Meet the artists behind Time magazine and the New Yorker's powerful cover images about police brutality and racism

Natalie Colarossi
Jun 15, 2020,

Titus Kaphar (Left) and Kadir Nelson (Right) both designed magazine covers about police brutality in the US. Getty Images

Time magazine and the New Yorker both commissioned Black artists to create powerful cover images of police brutality and racism.

In Time, artist Titus Kaphar honors victims of racist killings by painting a grieving mother holding a hallowed-out baby, while the red border lists the names of 35 Black Americans who have died at the hands of police or other Americans.

In The New Yorker, artist Kadir Nelson created a piece called "Say Their Names," which includes a painting of George Floyd with the faces of other Black men and women who have been killed.

Both artists have a prominent record of depicting African American history in their work.

Following the death of George Floyd and the massive wave of protests across the US, Time magazine and the New Yorker both commissioned Black artists to create cover images to reflect the issue of police brutality and racism in America.

Both images make a powerful statement at a time when many Americans are grappling with the harrowing reality of systemic racism and violence against Black Americans.

Titus Kaphar and Kadil Nelson are both renowned for their work, and have a prominent history of featuring African American history into their pieces.

Here's a look at their recent pieces, and acclaimed careers.

Titus Kaphar, 'Analogous Colors'

In Time magazine, artist Titus Kaphar created a piece called "Analogous Colors," in which a grieving Black mother holds the silhouette of a child. Kaphar chose to cut the baby out of the canvas to signify the loss of African American mothers whose children have been killed by police or other Americans.

In a poem to accompany the piece, Kaphar writes, "In her expression, I see the Black mothers who are unseen, and rendered helpless in this fury against their babies."

Along the border of the cover, Kaphar lists the names of 35 Black Americans who have been killed in acts of racial violence.

Kaphar was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in 1976. He received an MFA at the Yale School of Art, and has since become a nationally recognized artist whose work has appeared in The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, among many others.

—TIME (@TIME) December 10, 2014

As a multimedia artist, Kaphar has created paintings, sculptures, and installations that often explore ideas of history and representation. According to his website, "his practice seeks to dislodge history from its status as the 'past' in order to unearth its contemporary relevance."

Kaphar works with a variety of materials and methods with the "aim to reveal something of what has been lost and to investigate the power of a rewritten history."

In some of his previous work, Kaphar has investigated the criminal justice system and its relationship to Black Americans. When a series of protests broke out in Ferguson, Missouri, after the death of Michael Brown in 2014, Kaphar created a painting titled "Yet Another Fight for Remembrance," that was also featured in Time magazine.

Throughout his career, Kaphar has received a number of awards, and has since created a program in New Haven, Connecticut, called NXTHVN to give early-career artists opportunities for mentorship and networking.

Kadir Nelson, 'Say Their Names'

In the New Yorker, artist Kadir Nelson created a memorializing cover image in which the faces of 18 Black Americans who have been killed by racial violence are shown within the outline of George Floyd.

The piece, titled "Say Their Names," includes the faces of Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, Trayvon Martin, and Eric Garner, as well as icons of the civil rights movement.

According the Washington Post, Nelson said the cover was a "memorial to all of the African Americans who were and continue to be victimized by the long shadow cast by racism in America and around the globe."

Nelson, 46, practices art in Los Angles and has become widely recognized for his work.


After receiving a BFA at the Pratt Institute in New York, DreamWorks Pictures commissioned Nelson to create pieces for two separate films, including Steven Spielberg's Oscar-nominated film, "Amistad," about a slave uprising on a ship.

This work led him to create children's books about African American history, including, "Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom and Henry's Freedom Box: A True Story of the Underground Railroad," and, "We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball," which was a New York Times bestseller.

In his work, Nelson often focuses on history and heroes within American culture. His art has been featured on the cover of albums by Michael Jackson and Drake, and he has created imagery for National Geographic, HBO, and Nike, among others.

He also has artworks on permanent display in the US House of Representatives, the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, to name a few.

See more of Kaphar's and Nelson's work at their websites.