My Kid Could Paint That

By CARLY HOFMANN

Kehinde Wiley refuses to be pigeonholed as any one thing. As a black, gay, Yale-educated, California -born, Brooklyn-based portrait artist, Kehinde Wiley finds his identity in this eclectic compilation of attributes. Wiley creates portraits to celebrate the equally complex identities of his African-American peers. 

As Wiley walked down the streets of Harlem, a crumpled piece of paper blew across the sidewalk. Wiley picked it up and discovered the mugshot of the unnamed man in this painting. The dichotomy of the traditional African necklaces and the wife beater stand out against his dark skin. The beautifully crafted highlights on the young man's face are representative of Wiley's classic style. In Mugshot Study, Wiley proposes a critique of the mugshot and its impact on members of the black community. With this painting, Wiley rebukes the mugshot with the ability to say, "I will be seen the way I choose to be seen." 

In his other, more iconic paintings, Wiley pulls subjects off the street in his effort to represent the common black man. When new subjects arrive at his studio, Wiley encourages them to look through various art history books and review classical works. When they've found a painting that resonates with them, he paints them in that pose. His paintings are not depictions of the wealthy, powerful, or influential. Wiley describes his paintings as "chance encounters with those too often prevented from filling those roles." By placing young blacks in the midst of classical portraits, he calls attention to the lack of representation for minorities in the historically great works of art. Wiley creates tension between traditional art history and its neglect of black subjects. His portraits symbolically reassign value to the sitter. 

The surfaces of Wiley's paintings are intentionally flat and thinly painted. This choice calls attention to the subject matter as art, instead of the paint itself. He disliked the visible brushstrokes of the expressionist era. Wiley's work is not about the paint, but the paint at the service of something else. He said, "It is not about gooey, chest-beating, mach '50s abstraction that allows paint to sit up on the surface as subject matter about paint."

Furthermore, Wiley was heavily focused on the idea of "remix culture." His paintings, replicas of various classical compositions, are "remixed" with the insertion of his black subject matter. Wiley is not concerned with being entirely original, nor is he concerned with the idea of cultural appropriation. He contends that, "Nothing is original anymore. Everything comes from something else. Every idea is inspired by something outside of itself." 

Wiley, almost hypocritically, also warned of the danger that art can tell us universal, cultural, or autobiographical truths. He warned against politicizing artwork in a way that limits the viewers perception of the painting. Wiley often points out the limitations created when the viewer expects art to be a political statement, social commentary, or a catalyst for change. However, this notion seems highly hypocritical because Wiley clearly pushes social commentary upon his viewer by transplanting disenfranchised blacks in the place historically powerful whites.