PARIS - Fresh
from unveiling a huge statue of a black man on horseback in New York’s Times
Square, renowned African American artist Kehinde Wiley flew to France this week
to “meet” 18th-century French painter Jacques-Louis David.
Wiley - most
known for painting the portrait of US President Barack Obama in 2017 - is now “sharing
a room” with David, who lived from 1748 to 1825 and was a painter and supporter
of French military leader Napoleon Bonaparte.
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| Artist Kehinde Wiley discusses his work. (Photo: McKenzie) |
In an
exhibition titled “Wiley Meets David”, the American artist’s massive and
colourful 2005 painting Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps can for
the first time be viewed opposite David’s 1800 depiction Bonaparte Crossing
the Great St. Bernard Pass (Le Premier Consul franchissant le col du
Grand-Saint-Bernard), in a show that runs until Jan. 6, 2020.
“There’s lots
of chest beating going on … that’s why when you look closely at my painting,
you’ll see sperm cells swimming across the surface," said Wiley at the Oct. 9 opening of the exhibition. "This is masculinity boiled down to its most
essential component. All of this stuff, warfare, is about egos, about
nationhood, about the formation of society.”
The two works
of powerful-looking men on horseback are presented “in dialogue” at the imposing
Château de Malmaison, just outside Paris. This is the former residence of French
Empress Joséphine, which she shared with Bonaparte before they divorced in 1809.
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| Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps, 2005. Oil on canvas, 108 x 108 in. Brooklyn Museum. (c) K. Wiley. (Photo: McK/SWAN) |
Wiley’s painting
comprises a reinterpretation of David’s portrait, and it is the first in his series
“Rumors of War”, where African American subjects replace the historically mighty
in a questioning of warfare and inequality. Here, a model named Williams is on
horseback, in the same pose as David’s Napoleon, but wearing contemporary urban
gear and a golden cloak. In contrast, David’s depiction was a “symbol of the
glory of Bonaparte” when it was produced in 1800, according to the show’s
curators.
Wiley stressed
that his work was meant to make people of African descent visible in ways that
they haven’t been in the history of art. But he added that despite the aura of
power in his painting, he was also portraying “fragility”, even amidst certain
social advances.
“I want to
caution us against a facile acceptance,” Wiley said. “These steps that we’re
moving forward with, I prize greatly, but I also recognize their fragility. As
powerful as that young man looks on that horse, it’s not his power that I’m
concerned about, but rather his fragile position within that culture … that
relegates artists like myself to even need to make utterances like the ones that
I’ve done.”
Before being
brought to France, Wiley’s painting had been exhibited for years at the
Brooklyn Museum of art, and the current show is a joint project between this
museum and the Château de Malmaison.
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| Le Premier Consul franchissant les Alpes au col du Grand-Saint-Bernard, 1800. Jacques Louis David. Rueil-Malmaison |
After the
exhibition in France, both paintings will be on display in Brooklyn, from Jan.
24 to May 10, 2020. David’s work is therefore returning to the United States,
where it had spent time in New Jersey in the 1800s as part of the property of
Napoleon’s brother Joseph.
“The
partnership with the Brooklyn Museum will provide an opportunity to shed light
on the current practices of North American museums with regard to groups of
artists who have been overlooked in history and the history of art, and their
links to audience development,” said Emmanuel Delbouis, a co-curator of the
exhibition.
For Wiley, 42
years old, it’s high time for a change in the narrative regarding the
contributions of people who have traditionally been excluded from mainstream
stories. He said it was not a “trend” or a “movement” that so many artists of
African descent are now focusing on historical issues affecting people of
colour.
“We have been
able and capable of contributing to the larger conversation globally, and now
these conversations are happening,” he said during the exhibition’s press
opening. “I think perhaps the culture is evolving. So, it’s not a trend … it’s
simply another human voice being paid attention to.”
He said his painting
was a criticism of colonialism and a challenge to its legacy, but that it was
also an “embrace” of French art and David’s talent.
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| Wiley arrives at the Château de Malmaison with associates. |
Wiley, who rose
to fame with the portrait of Obama, has seen his artistic impact grow, both in
the United States and internationally. He has held several exhibitions in
France, and before the opening of this latest show, the unveiling of his 27-foot-high
statue in Times Square, on Sept. 27, garnered global attention.
That work, his
first public sculpture, will be on view at the famed square for several weeks
before being permanently installed at the entrance to the Virginia Museum of
Fine Arts, in Richmond, Virginia. It is being shown at the same time as the
painting in France, sparking dialogue on both sides of the Atlantic about
history and who gets to be celebrated in public monuments.
“We’re standing on the leading edge of story-telling,
arguably on the leading edge of propaganda,” Wiley said in France. “Art has for
centuries been at the service of churches, of state, of powerful men. And now
artists have the ability to take that language and do what they will with it.
“So what am I
doing? I’m engaging that language in a way that says ‘yes’ to certain things
and ‘no’ to others,” he added. “The culture evolves, but we’re stuck here
together, and we have to figure out how we’re gonna evolve together.” - A.M.
Follow SWAN on Twitter: @mckenzie_ale
