Nigeria’s Wiley scores another first

‘Do you see a man skilful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men’ (Proverbs 22:29).

THIS literally played out in the life of Kehinde Wiley, New York-based Nigerian artist whose fame rose sharply last month when his painting of former U.S. President Barak Obama received critical acclaim all over the world.

Wiley was in October 2017 commissioned to produce a portrait of Barak Obama for the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery – he and Amy Sherald being the first black artists ever to make official presidential portraits for the National Portrait Gallery.

While Kehinde painted Obama’s portrait, Sherald painted the First Lady Michelle Obama. Both paintings were unveiled on Monday February 12, 2018.

Wiley is known for his naturalistic paintings of African-Americans. The Columbus Museum of Art, which hosted an exhibition of his work in 2007, says of his work: “Wiley has gained recent acclaim for his heroic portraits which address the image and status of young African-American men in contemporary culture.”

Born in Los Angeles, California, in 1977 to a Yoruba father and an African-American mother, Kehinde’s mother supported his interest in art and enrolled him in after-school art classes. At the age of 12, he briefly received training at an art school in Russia.

At the age of 20, Wiley travelled to Nigeria to explore his roots and meet with his father. He later earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1999, and his MFA (Master of Fine Arts) from Yale University School of Art in 2001.

Wikipedia says of the young Nigerian: “Wiley’s paintings often blur the boundaries between traditional and contemporary modes of representation.

“Rendered in a realistic mode –while making references to specific Old Master paintings –Wiley creates a fusion of period styles, ranging from French Rococo, Islamic architecture and West African textile design to urban hip hop and the ‘Sea Foam Green’ of a Martha Stewart Interiors colour swatch.

“Wiley’s slightly larger than life-size figures are depicted in a heroic manner, as their poses connote power and spiritual awakening. Wiley’s portrayal of masculinity is filtered through these poses of power and spirituality.”

Wiley’s Napoleon Leading the Army Over the Alps (2005) is based on Napoleon Crossing the Alps (1800) by Jacques-Louis David, often regarded as a ‘masterpiece’, now restaged by Wiley with an African rider wearing modern army fatigues and a bandanna. Wiley “investigates the perception of blackness and creates a contemporary hybrid Olympus in which tradition is invested with a new street credibility.”

Wiley’s portraits are based on photographs of young men whom Wiley sees on the street. He has painted men from Harlem’s 125th Street, as well as the South Central Los Angeles neighborhood where he was born. Dressed in street clothes, his models were asked to assume poses from the paintings of Renaissance masters, such as Tiziano Vecellio and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. Wiley describes his approach as “interrogating the notion of the master painter, at once critical and complicit.”

His figurative paintings “quote historical sources and position young black men within that field of power”. This way, his paintings fuse history and style in a unique and contemporary manner. His art has been described as having homoerotic qualities, Wikipedia says of him.

And awards have been rolling in too. In October 2011, Wiley received the Artist of the Year Award from the New York City Art Teachers Association/United Federation of Teachers. He also received Canteen Magazine’s Artist of the Year Award. Two of his paintings were featured on the top of 500 New York City taxi cabs in early 2011 as collaboration with the Art Production Fund.

Wiley is featured in a commercial on the USA as a 2010 Character Honoree. Puma AG commissioned Wiley to paint four portraits of prominent African soccer players.

In October 2017, it was announced that Wiley and Amy Sherald had been chosen to paint official portraits of Barack Obama and Michelle Obama to be held in the collection of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.

But this landmark achievement has drawn as much flak as it attracted commendations, as many commentators on social media queried his choice for the project, having earlier painted African women decapitating white women.

Amanda Halprin said on twitter: “Seeing the Kehinde Wiley portrait of Barack Obama in person changed my view on the painting. It’s grounded and vibrant in a way I found to be lost in photos of the piece. It’s fantastic. #MyNPG

Dr Frank Corleone wrote: “IT IS NOTEWORTHY that Obama chose Kehinde Wiley to paint his portrait — a man so consumed with HATRED of WHITES that he distorts history by depicting white historical figures as black, and the biblical Judith as decapitating a white woman instead of an Assyrian general.”

Hyperallegic wrote: “Like many African American portraitists, Amy Sherald and Kehinde Wiley represent the Obamas as themselves, and as more than themselves.

Katherine Caldwell wrote: “The more I see the Obama #NationalPortraitGallery portraits the more wonderful I think they are. Kehinde Wiley (Barack) and Amy Sherald (Michelle) daring to create pictures you’d actually want to hang on your wall. The colours in Sherald’s are particularly glorious.