Kehinde Wiley at the National Gallery: The Prelude

Abstract

Kehinde Wiley became a household name and widely recognized as one of the most important living American artists with the 2018 unveiling of his official Smithsonian portrait of President Barack Obama. Another milestone in the nation’s halting evolution towards racial equality had been reached: The first Black president of the United States painted, in exquisitely saturated colours, by the first Black artist to have a presidential portrait added to the National Portrait Gallery’s collection (along with Amy Sherald who painted Michelle Obama’s portrait). About three years earlier, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical Hamilton (2015) had given us a Black George Washington, but with Wiley’s portrait, we now had an actual, heroic African-American president artistically represented, no non-traditional casting required! Allow me to add a few caveats and a bit more on Wiley’s Obama portrait before I turn to his latest exhibition ‘The Prelude’ (and the stunning and edifying catalogue thereof) that is the subject of this review since I think the contrast between his earlier portraiture and his latest foray into what art historian Sarah Thomas calls the ‘Black sublime’ (pp. 65–75) is quite interesting.1 The caveats first: I was unable to see the exhibition at the National Gallery and I am going to blame this, whether fairly or unfairly, on Covid-19. I am thus reliant on Riding’s (2021) catalogue for a second-hand experience. That said, the catalogue does reproduce all of the paintings and film stills in the exhibit in vivid colours and in a fairly large format, so this seems like the next best thing. Additionally, the scholarly and art critical essays, the interview with the artist, and the selected Chronology greatly enriched my appreciation of the works in the catalogue. But the element of ‘The Prelude’ exhibit that really intrigued me, and was not addressed at any length in the catalogue, was a striking stylistic departure that Wiley takes from his earlier portraiture, and this brings me back to the famous Obama portrait.