Facilitating dialogue to promote open and multi-faceted discussion and awareness

Here’s a couple of reasons why you should know about Kehinde Wiley:

1) He’s an incredible painter

2) He’s combining urban and ethnic males with poses from classical art periods such as the Renaissance and Baroque

3) He’s making rich white people pay a lot of money to him for it.

Good work Kehinde!

Seriously though, Kehinde Wiley is getting a lot of buzz in the Art world.  It’s been a long time since someone has become famous for representational figurative painting. Currently,  there’s a lot of buzz for street artists, kitsch and the weird. Jeff Koons and Murakami have had artwork on display at Versailles in France. It’s ridiculous. It makes me angry. An explanation of why will be saved for another time because that’s an entire post in itself.

Kehinde Wiley is different though. He’s following in the steps of, and being compared to, the likes of Rembrandt, Caravaggio and Titian. That’s a big deal. Each of those guys is considered to be a master of portrait painting. They’re also all dead and have been for at least 100 years. Wiley on the other hand is only 34 years old and has a Masters degree in Art from Yale.

Wiley’s paintings use a strange, but connected, combination of contemporary Urban or “Street” Culture and poses from classical art, specifically the Baroque period. These two groups separated by a lot of time have quite a bit in common.  The Baroque period was characterized by a rejection of Renaissance ideas, specifically religious, and ornate designs with a lot of gold. It also made a point of being dramatic and wanted everyone to know about by being purposefully colorful and garish. Wiley is using these baroque characteristics to comment on current Urban cultures ideas of self-entitlement and the thought that objects and fashion determine rank and importance.

Interesting.

You can see these similarities in Wiley’s painting “Triple Portrait of Charles II” and any portrait of Charles II from the late 17^th century.

Wiley’s model wears a puffy silver jacket and he fills the painting with filigree. Paintings of England’s King Charles II show him in puffy white or silver clothing and ornate designs. Throwback.

I, personally, love Wiley’s paintings. If you look at his website you can see a definite progression in his work and his understanding of paint and color is unbelievable. He is as good at painting flat colors as he is skin and fabric which are two totally different ways to paint. Flat colors take a lot of paint applied evenly and skin and fabric take a lot of thin layers applied in a specific order. Realistic figure painting is one of the hardest things in art to do well and Wiley nails it. My favorite collection on his website is the ‘Down at Deitch Projects New York, NY’ gallery.  The first picture in the gallery “Down” is incredible in both its size and execution and you can see the obvious connection that Wiley makes with his model and Jesus.

The only current Wiley exhibit is in California but I know friends have seen single pieces of his artwork in other places. So, it’s out there. Also, there’s a lot more to come. Wiley has his next 40 pieces commissioned and he’s auctioning off pieces at Sotheby’s. I like that thought of paintings of young men in track jackets and low slung jeans being sold to a bunch of old, stuffy, white people.

There’s obviously a lot more that could be said about Wiley’s work, what he’s commenting on, how he’s doing it and the idea that old white people are buying his paintings for a lot of money (one of his pieces just sold for $133,444). So, check it out and keep his name in mind while you’re looking at art because I think he’s someone our grandchildren will be learning about.

Yay art!