Kehinde Wiley: Saint Louis

by Simon Kelly, Hannah Klemm, Kehinde Wiley (Artist)

Published for the artist's solo exhibition at the Saint Louis Art Museum, this new series of paintings by Brooklyn-based painter Kehinde Wiley (born 1977) reenvisions the museum's holdings as a starting point for succinct observations about representation throughout the history of art. Through a process of street casting starting in 2017, Wiley invited residents he met in the neighborhoods of north St. Louis and Ferguson to pose for his paintings. The artist then created portrait paintings inspired by carefully chosen artworks in the museum's permanent collection. Wiley specifically chose Ferguson, Missouri, after the city became a flashpoint for nationwide protests touching on much larger issues of race, injustice and police violence. This catalog features 11 new paintings by Kehinde Wiley and essays by Simon Kelly, Curator and Head of Department of Modern and Contemporary Art at Saint Louis Art Museum, and Hannah Klemm, Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at Saint Louis Art Museum.

Genres: Art

60 pages, Hardcover

Published January 22, 2019

Reviews

[Kristy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two main factors prevent my rating from being five stars, which the exhibit itself easily merits.

- The two essays included are written by white curators. No words from the people depicted in the portraits, no take-aways from black scholars. The importance of this exhibit, this artist, these portrait subjects, is ironically told solely through a white lens. The essays take this into account to some extent, and I appreciate the context and explanations provided by the people who worked on the show- but was there no curatorial presence of color on the show itself? I’m saddened by the absence of a black writer, historian or curator.

- The piece “Three Girls in a Wood” is on a two-page spread, where the face of the person in the middle gets lost in the book crease. There is a smaller picture of the entire piece as it hangs in the gallery later in the book, but it’s a shame that the main reproduction of the piece is disrupted and a woman’s face lost. This is particularly painful considering the essay talks about the painter intentionally retaining the individual identities of the portrait sitters, in contrast to the reference piece where the sitters are reduced to abstract forms.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The man is brilliant. Full stop. Got to see his Napoleon Leading His Army Over the Alps hung across from the work it is in dialogue with at the Brooklyn Museum and was just blown away. I wanted to see more. The St. Louis exhibit looked incredible. Hope to see more of his work in person.