KEHINDE WILEY
Questioning black gender roles & implicating black bodies in white wealth.
In February of 2018 one of the most significant
moments in contemporary American art occurred when the Presidential portrait of Barack Obama was revealed. It depicted a stern, but relaxed Obama gazing directly from a wooden chair framed by a wall of chrysanthemums, jasmine, and African violets. This was an unprecedented addition to the canon of presidential portraiture, and the artist to credit is Kehinde Wiley.
Born in Los Angeles, California in 1977 Kehinde
Wiley has made a name for himself with his aesthetic of painting classical scenes of rococco and renaissance oil portraits with black bodies at the center of the scene. Inspired by his many trips to classical art
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