Kehinde Wiley, Count Potocki, 2008

Kehinde Wiley, Great Celebration of the Victorious People, 2007

Justin Beale

Art 309: Migration and Visual Art

Greene

Kehinde Wiley and the Urban Male Identity

The contemporary New York City based portrait painter Kehinde Wiley has been turning exhibition goers head on end in recent years as his art awakens complex issues within the art world and society itself. Wiley has strongly asserted his position within art history’s portrait painting traditions by using historically based compositions and references that are then carried out and represented by young urban black and brown men from around the world. Following in the footsteps of many avant-garde artists alike, Wiley uses juxtaposed composition inversions that blur the boundaries of representation and identity if the urban man, as Niru Ratnam states, “using the devices of art to highlight the contradictions of reality” (1). Wiley engages these devices in a way that stimulates visual thought about many socio-political issues within human history that still remain relevant today.

Wiley draws upon a large array of influences for his work from the portraiture of the Baroque era such as Peter Paul Rubens to his contemporary urban surroundings. Becoming very interested in the subject of portraiture, Wiley continues to contradict and challenge the long held traditions of portraiture by incorporating urban men in positions usually reserved for the powerful and wealthy. In art historical terms the portrait was reserved as an event or occasion of the elite, which presented their power and wealth in a thoughtful and heroic manner. Wiley has repeatedly challenged these notions, favoring chance moments that can be turned into something that not only opposed but participates in the traditions of Western portraiture (2). In Count Potocki (Wiley, 2008, www.kehindwiley.com: March 14, 2010) (3) Wiley appropriates the subject composition from the French painter Jacque-Louis David, the original composition portrays the equestrian Polish patron, politician, and writer sitting on a horse hat outstretched in his right hand. In Wiley’s version of Count Potocki the black male subject is positioned on the horse, which can be symbolically seen as a representation of the contradictions of power seen in his work. While the artist does not directly state a connection, the political climate of the year in which this portrait was made could very well have been a source of inspiration or site of focus and at the very least a coincidental compliment, as this black male figure is juxtaposed into the historically political position of this composition in the same year Barack Obama became the first African American president of the United States.

Although Wiley is most notably known for his works in which he juxtaposes the compositions and subject positions historically traditional of the rich and powerful, yet like any true Artist Wiley does not limit or define himself by this practice. Recently the artist has expanded his gaze by working with subjects from urban areas abroad and outside of the streets and cities of American (2). While the subjectivity of the portraits has slightly changed, Wiley is still continuing to engage in the dialogs and conversations of power he introduced in his earlier American based subjects. As he continues to explore notions of power in his paintings, he has focused recently on the social realist poses of the Moa years during the Chinese Cultural Revolution that began in 1949. These poses, which consider the global social political patterns often occupy the space in a way that presents a strong public presence. In Great Celebration of the Victorious People (Wiley, 2007, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan WI) (4) Wiley’s subject is seen waving red banners through the air against a highly decorative patterned background. Done in oil on canvas like most of his paintings, Wiley continues to raise questions and issues of identity through new and innovative ways. This portrayal almost immediately engages the viewer in questions of racial and national identities through the illusions to dominance and power of the national presence. Making connections to national identity the subject’s red flags being waved energetically can be associated to the Chinese culture through the color as it is the dominant color of the Peoples Republic of China’s flag, which also has strong associations with the communist party and style of government implemented during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. This association with the propaganda of the Moa years brings questions of racial identity to the forefront in this composition. In the context of Wiley’s use and execution of power, the recent economic success that has positioned China as one of the main players in the globalized world seems to be a new take on art historical plays on power positions and the juxtaposed positions urban black and brown men are incorporated in. Appadurai explains this clearly as a whole new type of role,

“The crucial point, however is that the United States is no longer the puppeteer of a world system of images, but is only one node of a complex transnational construction of imaginary landscapes. The world we live in today is characterized by a new role for the imagination in social life” (5).

This exhibition of The World Stage: China, can be seen as an example of how Wiley represents the ever changing geo-political constructions and politics of power we are seeing today in this era of globalization as it relates to identities of the urban male.

Kehinde Wiley uses traditional devices of the avant-garde like juxtaposition and appropriate that visually engages the viewer in the complex conversations about the socio-political climate and how this affects urban black and brown identities. Basing a large majority of his earlier work in art historical compositions, Wiley initiates creative ways to critique and participate in the portraiture traditions he is working within. All of the portraits created focus primarily on the experience of the subject and what his experiences represent on a larger socio political scale. Wiley’s increasingly popular status as a pop culture figure in the art world has allowed him to explore and present complex issues he experienced as a young black man from Los Angeles, or to put it in more direct terms Wiley states “I do it because I want to see people who look like me.”

End Notes

(1) Niru, Ratnum, “Art and Globalisation” Themes in Contemporary Art. Eds. Gill Perry and Paul Wood. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2004. 280-284.

(2) Fortune, Brandon Brame. “Interview with Kehinde Wiley.” National Portrait Gallery. Smithsonian, 03/14/2010. Web. 14 Mar 2010. http://www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/recognize/interview_paintings.

(3) Wiley, Kehinde. Count Potocki. 2008. www.kehindewiley.com/main.html (14 March, 2010).

(4) Wiley, Kehinde. Great Celebration of the Victorious People. 2007. John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan WI. . www.kehindewiley.com/main.html (14 March,2010)

(5) Keeps, David. “Wiley World.” Advocate Jun, 2009: 107-09.

Works Cited

Appadurai, Arjun. “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy.” Public Culture. 2. 2 (1990): 324-38. Print

Fortune, Brandon Brame. “Interview with Kehinde Wiley.” National Portrait Gallery.

Smithsonian, 03/14/2010. Web. 14 Mar 2010. http://www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/recognize/interview_paintings.

Keeps, David. “Wiley World.” Advocate Jun, 2009: 107-09. Print.

Niru, Ratnum, “Art and Globalisation” Themes in Contemporary Art. Eds. Gill Perry and Paul Wood. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2004. 278-310. Print.