Kehinde Wiley’s portraits exude grandeur. In his layered and monumentalworks, he bestows his subject

Kehinde Wiley’s portraits exude grandeur. In his layered and monumentalworks, he bestows his subjects with a sky-high sense of beauty,self-possession, and majesty. By adapting the visual vocabulary of power fromEuropean Old Master paintings to feature contemporary people of color, Wileypresents a historical corrective and critique, along with a celebration of theeveryday people in his wake.While the pose and positioning of the sitters in Wiley’s recreationsare visibly connected to the source painting, the backgrounds are oftenreplaced with decorative designs. The field of flowers surrounding thefigure in Wiley’s St. John the Baptist in the Wilderness, 2013, part of his The World Stage: Jamaicaseries, is drawn from a wallpaper design produced for theBritish decorative arts company Morris & Co. Both the source of the pose [SaintJohn the Baptist in the Wilderness, 1660–70, attributed to Bartolomé EstebanMurillo (Spanish, 1617–1682)], as well as the source of the background aredrawnfrom artistic traditions from the islands former colonial powers. In otherseries such as The WorldStage: Africa: Lagos-Dakar or TheWorld Stage: Israel the background sources may reference local decorative,fine arts, or textile traditions. Wiley connects his useof such decorative, natural designs in the background (which sometimes slipinto the foreground to partially cover the figure) with an idea of reclaimingspace. As he describes it: “You see so many portraits wherethe male figure stands dominant at the forefront, and women and children andland are seen as possessions [in the background]… . For me … Nature is the woman. Nature isthe black, the brown, the other… . That’s one of the reasons why in so many of the paintings thedecorative is competing with the body … and demanding presence.”Posted by AdrianneKoteen -- source link
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