Kehinde Wiley’s Artwork

Kehinde Wiley – CNN Video

• Acknowledges that throughout history, art has always been about representing power (eg. the church or the state). Wiley’s modern twist allows people of colour to occupy this power.
• Origin of Wiley’s work with portraiture: began with finding a mugshot on the street which kindled Wiley’s fascination with representation in portraiture.
• “Portraiture is the ability to position your body in the world for it to celebrate you on your own terms”.
• Wiley believes that the role of an artist in society is to project individuals or certain demographic with images connoting beauty, respect, and power.
• Wiley brings out the ‘humanity’ in the misconceived ‘menacing’ black men that he paints – theme of equality
• One objective of Kehinde Wiley’s artwork is to ‘look closer’ at issues regarding race, colour, or creed, and then show the narratives of each of his subjects off the street in a way that represents them in a greater light
• Wiley look at fashion as culture and to considers it as a form of armour. In this sense, he celebrates streetwear clothing and branding as another mode of representation for average brown/black people that can be found on the street.

Wiley says that his work is about “transposing onto bodies in the twenty first century these young men [the subjects of his paintings], occupying the space and terrain of the once powerful and the rich.” How does this apply to his reinterpretation of Napoleon Crossing The Alps? Where do you see this represented in the portrait?

Kehinde Wiley took the famous piece ‘Napoleon Crossing the Alps’ and changed to subject to an ordinary man of colour, along with making other modern modifications. This reinterpretative painting serves as a sign of times, celebrating that people of all creed and colour can be depicted as powerful, honourable, and respected in the same way that a leader like Napoleon was. This is evident in the way Wiley included the inscription of the name ‘William’ on the rocks at the bottom left corner, amongst the names of other important historical figures such as Hannibal and Napoleon. This challenges the audience’s perception of traditional power and wealth, allowing ‘normal’ but often misrepresented young and coloured men to ‘occupy the space and terrain of the once powerful and rich’. Wiley also reframes the traditional dominant discourse of what it means to be a man. Through painting intricate sperm cells onto his famously patterned background (in this case a brocade which was a typical European pattern for the upper class –  introducing another level of analysis concerning antiquated views of power), he provokes questions regarding contemporary conceptions of masculinity, juxtaposed with the strictly white, heterosexual, and arguably toxic masculinity in historical portraiture. Kehinde Wiley also ironically uses military-style street-wear as a way to allude to the original painting where Napoleon flaunts his luxurious military attire. Wiley’s twist maintains the parallel that fashion is a form of armour, however he embraces the casual wear of young black men (previously viewed as threatening or signifying of lower social status), in turn glorifying their culture and empowering them.