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Respond to one of the following prompts.

Prompt 1: Post an artwork by Kehinde Wiley from a museum website or online article. In your own words, describe how it relates to the ideas and content from this week's videos and readings.

Prompt 2: Imagine that you work at a museum that is temporarily putting Kehinde Wiley's artwork in storage. What would you put up in its place? Post an artwork and write about how the replacement artworks fulfills the same goals as Wiley's portraiture.

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Jean-Michel Basquiat's Versus Medici, 1982

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Week 6: Jean-Michel Basquiat  - Stacie Ballin

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Week 6: Jean-Michel Basquiat  - Stacie Ballin

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Jean-Michel Basquiat, born in Brooklyn, New York was an artist most prominently known for the intricacy of his artwork, and how they provoked discussions surrounding race and identity, but also, inequality, and the human experience. A lot of Basquiat's work consists of various colors, shapes, symbols, and even words that work together to portray this idea of urban life. Some of his works feature historical references, pop culture icons, and fragments of Black culture but this specific work, titled "Versus Medici", though not entirely distinct, is incredibly different from what he typically creates.

This work features all of his usual trademarks, the bold colors and lines and blend of text, imagery, and symbols but, in the title of this work, it feels as though he is challenging the dominance of traditional European art. At the time, only certain people were allowed to create art and even then, only certain art was allowed to be displayed and admired. "Versus Medici" not only emphasizes the historical and cultural exclusion of Basquiat's work, and work of others like him, but also highlights the elitism, inequality, and racial/cultural biases within the art space.

I believe that Basquiat's work would make a more than adequate replacement as it touches on the same subjects of Black identity and culture, challenging art norms, and cultural reclamation that Kehinde Wiley does. They may use different mediums/modes of art, and they certainly look different, but I think that the underlying themes of both artists are similar.

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W6: Kehinde Wiley "Alexander Cassatt" | Nyla Hernandez

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W6: Kehinde Wiley "Alexander Cassatt" | Nyla Hernandez

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In Kehinde Wiley's "Alexander Cassatt", the subject is a black man dressed in his own attire with a decorated painted background. The man appears to have custom designer clothes on which leads me to believe it is representing his status. As one of Wiley's aims is to "creative positive images of young black men to counter the negative images in the media", having the subject dressed in designer clothes would go against the stereotype of many black people not having a lot of money. This also connects to Wiley's strategy of using historical artworks and redoing them with black representation. Alexander Cassatt was the founder of Bay Coast Railroad in Pennsylvania and had a similar portrait of him from which Wiley had possibly taken inspiration.

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This sculpture by Kehinde Wiley is relevant to our discussions this week in that it reflects Wiley's choices to often parallel historical works or reflect on current events in his pieces. Although this work was ultimately not selected, Wiley created it for a competition to replace a Central Park statue of a medical researcher who experimented on enslaved women. In this sculpture those women are depicted but in a way that they are forefronted, powerful, and dignified, which is a pattern Wiley continues through many pieces for depicting his subjects. Although this work is not a painting, he uses the ornateness of the winding hairstyles as reference to flourishes in classic regal paintings. This work is also interesting because in most of his pieces he paints Black men, and yet in this work he was able to present Black women in a similar beautiful and powerful light.

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This portrait of Barack Obama is arguably one of Wileys most famous works. Obama is depicted in a well fitted suit, sitting in an intricately carved chair which both suggest extravagance. Wiley is known for painting images of black men where they are shown in a positive, strong light. This portrait of Obama shows a quiet strength, where he is seated in a comfortable but powerful stance, and a very serious expression on his face. Many of Wiley's paintings have the subject surrounded by lush greenery, which, although complex, allows for the main focus to be the person in the middle.

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Kehinde Wiley. Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps, 2005. Oil on canvas, 108 x 108 in. (274.3 x 274.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum

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This painting is part of Kehinde Wiley’s series titled “Rumors of War,” in which the artist reinterprets famous equestrian portraits to explore and reimagine power dynamics. This particular work is modeled after Jacques-Louis David’s "Bonaparte Crossing the Alps" (1800-1801), substituting Napoleon with a contemporary figure. Wiley's large-scale portrait depicts the subject in a traditional pose associated with white European nobility, yet features Black men placed in re-imagined scenes inspired by classical paintings. The ambiguous floral background further distorts the sense of time, lending the piece both contemporary and historical qualities. Wiley's intent is to create positive images of young Black men, countering the negative portrayals often seen in media. This painting exemplifies Wiley's practice of referencing historical artworks to generate new meanings and displays of power, offering a counter-narrative to conventional representations

