“I can show us [Black women] taking a nap and smoking a cigarette, butt naked on a sofa at the end of the day with red fingernail polish,” she recently told The New York Times. “I can show us normal.”

McKinney is a fixture of the Boesky booth at Frieze (her solo booth in 2023 was a sellout success) and Art Basel. Her work is in the collections of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX; the Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; and the Blenheim Art Foundation, Oxfordshire, England, among others. Introducing – Danielle Mckinney Beyond the Brushstroke

Take a look at Beyond the Brushstroke in the store.

Danielle Mckinney: Beyond the Brushstroke Danielle Mckinney, with text by Barbara Mckinney

Price CAD$64.95 Price USD$49.95 Price T49.95

The first book from artist Danielle Mckinney, featuring 50 prompts for self-reflection written by her mother and a 44-page journal for the reader to respond

Danielle Mckinney is a rising star in the art world. Her tender, intimate representations of Black women at rest have garnered her a broad and devoted following.

This innovative debut book is a mother-daughter collaboration: 50 of Mckinney’s paintings appear in dialogue with journal prompts written by the artist’s mother, Barbara Mckinney, an educator who embraces the art of creative expression. Journal pages in the back of the book offer readers a chance to write out their responses to the prompts, inspiring a meditative practice.

Beautifully designed and produced, Danielle Mckinney: Beyond the Brushstroke draws new inspiration from the work of this fresh voice in contemporary American art.

Specifications:

Format: Hardback
Size: 240 × 183 mm (9 1/2 × 71/4 in)
Pages: 256 pp
Illustrations: 50 illustrations
ISBN: 9781580937092

In pensive, cinematic portraits, painter Danielle Mckinney captures solitary female protagonists in moments of leisure and respite. Mckinney’s work is in numerous museum collections including: the Albertina Museum, Vienna, Austria; the Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX; the Detroit Institute of Arts; Detroit, MI; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; the New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA; the Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA; the San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA; the Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY; the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands; and The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY.

Barbara Mckinney is a retired educator and former social worker who embraces the art of creative expression. Her daughter, Danielle, channels this gift into her work, spreading hope and positivity.