EXHIBITION GUIDE | February 10–May 14, 2017 | #Wiley TMA at Painting is about the world we live in. Black people live in the world. My choice is to include them. This is my way of saying yes to us. —Kehinde Wiley Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic, the first Old Master portraits—intended to convey museum survey of Wiley’s prolific 15-year the status and power of the sitter—into career, presents striking portraits of African monumental contemporary images that place American men, the artist’s signature works. But black subjects front and center. With this the exhibition also reveals the breadth of Wiley’s practice, Wiley draws attention to the absence production through perhaps unexpected and of black men and women from traditional less-familiar new developments: portraits of Western art history and from our cultural women, bronze sculpture, and stained glass. narratives. His deliberate riffs on art-historical masterpieces skillfully engineer a collision Since 2001, the practice of Kehinde Wiley between past and present, initiating timely (American, born 1977) has been based on conversations about race, gender roles, and the transforming the conventions of European politics of representation. Morpheus (detail), from the series Down. Oil on canvas, 2008. Collection of Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson, 21c Museum Hotels. © Kehinde Wiley EARLY WORK AND STREET CASTING How do you look at a young black man in American society? It is a very important question, especially at this moment in our culture. —Kehinde Wiley As an artist-in-residence at the Studio Museum historical work of art from an art book. Wiley in Harlem in 2001–2, Wiley developed photographs the model striking that pose and a technique he called “street casting,” a then transforms the image into a large-scale collaborative process he still uses that enables painting (he also frequently retains the title the artist and subject to create a portrait of the historical work). This process—which together. Initially Wiley approached young Wiley has since adapted to include women and black men on the street, and invited them to young people in other countries—was used to his studio to select the pose of a figure in a produce many of the works in this exhibition. 3 2 29a 1 ENTER 29 28 Exit 24 31 29B 36 gREAT gALLERY 23 32 33 . . . . 29a 29 28 Mugshot Study 24 31 29B 1 Oil on canvas, 2006 36 The Sender Collection, New York © Kehinde Wiley gREAT “[In] New York I found this…piece of he had done…where he lived—all of these gALLERY paper blowing in the streets and I picked markings that said something about him, 23 it up. Surprisingly it had this portrait of an very specifically a place and time. But it also individual whose face seemed incredibly said so much about what portraiture is— 32 young and sympathetic. I thought immediately the reveal, the choice to reveal, what do you it would be a perfect candidate for a portrait. reveal, and who gets to do it.” But then I started looking more closely. There were jewels that seemed culturally specific. —Kehinde Wiley in an interview with the There were infractions that said exactly what Virginia Museum of Fine Arts 33 . . . . Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps 2 From the series Rumors of War Oil on canvas, 2005 Brooklyn Museum; Partial gift of Suzi and Andrew Booke Cohen in memory of Ilene R. Booke and in honor of Arnold L. Lehman, Mary Smith Dorward Fund, and William K. Jacobs, Jr. Fund © Kehinde Wiley “I actually brought real horses into the studio, and I was like, ‘something’s wrong here.’ The painters were lying for hundreds of years. They were changing the scale. No man sits that dominant on a horse. So we had to change everything in Photoshop. Otherwise the men would look pathetic on these huge horses.” —Kehinde Wiley in an interview with Juxtapoz Art & Culture Magazine, January 2010 Jacques-Louis David (French, 1748–1825), Napoleon Bonaparte Crossing the Alps at Great St. Bernard Pass. Oil on canvas, 1801. 102 x 87 in. Châteaux de Malmaison et Bois-Préau, Rueil-Malmaison, France. (Photo: Erich Lessing / Art Resource, NY) Equestrian Portrait of Philip II (Michael Jackson) 3 Oil on canvas, 2009 The Olbricht Collection, Berlin © Kehinde Wiley “Michael Jackson called me shortly before his death, and one of the things that you must know is that this man knew a lot about the history of art. The portrait that I created of him was based upon a long back-and- forth conversation with him about what it means to be an aristocrat. Is it good enough to be an aristocrat, or do you want to be royal? And what’s the difference between all of that? These things mean something. They don’t die when their times go.” —Kehinde Wiley in an interview with Bad at Sports (podcast) Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577–1640), Portrait of Philip II of Spain. Oil on canvas, about 1630. 98 13/16 x 93 5/16 in. Museo del Prado, Madrid WORLD STAGE I am standing on the shoulders of all of those artists who came before me, but here there is a space for a new way of seeing black and brown bodies all over the world. —Kehinde Wiley In 2007, Wiley expanded his cultural focus street-casting process with the assistance of from the streets of New York to cities around translators. He incorporates elements from the the world, beginning with Beijing, China, artistic legacy of these countries; for example, where he still maintains a studio. The next using a pose from an African sculpture rather year he visited Senegal and Nigeria, followed than a European painting. These explorations by trips to Morocco, Tunisia, Gabon, Republic of other cultures have remained a vital and of the Congo, Cameroon and, more recently, ongoing part of his practice, amplifying his Jamaica, Haiti, and Cuba. Often staying vision on a global scale. for weeks at a time, Wiley employs his 5 4 29a ENTER 29 28 Exit 24 31 29B 36 gREAT gALLERY 23 32 33 . . . . 29a 29 28 Abed al Ashe Chaled el Aware and 4 From the series The World Stage: Israel 24 31 29B Oil and gold enamel on canvas, 2011 Collection of Galerie Daniel Templon, Paris © Kehinde Wiley (Photo: Robert Wedemeyer, courtesy of 36 Roberts & Tilton, Culver City, California) gREAT “I think there’s a strong correlation between being on the margins of society as a person of gALLERY color in America and that which we see in the streets of Israel. [...] This was an opportunity 23 to broaden the conversation. To say yes to the presence of Arab Israelis for example. To say yes to the presence of Mizrahi and Ashkenazi Jews as well.” 32 —Kehinde Wiley, The World Stage: Israel, The Jewish Museum NYC (video), March 8, 2012 33 . . . . THE White Slave 5 From the series The World Stage: India–Sri Lanka Oil on canvas, 2010 Private Collection © Kehinde Wiley