14. Kehinde Wiley: An Alternate Reality

Abstract

Contemporary artist Kehinde Wiley depicts the dramatic friction between urban, black American culture in contrast to luxurious, baroque backdrops; making a bold commentary on art historical injustices. Why does this combination strike us as so surprising? Wiley’s paintings explicitly stress an “alternate reality,” one in which black presence is not eclipsed. Too often racialized persons and their respective cultures have been painted out or misconstrued in the canon of art history. The majority of Wiley’s subjects are racialized men positioned in traditional art historical poses. These canonical references highlight a clash between not only old and new, but between the tradition of white privilege and the disadvantage experienced by racialized individuals. In his colossal paintings, Wiley quotes celebrated artists such as Titian, Ingres, van Dyck and Gericault; thus highlighting a past not realized. In art historical convention, racialized subjects have typically been either ignored, hypersexualized, demonized or exoticized. Such conventional discrimination is confronted in Wiley’s impactful paintings. But do these paintings only encourage viewers to look up the canonical works Wiley references, thus solidifying the art historical tradition of white privilege and the “othering” of racialized persons? Do they simply highlight the “impersonation,” and thus the impossibility, of black men in positions of power? Ultimately, this problematization is unfounded. Wiley utilizes art historical quotations and aesthetic discordance in order to illuminate a past in need of correction as well as a higher degree of consciousness.