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The figures in "Three Wise Men Greeting Entry into Lagos" are depicted with regal postures, emphasizing the beauty and power of Black identity. Wiley's use of elaborate, decorative backgrounds adds rich visual complexity and connects this piece to his other works featuring intricate designs. By situating the Three Wise Men in Lagos, Wiley incorporates African cultural elements, reflecting his interest in exploring and celebrating the global Black experience. His highly realistic and detailed portraiture captures the physical likeness and personality of his subjects, a central technique in his artistic practice. Overall, this piece expands Wiley's exploration of identity, culture, and history, making it part of a larger narrative that celebrates Black lives and experiences.

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PAFA - Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

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Kehinde Wiley, "Three Wise Men Greeting Entry into Lagos" (2008) | PAFA - Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

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Kehinde Wiley, "Three Wise Men Greeting Entry into Lagos" (2008). Oil on canvas, 72 x 95 1/4 in. (182.88 x 241.935 cm.). Frances and Joseph Nash Field Fund (2009.20). © Kehinde Wiley.

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Kehinde Wiley, Saint Adelaide, 2014. Stained glass, aluminum frame, H 251 x W 116 cm

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Saint Adelaide is Wiley's first stained glass artwork, the composition a direct parallel of the French academic painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres' work in 1843, for the Chapel of Saint Ferdinand in Paris. Transitioning to the medium of stained glass, Wiley begins to incorporate themes of religion, spirituality, and placing Black people in positions of religious authority, which, in turn, insinuates political influence. As such, religious figures (like saints) are worshipped and looked up to from below, as Wiley's work is rather large and vertical, reminiscent of the Gothic church tradition of verticality, and reaching towards the heavens. Wiley's model holds the orb and spectre, with a deep golden halo surrounding his head. The trainers and outfit of the model juxtapose the usual garb of Christian saints and figureheads, and characterizes the scene as something more familiar, accessible.

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Kehinde Wiley, Officer of the Hussars, 2007

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The painting by Kehinde Wiley was created to reinterpret Theodore Gericault's original work by placing a black subject in the traditional military pose. Born in 1977, Kehinde Wiley was renowned for creating larger-than-life portraits that recast black men and women in historical poses. Similar to what we learned in this week's content, Kehinde is known for painting images resembling historically important poses related to European military portraits. Kehinde's work is often dramatic with dynamic poses of the original portrait with complex themes and complex context. Officer of the Hussars is part of a broader body of work that has attracted attention about race, history, and dynamics within art.

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week 6: Kehinde wiley's "Two Sisters" / Madeline Harris

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week 6: Kehinde wiley's "Two Sisters" / Madeline Harris

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The work above is called "Two Sisters" and is an interpretation of the 1843 portrait by Theodore Chasseriau by the same title. This is common in Wiley's work, to take either the literal embodiment of a white figure, or the seeming "power" of them, and turning them into black figures instead, empowering them in their own right to be viewed in just as beautiful and important of a light. In this way, he challenges historical exclusions and works to reclaims artistical spaces as well as cultural and social places for people of color - basically anyone who is not of Caucasian, European decent, as they have always been the most well-recorded and praised historical figures whether they deserve it or not. Wiley is all about shedding some of that spotlight onto those he feels represents him, his family, his ancestry, which is beautiful. I believe that amongst these sexual assault allegations that have come to light in the past few months, it may cause viewers and previous fans of Wileys work to question the integrity of his mission to dignify his subjects if it comes out that his personal actions are not aligned with high values of character in the slightest, and that his own decisions are inappropriate, crude, and unlawful. It might be hard for fans to then separate the art from the artist - I know it would be for me.

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Aside from having seen his work in print, I first saw the original work of Kehinde Wiley at the 30 Americans exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts in 2015. There I experienced his figure painting Sleep, an 11 X 25-foot oil painting from 2008, with a European Arts & Crafts-designed background. It was breath-taking, even overwhelming. As part of the Rubell Collection, this erotic figure called out as I described in that review, "like a painting of Christ after he was taken down from the cross."

From the few works I saw back then, I was unable to ascertain the larger and broader work of Wiley, that is until his current exhibition at the Toledo Museum of Art, which just opened a large retrospective of Kehinde Wiley, A New Republic, on February 10, 2017. The exhibition presents sixty paintings, sculptures and stained glass works curated by Eugenie Tsai, the Curator of Contemporary Art at the Brooklyn Museum, and is a traveling exhibition.

