Last weeks ALVC class focused on the Post Modern them "INTERTEXTUALITY", re-read Extract 1 The death of the author on page 44 of your ALVC books and respond to the oil paintings of Kehinde Wiley. How do we make sense of his Kehinde's work? Identify intertextuality in Kehinde's work?
I think that Kehinde is almost crossing over old medieval tradition ( gold frames) with this modern days rapper look in his figures. His works are very busy, with the background and the foreground becoming equal. His poses represent power and spiritual awakening. They are also portrayed in a heroic manner. The portraits are based on every day men he sees on the streets. He mixes hip-hop with Renaissance poses and gets the young men to pose. Kehinde decribes his work as "interrogating the notion of the master painter, at once critical and complicit."
Kehinde's work relates to this weeks Post Modern theme "PLURALISM" re-read page 50 and discuss how the work relates to this theme?
Pluralism is present in Kehinde's works as it includes the diversity of ethnicities, religions, economic status and ideologies. The work is beyond the usual as seeing a black man in a Renaissance portrait is not typical of what we are used to seeing.
Kehinde's work raises questions around social/cultural hierarchies , colonisation, globalisation, stereotypes and the politics which govern a western worldview.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kehinde_Wiley
I really like Wiley's work and it is very impressive paintings. I think it a clever way he has used intertextuality to shape his work and portray the characters he uses for his paintings. The use of classic European techniques and using renaissance poses tells us exactly how wiley wants to present the african american males in his portraits. He makes them quite powerful and they contain the power and authority that the European males did who originally were painted like this. I think Wiley does this to show how african american people are dominating the hip hop scene and since they are not very recognized in the art industry wiley is trying to make a statement and include them in the art world
ReplyDeleteinteresting view Tom...
ReplyDeleteI think the 'heroic' aspect to the poses that Anita mentioned is so true, however Wiley does not only paint people he sees in the street but also does portraits of Modern day hiphop legends such as Notorious and Ice T- They are heroes for those who appreciate their music, fulfilling that intention Tom mentioned of giving power and authority to these urban african american subjects.
this is one of my favourite artists. i think its exciting to have grand traditional looking paintings with exciting colour schemes in the background and painting meticulous portraits of men that have clear stereotypes that propoganda continuously reenforces and to then put them in a composition that we have only seen blue blood Caucasian aristocrats in over history. i think its a exciting series and style of works.
ReplyDeleteWiley is also one of my favourite contemporary artists. I think the messages behind every work that he is trying to portray are about standing out from the stereotypical society and they also act as a reminder of the development of urban culture today. I really like how the subject of his works are images of the typical street thugs african americans, and how this introduces a touch of today's hip hop culture to art.
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