Kehinde Wiley is a New York based painter who is known for his paintings of contemporary urban African men in poses taken from the annals of Art History, his paintings have been compared to various traditional portraitists such as Reynolds, Gainsborough, Titan and Ingres.
Kehinde Wileys paintings are based around photographs of young men Wiley sees on the street, Rileys work has significance to paintings of the renaissance, French rococo and Hip hop culture.
His work is often blurred the boundaries between traditional and contemporary modes of representation.
how does the post modernism theme pluralism relate to Kehnde Wileys work?
definition according to Cadwell (1999)
Pluralism in art refers to the nature of artforms and artists as diverse. The cultural context of art is all encompassing in its respect for the art of the world's cultures. Inclusion of individuals of differing ethnicities, genders, ideologies, abilities, ages, religions, economic status and educational levels is valued. Pluralism honours differences within and between equitable groups while seeing their commonalities."
Wileys work has a street like hip hop culture feel to it but he uses reference to the renaissance by painting black or brown men featuring in a british/renaissance like background that conflicts/contrasts one another. Riley describes his approach as "interrogating the notion of the master painter, at once critical and complicit." Wiley figurative paintings " quote historical sources and position young black men within that field of power." in this manner, Wileys paintings fuse history and style in a unique and contemporary manner"
Wileys statement "interrogating the notion of the master painter" is fascinating. I feel Wileys work challenge the ideologies of renaissance portraiture, challenging also the constant of the European ethnicity in these classical paintings. "at once critical and complicit" is also an interesting statement. yes, renaissance paintings AND Wileys portraits are exquisite in their technique, however if the Renaissance portraits truly critiqued the character of the subjects, they would certainly not glorify them to the extent that they are in the paintings. Wealthy merchants payed a fortune for these portraits which would glorify them, celebrate their abundance... I wonder is Wiley mocking this exagerration of character in his paintings? or attempting to create this glorification? I get the impression it could be both.
ReplyDelete