Kehinde Wiley Puts a Classical Spin on His Contemporary Subjects

Shikha Shah

Professor Alex Jochaniewicz

AAP 1012-004

21st April, 2016

Reading Response

Kehinde Wiley Puts a Classical Spin on His Contemporary Subjects

This article written by Deborah Solomon, an art critic, journalist and a biographer who also writes for the New York Times. This article from the New York Times talks about one of the most celebrated painters at present, Kehinde Wiley. The article is mainly about Wiley’s childhood, his art work, how he puts a classical spin on contemporary subjects. Solomon begins the article by saying how Wiley was scared of the Los Angeles Police Department as a child and how he transformed this in his paintings by painting vibrant, photo-based portraits of young black men and women who are not scared but gazing directly at the viewers with the rococo- style decorations and empowering poses selected from art history. It also states how some people read his work in a political and psychological term. Further more the article discusses his sexuality, his sense of clothing and also how his work space is “not haunted or dandy”. It also revealed about his difficult childhood. The article then ended by mentioning negative critic about his work and how his work is evolving along with him.

Wiley’s work is easy to recognize as his style is clearly evident in most of his paintings. Wiley fuses traditional formats with modern modes of representation. His paintings usually shows’ young and attractive men, enacting scenes from famous traditional paintings. The paintings have masculine figures contrasting with elaborately patterned backdrops developing behind them.

In the article, Solomon mention that, “Mr. Wiley delegates much of his production to a bevy of