Painting

Gooding Girls

Description

Oil and acrylic on canvas painting by Derek Fordjour titled Gooding Girls (2004). The painting depicts two young dark-skinned women standing in a gallery looking at a framed painting of a man. The woman on the left stands taller and faces right, parallel to the painting. She wears a sleeveless pink dress, matching hat, and low-heeled strapped shoes. The brim of her hat covers her eyes, but her white circular earring is visible. She holds the handle of a light green umbrella with both hands. The woman on the right faces the painting and wears a strappy blue dress with a large bow tied at the back. She wears a matching blue hat with a yellow ribbon and matching blue low-heeled shoes. Her face is not visible. She wears a gossamer white shawl wrapped around her shoulders and holds a handkerchief in her left hand, with her right hand propped on her right hip. The painting the woman are examining depicts their father, Calvin Joseph Gooding, in the abstract, wearing a brown suit and holding a wine glass. The light in the painting casts a dome around the women with the painting at the center. A low electrical wall outlet is visible to the left. The painting is signed in the lower left corner.

Historical Notes

LaChanze Sapp-Gooding, the wife of Calvin Joseph Gooding, commissioned the creation of this painting for the law firm of Richards Spears Kibbe & Orbe. The firm had assisted the Gooding family in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. A trader at Cantor Fitzgerald, Calvin was working on the North Tower’s 104th floor on September 11, 2001, when he was killed.

The artwork by Derek Fordjour imagines Calvin and LaChanze’s two daughters, who were small children in 2004, as young women. Together they view a portrait of their late father displayed in an art museum. A halo of light encircles the girls and the painting during this reunion.