Night Coming Tenderly, Black: Untitled #4 (Leaves and Porch)
- Artist: Dawoud Bey
- Date: 2017, printed 2020
- Medium: Photograph, gelatin silver print on paper, mounted on aluminium
- Dimensions: image: 1118 × 1388 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
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About this artwork
This is the “Night Coming Tenderly, Black: Untitled #4 (Leaves and Porch)” by Dawoud Bey, 2017 printed 2020. It’s a gelatin silver photograph on paper, mounted on aluminium. The image shows a dark, leaf‑covered porch at night, a rural scene that evokes the Underground Railroad. The absence of people places you inside the frame, reflecting your own image, and invites you to imagine the fugitive journey. The work draws on DeCarava’s mastery of blackness and the poem “Night coming tenderly/Black like me” by Langston Hughes. It reimagines the secret routes in Ohio toward Canada. The series invites deep looking; details emerge as you linger. This piece is a quiet, powerful reminder of resilience and the search for freedom.
See it in person
Night Coming Tenderly, Black: Untitled #4 (Leaves and Porch) is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
