Kehinde Wiley Event
Tomorrow evening at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, I will get to attend a lecture about, and hopefully meet an artist whose work I find fascinating; Kehinde Wiley. The Nasher's website describes his work this way: "The New York-based painter whose oil portraits of young black men refer to Renaissance masters, French rococo ornamentation and hip-hop culture. Two of Wiley’s works are on view at the Nasher Museum through Sept. 30 as part of the _Collected Identities_ show."
In an October 2006 article, Business Week said:
"Known for his unique style in which old European portraiture meets modern hip-hop culture, 29-year-old Kehinde Wiley has a waiting list in the hundreds for his work. “I’m blessed to be in the place actualize what’s going on through my head,” says Wiley. He says his dream is for his work toEquestrian Portrait of the Count-duke Olivares, 2005appear in more museums and steer clear of auction houses, as they reduce art to a commodity. Exhibiting up to eight new works every three to six months, Wiley could take in over $1.5 million in a year if he’s productive enough."
Big money aside, I find his images to be compelling, and I'm looking forward to learning more about Kehinde Wiley.
Details next week.
Comments
Blacks have never separately adopted values (that we take for granted in the West and in America) that results in truly great art. It is, at the very least, a logical assumption that Black Americans are not capable of internalizing these values without a substantial push on the right course by white people. So clearly it is at least a realistic certainty that European derived people are the race that Blacks can least afford to marginalize. Aside from that your intrepid artist, Wiley, seems to have inadequacy issues about his own race.