Obama's official portrait unveiled.
As an Artist I find this choice to be more of a middle finger to reason and race relations than to recognize someone's talent.
The unveiling of former President Barack Obama’s official portrait on 12 February 2018 also introduced many Americans to artist Kehinde Wiley for the first time as well, as opening the door to late-breaking controversy over some of Wiley’s earlier work.
Wiley, who has described his own visual style as “bombastic, syrupy, and garish,” is celebrated in the contemporary art world for his large-scale portraits of black and brown men and women striking heroic poses modeled on those of aristocrats in classic European paintings.
Two celebrated paintings show a black woman holding a severed white woman's head
“It’s sort of a play on the ‘kill whitey’ thing,” Wiley said in a 2012 interview with New York Magazine.
The unveiling of former President Barack Obama’s official portrait on 12 February 2018 also introduced many Americans to artist Kehinde Wiley for the first time as well, as opening the door to late-breaking controversy over some of Wiley’s earlier work.
Wiley, who has described his own visual style as “bombastic, syrupy, and garish,” is celebrated in the contemporary art world for his large-scale portraits of black and brown men and women striking heroic poses modeled on those of aristocrats in classic European paintings.
Two celebrated paintings show a black woman holding a severed white woman's head
“It’s sort of a play on the ‘kill whitey’ thing,” Wiley said in a 2012 interview with New York Magazine.
