Obama’s Choice of Kehinde Wiley Just got Political

Kehinde Wiley Fishermen Upon a Lee-shore, in Squally Weather (Zakary Antoine), 2017 (above) Courtesy Kehinde Wiley and STEPHEN FRIEDMAN GALLERY, London

Barack Obama’s choice, last month, to appoint Kehinde Wiley to paint his portrait to be displayed at Washington’s National Portrait Gallery could hardly be more timely. As in Michelle Obama’s selection of  Amy Sherald as her artist,  Barack’s choice is current, progressive and as of last week, political.

Emma Amos Eva the Babysitter, 1973 (above) Courtesy Emma Amos, The Amos Family and  RYAN LEE GALLERY (Tate Modern)

Barkley L. Hendricks Icon for My Man Superman (Superman never saved any black people — Bobby Seale), 1969. Courtesy JACK SHAINMAN GALLERY

Kehinde Wiley is no Wadsworth Jarrell, Emma Amos (top), or Barkley L. Hendricks (above) whose Civil Rights Movement inspired artwork, mostly from the late 1960s and 1970s, was exhibited recently at London’s Tate Modern’s Soul of a Nation Art in the Age of Black Power. Yet Wiley is influenced by these predecessors and his work remains relevant in a similar way.  Less militant and of a different time, Wiley’s art not only addresses local issues, it also tackles global  tensions relating to predomnantly male identity and acceptance, across China, Brazil, India & Sri Lanka, Lagos & Dakar, and more recently, Israel. This was seen in Kehinde Wiley/The World Stage: Israel in New York’s Jewish Museum in 2012.

Kehinde Wiley Abed Al Ashe and Chaled El Awari (The World Stage: Israel), 2011(© Kehinde Wiley; Courtesy Roberts & Tilton, CA) (above)

Detail from Kehinde Wiley Kalkidan Mashasha (The World Stage: Israel), 2011               (All images courtesy the Jewish Museum.) (above)

Wiley’s portraits, often focusing on the male skin and body as art, are softened by textiles, pattern and a certain vulnerability. Wiley is best known for substituting the elite and often religious subjects of traditional old master paintings with contemporary African-Americans, emphasizing their absence in these historic paintings.  By challenging accepted historic norms, Wiley comments on “the signifiers of power, the implications of the traditional portrait, which are about privilege, power, elitism…..that he was not included in.” (New York Times)

Kehinde Wiley  Leviathan Zodiac, 2011. Courtesy of Roberts & Tilton, California. © Kehinde Wiley.

His work has a contemplative and reflective quality with his current solo show at the Stephen Friedman Gallery in London  (see London’s Evening Standard) depicting everyday real Haitians (with their names in the titles) painted in heroic, maritime poses, as in Fishermen Upon a Lee-shore, in Squally Weather (Zakary Antoine), 2017 (image at top). Lacking the technical complexity of his earlier works, these portraits of migrants or seafarers, fisherman or villagers,  have acquired heightened political status, due to the Department of Homeland Security’s termination, last week, of the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) granted by Barack Obama, to Haitians in the US.

With irony as the main ingredient of Wiley’s art, the timing of the exhibition of his Haitian portraits is not to be underestimated. Due to the secrecy shrouding Barack Obama’s anticipated portrait, it will be interesting to see to what extent Kehinde Wiley will reflect this relevant humanitarian TPS issue.

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Much Ado about Harlem…

 

In an effort to challenge the status quo, to continue this revolution of sorts and give voice to those silenced by administrations such as the current one, Michelle Obama is forging ahead with her own set of rules. It is only fitting that she has chosen Amy Sherald, an emerging artist and heart transplant survivor, to paint her official portrait for the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.

It is hard not to be impressed by the boldness, color and use of pattern in Amy Sherald’s work. Having been awarded this somewhat formidable task, Ms Sherald has been cast into the orbit of celebratory artist. Whether that is something she is comfortable with remains to be seen, and yet one can understand the complete confidence that Michelle Obama had in her selection. Obama’s choice is a significant one. She is saluting this emerging artist, for all of those reasons and another very important one: Relevance.

Sherald is an expert at calmly depicting the struggle and identity of where we are now. In her works The Make Believer (Monet’s Garden), 2016, top, and The Boy With No Past, 2014, above, these images prove irresistible in their vividness. Sherald has captured a spirit that is bold and unapologetic, non-confrontational yet defiant. Her depiction of street smart fashion, of obvious interest to Obama, is deliberate, playful and accessible, far removed from the echelons of exclusivity. Sherald’s choices are original and controlled without being contrived. She  depicts the inner spirit of ordinary people in technicolor honesty, regardless of status. This in itself is simultaneously a humbling and empowering message and this is the message that Michelle Obama wishes to convey. It is up to us now to embrace it.

Whilst checking out Sherald’s work currently displayed in Fictions, at Harlem’s Studio Museum, don’t miss the artistry of her peers. Flanked by the striking graphics of Deborah Roberts’, The Sleepwalkers, 2017, below

and Devan  Shimoyama’s bejeweled Shape Up and a Trim, 2017, below,

whose works challenge racial and gender stereotypes, a fabulous celebration of restrained flamboyancy is on display. In the chromogenic color prints of Kings and Queens (2017)and Colorblinds (2017) within  Genevieve Gaignard’s installation, a Cindy Sherman style voyeurism is established, with photographic images inserted into vintage styled sets. Gaignard’s  Nevertheless, She Persisted, 2017, with a porcelain figure trapped within a gold birdcage, below, references racial injustices, and possibly Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

Simultaneously nostalgic and critical, these works are powerful in highlighting taboo subjects such as restrictions of liberties and incarceration.  

Similarly, in the work of Sherrill Roland, The Jumpsuit Projects, 2016-2017, above, a powerful autobiographical commentary is presented on wrongful imprisonment. Finally in the adjacent gallery, the exhibition Their Own Harlems features the timeless message of migration, depicted by Jacob Lawrence (The Architect, 1959, below), and others, providing historical context and poignant relevance.

If the appointment of Amy Sherald merely increases the exposure of these artists, Michelle Obama has done well. But by introducing this work to a much wider audience, Obama has  not only secured Sherald’s future, but is keeping alive the consciousness of The Studio  Museum in Harlem, as it leads up to the start of its three year construction project, led by David Adjaye. With curator Thelma Golden at its helm, there was never any danger of it “Going Gentle Into That Night” (Dylan Thomas) during its temporary closure, but now there is significantly more reason for it to be defiantly screaming Hamilton’s “Stay Alive” (Lin- Manuel Miranda) with all the backing of this Harlem Renaissance boost.