Othello (paintings) human figures encountered in intimate situations heightened by the contrast of light and dark, and various sexual metaphors. The second part contains about thirty canvases dealing with themes of intrigue, suspicion, and killing making direct references to the characters Iago, Othello, and Desdemona in Shakespeare’s tragedy. They reveal images of aggressiveness, intensity, and violence with webs of turbulent rhythm, whirling forms, and allegorical concepts as a means of conjuring imagery with layers of meanings and symbols that may visually reinterpret the intensity of events leading to Othello killing of Desdemona. Othello (paintings) Othello is a series of paintings executed in
Othello seeing interracial marriages as "aberrations" that could end badly. Given this view of "Othello", the play become especially controversial in apartheid-era South Africa where interracial marriages were banned and performances of "Othello" were discouraged. The first major screen production casting a black actor as Othello did not come until 1995, with Laurence Fishburne opposite Kenneth Branagh's Iago. In the past, Othello would often have been portrayed by a white actor in blackface or in a black mask: more recent actors who chose to 'black up' include Ralph Richardson (1937); John Gielgud (1961); Laurence Olivier (1964); Anthony Hopkins (1981), and Orson