https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Soa78qtQcYw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pwkZh8Ljug
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pwkZh8Ljug
PORTRAITS FOR A NEW CENTURY:
KEHINDE Wiley art lesson
Let's look at contemporary portrait painter
Kehinde Wiley. His timely artworks are exciting to students and teachers
alike as they confront the social and political issues that dominate many of
today’s news cycles.
Kehinde
Wiley, Barack Obama, 2018
His powerful works are
well-known in the art world and gained wider notoriety after being featured on
the television series “Empire” in 2015. The recent decision to have Wiley
paint Barack Obama’s official
presidential portrait has no doubt cemented his popularity for decades to
come.
Wiley is best known for
painting young black people he encounters and placing them in revamped versions
of traditional portraits. The glory, power and prestige once reserved only for
white subjects is transferred to modern black men and women wearing everyday
clothing. His paintings fuse the past and present in ways that force us to
confront our notions of wealth, importance, race, and gender.
At
left: Kehinde Wiley, Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps, 2005; At right:
Jacques-Louis David, Napoleon Crossing the Alps, 1801
Wiley’s bold backgrounds
often feature flowers and greenery or intricate baroque patterns that clash
with the photo-like realism of his subjects. Many of his portraits are larger
than life and stand over six feet tall. Looking at Wiley’s portraits, it’s
impossible to miss the gaze of his subjects. They make eye contact and hold the
viewer in place, towering over and transfixing them until they ponder the
decisions the artist made and the meaning he hoped to convey.
"There is a political and
racial context behind everything that I do. Not always because I design it that
way, or because I want it that way, but rather because it’s just the way people
look at the work of an African-American artist in this country."
-Kehinde Wiley
-Kehinde Wiley
Race is an inescapable
element of Wiley’s work. We experience it in light of the culture that
surrounds us. We connect the meaning of the art to his race and the race of his
subjects. How would our perspective change if he or the people in his paintings
were another race? Regardless of Wiley’s intentions, his work speaks volumes
about us and our society. This topic alone can provoke hours of conversation.
KEHINDE
WILEY ART LESSON
Comparing
Mary, Comforter of the Afflicted I, 2016, with the original
In the artwork above,
Wiley uses religious iconography and modifies it to fit today. He replaced
Mary, a symbol of comfort, protection, and virtue in Christianity, with a black
man holding a child. How do you explain the juxtaposition of these artworks?
DISCUSSION
QUESTIONS
·
What’s going on here? What do you see that makes you say
that?
·
Who is this man? What is he doing?
·
Explain the expression on his face. What do you think he
is thinking?
·
What symbols do you notice in this artwork? (Note the
Illuminati eye, shackles, blindfold, and the feather headdress.) What could
these things symbolize?
·
What does afflicted mean? How do you see “Afflicted” in
this artwork?
·
Examine each character in the artwork (or use one of the
activities below). Who are they? What do they think/feel?
