‘black-ish’
something that brings forth the best part of ourselves, hopefully.”
With his painting for “black- ish,” Nelson sees himself following the path of the late artist Ernie Barnes, whom he described as a mentor. “The Sugar Shack,” Barnes’ joyous painting of a music club, was used in the 1970s sitcom“Good Times” and as cover art for Marvin Gaye’s 1976 album “I Want You.” Nelson’s art has appeared on album covers including Drake’s “Nothing Was the Same.”
Nelson’s painting will be the basis for “black-ish” print, digital and other promotion in its seventh season, based on a high-resolution image of thework that he has retained. The artist anticipates that the original will end upwith a collector.
In 2017, he created another work for “black-ish,” this one used in the “Please, Baby, Please” episode that was a lament on social and environmental ills and took sharp jabs at at President Donald Trump. Shelved by ABC, it saw the light of day when Disney corporate sibling Hulu released it earlier this year.
ABC said Nelson was “the first artist on the list” for the family portrait, citing his contribution to “Please, Baby, Please” and his recent works for The New Yorker and Rolling Stone. The latter used Nelson’s “American Uprising,” depicting a woman and child at the forefront of a protest march, to illustrate a Black Lives Matter cover story.
In developing the concept for the “black- ish” painting, the network and the show’s producers gave him “pretty much free reign,” Nelson said, and a sketch sold them on the idea of the Johnsons coping together despite the pandemic quarantine.
Like “The Cosby Show” before it, Nelson said, “black-ish” depicts a successful family with humor and warmth, headed by professionals (dad is an advertising executive, mom a medical doctor) who are attentive parents.
While the Johnsons face issues common to all Americans, providing a Black family’s perspective allows the series to hit “very key points that we all need to think about,” he said.
“And we have to talk about them to provoke conversations, to inspire conversations and and inspire action,” Nelson said.