Monday Art’s Spotlight
Kehinde Wiley
Kehinde Wiley is one of the most pop-culture-friendly of today’s art starts, known for combining bombastic scale, art-historical reference, and social relevance, originally by casting young men off of Harlem streets and styling them as European royalty. He has championed images of black men and women by painting them in unconventionally regal settings. His works include awesome collaborations as well, like his collaboration with FIFA for the 2014 World Cup. The most important collaboration in Wiley’s career however, are his commissioned portraits, of The Obamas in 2018.
His already world-renowned portrait of President Obama doesn’t contain any particular historic reference, as his works typically do, but it’s thousands of flowers are packed with symbolism. The chrysanthemums, for example, reference the official flower of Chicago. The jasmine evokes Hawaii, where he spent the majority of his childhood, and the African blue lilies stand in for his late Kenyan father.
When asked about painting the portrait of the 44th president by TIME, Wiley had this to say: “There’s going to be young kids who want to feel that they are capable of participating in art and participate in this conversation. How do you compare that to anything? This is extraordinary”