When I first saw the work in Detroit, I asked myself: Is this about the scale of portraiture with decorative backgrounds? But one needs to see the scope of this exhibition to realize this is not about scale, as there are many small and intimate paintings that dispel that first impression. Wiley had taken his early study of art and acquired experience from undergraduate school at the San Francisco Arts Institute and combined it with an MFA from Yale to begin a crusade.

Entering the exhibition, it was the painting in the first room, Conspicuous Fraud, Series #1, from 2001, Wiley's last year at Yale, that I went back to after seeing the entire exhibition. The work seems like a major departure, a step forward that puts him on a trajectory that he develops and elaborates on over the next fifteen years. The painting is larger. We see an African American male in a suit with meandering black clouds. He notably breaks with the picture plane, clouds in both background and foreground. The larger than life figure in this painting disturbs the tropes of portraiture painting and intentionally elevates the subject's status, juxtaposed to all preexisting social stereotypes. The road ahead is established and paved here in 2001. The idea of portraying young black men in power positions, be they political, social, or religious, will become Wiley's focus, beginning in the United States on the streets of Harlem, but eventually expanding to include Senegal, Dakar, Rio de Janeiro and Mumbai, ultimately to become what Wiley would describe as the World Stage.

With his accomplished technical set of tools in hand, at Yale the issues that honed his perspective would be discussions surrounding identity, sexuality, gender and symbols of political power. The exhibition A New Republic focuses on African American males, Old Master portraiture and backgrounds, and then moves on to African American women, stained glass and sculpture.

"The magnitude of this exhibition will impress even those familiar with Wiley's work," said Brian P. Kennedy, TMA director, president and CEO. "He has taken the grandeur of portrait painting and translated it with his portrayals of contemporary African American men and women. Wiley bridges the gap between traditional portraiture and our daily lives, and in doing so, he raises questions about identity and how we perceive ourselves and others."

Growing up in South Center Los Angeles in the late 1980s, Wiley began studying art early on, spending time in museums and seeing how the figure was presented over the last three hundred years. Africans were depicted as slaves, then servants, and ultimately as drug dealers, gang members and inciters of violence.

Wiley says, "Painting is about the world we live in. Black people live in the world. This is my way of saying yes to us."

What seems to develop gradually is a complex multi-layered approach to his feelings about the lack of African Americans depicted in a positive way. He uses scale, Old Master settings, elaborate background patterns, and changes to the picture plane, all part of his tool bag to express the beauty and grandeur of normal people, something that has become his passion. He expands exponentially to include women, sculpture, stained glass and smaller paintings framed as if they were part of a cathedral altarpiece. All of this is an effort to attack the lack of existing works that depict African American subjects in a positive way. He has taken on the mission-I began by referring to it as a crusade-as one man, one artist, to fill the void in the complete history of Western Art.

Wiley comments, "What I wanted to do was create a body of work in which empathy and the language of religious and the rapturous all collide in the same place." What does the coin he holds say? "In God We Trust?" On closer observation, it replicates the Roman coin used in Hans Memling's Man with a Roman Coin, 1471, oil on a panel.

Wiley says, "There is something to be said about the power of smallness. As an artist who is in love with the material practice of painting, I can't help but be amazed every time I look at Hans Memling's small panel portrait...the simplicity of the small mark made well."

An aspect of Wiley's portraiture painting is the issue of his breaking the picture plane, using the background and then bringing it forward over the subject. This goes back to paintings by the Old Masters, where there was a sense that it was necessary to preserve the integrity of the picture plane, to provide a flatness under and above the illusion of three-dimensional space, a technique discussed by Clement Greenburg in his essay "Modernist Painting" in which he talks about this concept being used in modern art as well. Wiley knows this all too well and intentionally works against this concept to say to his viewer, this is not photorealism, in case you were wondering. The element is playful, colorful, spatial and defiant.

Kehinde Wiley seems inspired by historical paintings of aristocrats and royalty where he uses his models-many cast in the streets of Harlem-and has them do dress-up for his photo sessions. My guess would be that he begins with high-resolution images captured in the studio with the precise control of light. The images are then projected onto a large linen canvas where the drawing begins, including the intricate backgrounds, using skilled assistants to save time. He probably works with oil paint primarily on the figure(s), while the antique and wallpaper-like backgrounds are painted using others.

