Laura Leffler reviews the exhibition Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: All Manner of Needs at Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, on view through October 13, 2012.

Leffler writes: "Lynette Yiadom-Boakye paints portraits. More than that, she explores the history of portrait painting. There exists in her works a link between the sitters, poses, even the costumes and colors of artists as diverse as Holbein, Courbet, Manet, John Singer Sargent, Kehinde Wiley, Mickalene Thomas and Barkley L. Hendricks. What makes Yiadom-Boakye’s paintings stand out from these other artists, though, is that Yiadom-Boakye doesn’t paint real people. And yet, she manages not to paint stereotypes or archetypes either."