This is the iconic cover for the December 16 issue of The New Yorker. The beautiful cover was created by Washington, D.C.-born artist Kadir Nelson, according to the magazine.
The first black president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, died at the age of 95 on December 5.
Nelson described his creation on The New Yorker’s website:
From looking at the photos of the time, I could see that the energy around him was very strong and that his peers were very much with and behind him.
He was clearly a leader. I wanted to make a simple and bold statement about Mandela and his life as a freedom fighter. The raised fist and the simple, stark palette reminded me of posters and anti-apartheid imagery of the nineteen-eighties. This painting is a tribute to the struggle for freedom from all forms of discrimination, and Nelson’s very prominent role as a leader in the anti-apartheid movement.