The exhibition that I chose to write about and am looking forward to seeing is Kahinde Wiley's "Trickster." The portraits are online but the showcasing will be May 5th. All of these works are portraits of contemporaries of Wiley set in their work or as archetypical neoclassical figures. This is different from Wiley’s usual anonymous sitters; this group includes the likes of Derrick Adams, Sanford Biggers, Nick Cave, Rashid Johnson, Glenn Ligon, Kerry James Marshall, Wangechi Mutu, Yinka Shonibare, Mickalene Thomas, Hank Willis Thomas, Carrie Mae Weems, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye.
The theme of this exhibition is the eponymous trickster. The one who challenges the status quo and makes a fool out of those in power. This is existent in almost every cultural folklore; the Greeks have Pan, the Norse have Loki, the Chinese have the Monkey King. Kahinde Wiley has the modern black artist who, through his work, challenges what is the state of being as a black person in America. How one engages with the world defines how the world engages with one. Wiley achieves this through his use of Eurocentric art to create pieces akin to those of the Old Masters except putting into frame how blackness challenges this trope; that blacks and black artists can achieve this same level of work. For example, his Portrait of Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Jacob Morland of Capplethwaite
Here we see a black female artist take the mantle of hunter. The hunter has, throughout European history, been a traditionally male, upper-class, white man who is shown bring down beasts of the forest and showing off his great hunting ability. This painting has a woman, and more audaciously, black, in the role of hunter showing to the view her skills and her power. If gun signify power then her musket is a tribute to her power as a woman and as an African-American. Lynette Yiadom-Boakye is the trickster, she is traversing the border of what is acceptable by challenging the domination of the upper-class white man as a hunter and a power figure; if she holds the gun then she too must be a mistress of the world. Moving on, we see another portrait in the same type of aristocratic pose. His Portrait of Nick Cave, Nadezhda Polovtseva absolutely captures the style of the European monarch in the 18th and 19th century.
Placed in what can only be described as a palace, Wiley presents the average man in the aura of the great European monarchs of old. He replaces the antiquated furs, silks, and regalia of the kings with the flannel, rubbers, and denim of the layman. But Nick Cave still gives of the presence of a great European king, with the dignified pose and the regal lighting presented around him. His umbrella abreast like a saber, placed in full view of the audience to signify martial prowess. And a hand outstretched giving the kings mercy to those who deserve it. Nick Cave does not look at the viewer but rather beyond them in the way that someone of higher status would not directly look at one of lower status. This absolutely plays on the historical dynamic of whiteness and blackness and their historical positions in reference to one another. Wiley does a very good job when he brings these ideas into force and they allow reflection on the meanings behind paintings. They challenge the preset images in our mind when we think of “king” or “hunter.” And presents them in a juxtaposition that reverts power to the powerless. Assumptions are based on views and beliefs so to challenge beliefs will challenge assumptions and this is precisely what Wiley is trying to get at when he created this images. Wiley is drawing a line in the sand with this art and crossing it—he is redefining the canonical limits of Eurocentric art by making them an object of inclusion instead of exclusion. He draws his inspiration from Goya’s very famous Black Paintings, the portraits that haunt the audience with their menacing and enveloping color scheme. The presentation is one of not only regality, which is mentioned prior, but also of solemnity and respect as a way of empowerment. The Gallery this is presented in, The Sean Kelly Gallery, says that these portraits are drawn so that the audience can make up their own mind of what the colors mean, are they embracing or engulfing the subject.https://www.artsy.net/show/sean-kelly-gallery-kehinde-wiley-tricksterhttps://ocula.com/art-galleries/sean-kelly/artworks/kehinde-wiley/portrait-of-lynette-yiadom-boakye-jacob-morla/xx
Here we see a black female artist take the mantle of hunter. The hunter has, throughout European history, been a traditionally male, upper-class, white man who is shown bring down beasts of the forest and showing off his great hunting ability. This painting has a woman, and more audaciously, black, in the role of hunter showing to the view her skills and her power. If gun signify power then her musket is a tribute to her power as a woman and as an African-American. Lynette Yiadom-Boakye is the trickster, she is traversing the border of what is acceptable by challenging the domination of the upper-class white man as a hunter and a power figure; if she holds the gun then she too must be a mistress of the world. Moving on, we see another portrait in the same type of aristocratic pose. His Portrait of Nick Cave, Nadezhda Polovtseva absolutely captures the style of the European monarch in the 18th and 19th century. Placed in what can only be described as a palace, Wiley presents the average man in the aura of the great European monarchs of old. He replaces the antiquated furs, silks, and regalia of the kings with the flannel, rubbers, and denim of the layman. But Nick Cave still gives of the presence of a great European king, with the dignified pose and the regal lighting presented around him. His umbrella abreast like a saber, placed in full view of the audience to signify martial prowess. And a hand outstretched giving the kings mercy to those who deserve it. Nick Cave does not look at the viewer but rather beyond them in the way that someone of higher status would not directly look at one of lower status. This absolutely plays on the historical dynamic of whiteness and blackness and their historical positions in reference to one another. Wiley does a very good job when he brings these ideas into force and they allow reflection on the meanings behind paintings. They challenge the preset images in our mind when we think of “king” or “hunter.” And presents them in a juxtaposition that reverts power to the powerless. Assumptions are based on views and beliefs so to challenge beliefs will challenge assumptions and this is precisely what Wiley is trying to get at when he created this images. Wiley is drawing a line in the sand with this art and crossing it—he is redefining the canonical limits of Eurocentric art by making them an object of inclusion instead of exclusion. He draws his inspiration from Goya’s very famous Black Paintings, the portraits that haunt the audience with their menacing and enveloping color scheme. The presentation is one of not only regality, which is mentioned prior, but also of solemnity and respect as a way of empowerment. The Gallery this is presented in, The Sean Kelly Gallery, says that these portraits are drawn so that the audience can make up their own mind of what the colors mean, are they embracing or engulfing the subject.https://www.artsy.net/show/sean-kelly-gallery-kehinde-wiley-tricksterhttps://ocula.com/art-galleries/sean-kelly/artworks/kehinde-wiley/portrait-of-lynette-yiadom-boakye-jacob-morla/xx
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