Kehinde Wiley is one of America's most intriguing artists. His work often pulls subjects of African descent into ornate, romantically inspired fusions of organic pattern and fluorescent color. Sometimes his subjects walk through a snowstorm of wrinkled dollar bills, and other times they walk out of a wall of flowers. Kehinde often paints his subjects in 'street clothes,' as opposed to the polished formal wear often found in French romantic painting, and it seems a determined bourgeois insertion into a style that--at least in my mind--I associate with French power, French confidence.
Wiley is about to receive an exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, which I would like to see if I get the chance. But you can find his work in museums all over the country.
Here is a jpeg of his painting at the Blanton, though computers poorly communicate the effect of seeing his paintings in the context of a museum:
Wiley is about to receive an exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, which I would like to see if I get the chance. But you can find his work in museums all over the country.
Here is a jpeg of his painting at the Blanton, though computers poorly communicate the effect of seeing his paintings in the context of a museum:
Kehinde Wiley, Le Roi à la Chasse [The King at the Hunt], 2006. Oil on canvas. Promised gift of Julie Blakeslee and John Thornton.
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