Kehinde Wiley has become one of the art world’s brightest stars, specializing in portrait paintings that insert “brown faces” into the Western art they have long been absent from.
He paints portraits of rappers, athletes, and kids off the street; some of his most famous portraits are of LL Cool J, Ice-T, Notorious B.I.G., and Michael Jackson.
In GQ‘s April issue, writer Wyatt Mason tags along with the talented 36 year-old painter to North Africa to witness first-hand his approach, learn what has inspired his vision, and understand what he’s trying to achieve through art.
Kehinde Wiley on what his portrait work offers his subjects: The history of art, Wiley argues, has ignored brown faces, consigning them to tiny parts in the backgrounds: slaves, footmen, fallen combatants. Wiley is aiming to give them their aesthetic due, country by country. “Andy Warhol said that we would all have our fifteen minutes,” Wiley has said, with pugilistic bravado. “F*ck the fifteen minutes. I’m going to give you a painting, and I’ll make you live forever.” A self-styled Noah in this biblical epic, Wiley has been called by calamity—the world’s museums, flooded with whiteness—to bring the art world a salvational brownness. It’s an argument he’s bet his career on. It’s an argument he’s winning.
On having ignored calls from Michael Jackson for a long time regarding a commission, Kehinde Wiley said..
“I ignored him, because quite honestly I thought it was a prank. Surprisingly, he was really knowledgeable about art and art history.”
To learn more about Kehinde Wiley following him on his twitter @kehindewileyart.