Looking back through art history at paintings by Titian, Gainsborough and Ingres, Wiley projects heroism onto his black men and women as subjects who are missing from the history of Western art. He has developed his own distinct vocabulary from these Old Masters settings juxtaposed with these young, quintessential models. A New Republic, as a state in which supreme power is held by people through their elected representatives, is code for new representatives missing from our past.

Wiley delivers these skillful masterpieces to provoke a conversation about gender, race, politics and religion.

Toledo Museum of Art Kehinde Wiley, A New Republic, February 10 - May 14, 2017

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Aside from having seen his work in print, I first saw the original work of Kehinde Wiley at the 30 Americans exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts in 2015. There I experienced his figure painting Sleep, an 11 X 25-foot oil painting from 2008, with a European Arts & Crafts-designed background.

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Saint Adrian (2006) by Kehinde Wiley-- N.Olidan

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Saint Adrian (2006) by Kehinde Wiley-- N.Olidan

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This is the first piece I saw by Wiley in person at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art. Kehinde Wiley's "Saint Adrian" reimagines Hans Holbein the Younger's 16th-century painting by placing a contemporary African American man as the saint. This powerful cultural statement critiques the lack of representation of black individuals in historical art resonating with the week's exploration of how contemporary artists address historical exclusions and reclaim narratives of empowerment. The vibrant colors and intricate details draw viewers in while the subject prompts critical reflection on race and status, mirroring our discussions on how art can simultaneously captivate and challenge societal norms. Wiley's decision to portray a modern black man as "Saint Adrian" redefines heroism and addresses the significance of seeing oneself reflected in cultural narratives, a theme emphasized in this week's material.

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Kehinde Wiley's 'The Virgin Martyr Cecilia (Ndey Buri),' 2022

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Week 6: Kehinde Wiley: The Virgin Martyr Cecilia By Nevaeh Hearn

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Week 6: Kehinde Wiley: The Virgin Martyr Cecilia By Nevaeh Hearn

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Kehinde Wiley’s The Virgin Martyr Cecilia (Ndey Buri) is a striking and thought-provoking work. In this piece, Wiley portrays Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of musicians, in a manner that challenges the normal representations of saints, as white. He features a Black woman as the central figure, celebrating the life and contributions of Cecilia but also addressing the broader themes of representation and identity within art. By placing a modern Black figure in a position typically reserved for white figures in classical art, Wiley critiques the historical exclusion of Black individuals from narratives of cultural and religious significance. The vibrant colors and floral patterns in the background are signature elements of Wiley's style, merging elements of contemporary portraiture with traditional art forms. This not only enhances the visual impact of the piece but also emphasizes the relationship between past and present, tradition and innovation.

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"Jacob de Graeff" (2018) by Kehinde Wiley

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For this week I chose, "Jacob de Graeff" by Kehinde Wiley, which was featured in the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. This piece depicts a young African American man in contemporary clothing, wearing a "Ferguson" cap. This piece shows us Wiley's "street casting" technique, where he places everyday individuals in the context of grand European portraiture, challenging historical norms and power structures. This is a concept we covered in class lectures so I wanted to expand more on it :) The inclusion of the "Ferguson" cap connects the artwork to contemporary social issues and the Black Lives Matter movement, highlighting the ongoing fight for racial justice. I think this is particularly relevant to our generation given this is an event we lived through. Wiley's work aligns with discussions on inclusivity and the recontextualization of art history as it subverts traditional narratives and invites viewers to reconsider the representation of power and identity in art. I think this is a fantastic piece, so I thought I would share it!

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Kehinde Wiley, Femme Piquée par un Serpent (Mamadou Gueye), 2022.

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Femme Piquée Par Un Serpent | Marcella Martin

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Femme Piquée Par Un Serpent | Marcella Martin

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Like Wiley's other works, this painting is a modern take on a classical artwork - Woman Bitten by a Serpent by Auguste Clesinger. It is typical of Wiley's work as this piece showcases a colorful, ornate patterned background. Yet, the pattern used in this painting holds a nice balance between vibrant warm tones and muted cool tones. This artwork is Wiley's response to the violence that Black men experience under police brutality. Wiley conveys his message by placing his subject in a similar pose to Clesinger's piece. I find this piece to be interesting since at first glance it can seem that the subject is resting peacefully, but a clue such as the subject's twisted foot implies that the subject may have suffered.

