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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.
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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.