The Guardian's art critic reviews Tschabalala Self's new sculpture, Lady in Blue, which has just been unveiled on Trafalgar Square's fourth plinth. Despite initial scepticism about the unveiling's politically charged speeches, the reviewer finds the work itself striking and beautiful, calling it one of the finest pieces yet to occupy the historically vacant plinth, which has hosted temporary artworks since 1999.

The bronze-and-blue statue depicts a striding Black woman in platform shoes, her form drawing on African wood-carving traditions and the bronze faces of medieval Ife queens, while echoing Boccioni's futurist sculpture Unique Forms of Continuity in Space. Its lapis lazuli-blue surface is likened to the ultramarine pigment used in National Gallery paintings nearby, including Bronzino's Allegory With Venus and Cupid. The review situates the work against a backdrop of far-right marches in London, arguing that its power lies less in explicit political messaging than in its joyful, confident celebration of a multicultural Britain.