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WK 6:Kehinde Wiley "Anthony of Padua" | Josh Katamba

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WK 6:Kehinde Wiley "Anthony of Padua" | Josh Katamba

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In this painting, Wiley reimagines Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’s stained glass window of Saint Anthony in the Chapelle Saint-Ferdinand (Paris, 1842–43) as an African American man. This approach aligns with his practice of inviting young people he encounters in public spaces to his Harlem studio, where they model in their own attire. In Ingres's stained glass design, Saint Anthony is depicted holding the infant Christ, a Bible, and a lily, symbolizing poverty and humility. Wiley, however, portrays his subject holding a scepter and a book, emphasizing ideals of worldliness and empowerment. The man's military-grade jacket, adorned with patches—including one referencing the Black Panther Party, founded in 1966 with an ideology of Black nationalism and self-defense against police brutality—reinforces these notions of power. By incorporating elements of the sitter's identity, Wiley challenges the conventions of portraiture and questions the unspoken rules of art history.

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Kehinde Wiley's Shantavia Beale II is a striking portrait that exemplifies his signature style of blending classical European art traditions with contemporary African American subjects. The painting features Shantavia Beale, a young Black woman, posed in a regal and empowered stance, set against an ornate, floral background that contrasts vividly with her modern appearance. Wiley draws on the tradition of grand portraiture to elevate his subject, challenging historical depictions of power and beauty that have traditionally excluded people of color. The intricate patterns in the background are reminiscent of Baroque and Rococo art, yet the subject herself embodies a powerful presence that redefines the notion of who is worthy of such artistic treatment. Through Shantavia Beale II, Wiley continues his exploration of identity, representation, and the reclamation of space for Black figures in the canon of art history.

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Kehinde Wiley: “A Portrait of a Young Gentleman”

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Kehinde Wiley's A Portrait of a Young Gentleman (2021) directly engages with historical art traditions while challenging the absence of Black and brown bodies in classical European portraiture. Inspired by Thomas Gainsborough’s The Blue Boy (ca. 1770), the painting creates a dialogue between past and present, tradition and innovation. By using the same title as Gainsborough's original, Wiley draws attention to the contrasts between historical depictions of wealth and nobility and his contemporary reinterpretation, which highlights representation and power dynamics in art.

Wiley’s work places a young Black man in a pose traditionally reserved for European aristocracy, challenging the conventions of portraiture and societal structures. This thematic exploration aligns with the course content, demonstrating how art can reflect and reshape societal values. Wiley’s reimagining of classical paintings with modern, diverse subjects questions who is considered worthy of being immortalized in art, offering a reimagined history that includes previously marginalized voices.

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The Virgin Martyr St. CeciliaArtist (Honor Goldberg)

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The Virgin Martyr St. CeciliaArtist (Honor Goldberg)

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Kehinde Wiley's The Virgin Martyr St. Cecilia (2008) reimagines the traditional Christian martyr painting, in which Wiley depicts a young Black lady in the position of St. Cecilia, musicians' patron saint. The subject is dressed in current clothes yet poses in a manner reminiscent of classical religious art, surrounded by the bright, detailed patterns that are characteristic of Wiley's work. This piece challenges conventional representations of holiness and divinity, emphasizing the beauty and dignity of characters who frequently get left out of these stories.

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Amy Sherald. Portrait of First Lady Michelle Obama. 2018

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An artist’s work that could potentially replace Wiley’s in the sense that it fulfills similar goals with portraiture is Amy Sherald. Amy Sherald also reimagines traditional portraiture on a large scale that aims to uplift Black subjects. Sherald’s work, like Wiley’s, centers on Black identity and representation, offering dignified and powerful images that celebrate African American culture and counteract stereotypical portrayals. These portraits often exude power, elegance, and cultural identity as she incorporates elements into the dress of her subjects that connect to African American heritage. A prime example is her portrait of Michell Obama (a direct correlation to Wiley’s portrait of Brack Obama). Sherald’s portrait of Michelle Obama marks a historic moment, as it was the first official portrait of a First Lady (and of the first African American to serve as a First Lady) by an African American woman artist. This is deeply significant in terms of representation, offering a powerful image of a Black woman in a position of cultural and political influence. The dress Obama wears displays geometric patterns, and abstract shapes that evoke African textiles, connecting the image to African American cultural heritage and the broader African diaspora. Overall, the portrait challenges the traditional imagery associated with First Ladies, placing a strong, graceful Black woman in a context that historically excluded people of color, and shows her in a position of significant leadership and power while incorporating cultural heritage.