Week 5 - Kehinde Wiley
Kehinde Wiley (born in Los Angeles, California in 1977) is a New York based painter who is known for his paintings of contemporary urban African American men in poses taken from the annals of art history. His painting style has been compared to that of such traditional portraitists as Reynolds, Gainsborough, Titian and Ingres. The Columbus Museum of Art, which hosted an exhibition of his work in 2007, describes his work with the following: "Kehinde Wiley has gained recent acclaim for his heroic portraits which address the image and status of young African-American men in contemporary culture."
Wiley takes it further by over-accentuating the feminine qualities of the traditionally masculine strength within old European art. He explains, “As a culture, we have in some ways codified the decorative as belonging to the feminine. And I am depicting young black men who are perceived as being hyper-sexual with a propensity toward sports and anti-social behavior. These things are codified as being very masculine and by juxtaposing that with something that is seen as being feminine, I think we sort of blast through both. A type of supernova that lays bare the absurdity of these codes to begin with.”
His portraits are based on photographs of young men who Wiley sees on the street, begun last year with men mostly from Harlem’s 125th Street, the series now includes models from the South Central neighborhood where he was born. Dressed in street clothes, they are asked to assume poses from the paintings of Renaissance masters, such as Titian and Tiepolo. Wiley also embraces French rococo ornamentation; his references to this style complement his embrace of hip–hop culture. Similarly, the poses of his figures appear to derive as much from contemporary hip–hop culture as from Renaissance paintings.
I find it really interesting that he paints black men and then surrounding them this sort of victorian look. Which is not what you think of when you think 'victorian', i usually think...White female?. Also the men are wearing 'street clothes' which is totally odd when you have those surroundings.
The paintings are good paintings, but it doesn't really appeal to me I don't really like them particularly.
Hi, I really agree with you. His works are completly contemporary art result. from his works gather between very modern culture, known as black american or hip-pop and Middle East culture which contain the shape used so far in history that represent the luxurious.
ReplyDeleteHi Emma! :D
ReplyDeleteI quite like his work :D, I thought it was smart the way he pointed the finger at social norms through his form. And even though I don't think of myself as a person who would judge a book by it cover, this work kind of showed me otherwise. But it's interesting the way people think and how they perceive the work. ^____^