Similar to Barkley L. Hendricks, Kehinde Wiley is a contemporary portrait painter. Wiley is a New York based artist whose work is in museums around the world. His work rivals great masters of portraiture from Titian and Ingres to Reynolds and Gainsborough. Wiley combines aspects of traditional portraits which we know well with contemporary twists. On his website is explains that he "engages the signs and visual rhetoric of the heroic, powerful, majestic and the sublime in his representation of urban, black and brown men found throughout the world."
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| Kehinde Wiley in his Beijing studio in 2012. http://nymag.com/arts/art/rules/kehinde-wiley-2012-4/ |
Kehinde Wiley's collections are separated into places around the world. He finds his models on the streets of New York. Because his models are always African American, Wiley will use his models to express whatever he has been influenced from travelling ie. when Wiley went to China and was researching historic propaganda posters from China's Cultural Revolution he will use what he has learned and combine it with African American Identity.
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| Kehinde Wiley, Two Heroic Sisters of the Grassland, 2007, oil and enamel on canvas, 96x72 inches. |
A lot of the time he will copy images from history and reenact in his style what is going on. For instance with the painting above he is copying a Chinese propaganda poster printed in 1965.
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| http://www.maopost.com:8000/wcat=mao&wlan=en&wreq=posterpage&posterid=1239-001M&srcname=c_child&selected=161&total=216&srcreq=http:%2F%2Fwww.maopost.com:8000%2Fwcat=mao%26wlan=en%26wreq=postercat%26catref=c_child%26displistindex=9 |
His continuing combination of History and Style has made him a truly unique and magnificent artist who should be known and studied by all. Below is more of his work with the pieces they are inspired by.
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| Kehinde Wiley, The Three Graces, 2012, oil on canvas, 84x111 inches |
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| Raphael, Les Trois Graces, 1504, oil on panel, 6.7x6.7 inches |
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| Kehinde Wiley, Naomi and her Daughters, 2013, oil on canvas, 108x90 inches |
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| George Dawe, Naomi and her Daughters, 1804, oil paint on canvas, Tate Museum |
All Kehinde's work and information can be found at
kehindewiley.com
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