What is Kehinde Wiley race?
Early life and education. Wiley was born in Los Angeles, California. His father, Isaiah D. Obot, is Yoruba, from Nigeria, and his mother, Freddie Mae Wiley, is African American.
Who is Kehinde Wiley’s father?
Isaiah D
Childhood. Kehinde Wiley was born and grew up in South-central Los Angeles with an African-American mother, Freddie Mae Wiley, and a Yoruba father from Nigeria, Isaiah D.
Does Kehinde Wiley paint his background?
He has the significant job of getting photos that serve as road maps for the paintings, for he and his assistants do not paint from life, only from photo reference. The source painting for Wiley: Portrait of a couple (1610) by an unknown artist.
What inspired Kehinde Wiley to paint?
Kehinde Wiley: ‘When I first started painting black women, it was a return home’ He saw a group of African American women sitting at a table and was inspired to paint them for Three Girls in A Wood, a painting on view at the St Louis Art Museum.
What happened to Kehinde when he was 12 years old?
At the age of 11, he took art classes at a conservatory at California State University, and at 12 years old he attended a six-week art program outside Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) sponsored by the Center for U.S./U.S.S.R. Initiatives.
Where is Kehinde Wiley?
Wiley lives and works in Beijing and New York. A contemporary descendant of portraitists such as Reynolds, Titian, Ingres, Gainsborough, and Constable, Wiley initially created portraits based on photographs of young men in Harlem.
What style of art does Kehinde Wiley use?
portraits
Kehinde Wiley’s portraits of African American men collate modern culture with the influence of Old Masters. Incorporating a range of vernaculars culled from art historical references, Wiley’s work melds a fluid concept of modern culture, ranging from French Rococo to today’s urban landscape.
Where does Kehinde Wiley find many of the models for his paintings?
of New York
How do you find your models? I cast all my models on the streets of New York, and in the case of The World Stage, on the streets of that respective country.
What symbols of African American culture or hip hop culture does Kehinde Wiley include in his painting?
Known for his distinctive portraiture, Kehinde Wiley is a contemporary African American painter who juxtaposes urban symbols of hip hop, such as hoodies and baseball caps, with aristocratic poses and backdrops.
What techniques does Kehinde Wiley use?
He frequently uses backlighting to emphasize the dimensionality of his figures and faces, and has enough control of his backgrounds that, despite their intensity of color, they can actually serve to push the subjects forward rather than distract from their presence.