Ship of Fools II, 2021
Kehinde Wiley
Oil on canvas
Ship of Fools marks a shift in Wiley’s attention to seascapes and in particular to the collection of works he made for an exhibition at Stephen Friedman Gallery in London in 2017. Each of the seascapes is based on a work in a public collection, reinterpreting, for example, Winslow Homer and JMW Turner, with the white figures in the original paintings replaced by black figures. For Wiley, these figures represent migrants who have set sail in search of better lives. Ship of Fools is the centrepiece of this collection of works. The starting point for the picture is Hieronymus Bosch’s Ship of Fools (1490-1500), now in the Louvre. But while Bosch’s painting is critical of its subjects, Wiley’s raises questions about the risk migrants take to improve their chances of happiness. Royal Museums Greenwich has an important collection of marine paintings and offers a rich context for Ship of Fools. The picture is a post-colonial comment on the genre, questioning many of the assumptions about the glory of imperial might as portrayed in historic holdings. It is the first marine painting by a known black artist to enter the collection and the first work by Wiley to enter a public collection in the UK.
[ArtFund.org]
Taken in the National Gallery
Kehinde Wiley at the National Gallery: The Prelude
(December 2021 – April 2022)
Kehinde Wiley is an American artist best known for his portraits that render people of colour in the traditional settings of Old Master paintings. Most famously, in 2017, he was commissioned to paint Barack Obama, becoming the first Black artist to paint an official portrait of a president of the United States. His work makes reference to the canon of European portraiture by positioning contemporary Black sitters, from a range of ethnic and social backgrounds, in the poses of the original historical, religious or mythological figures. His images – as part quotation, part intervention – raise questions about power, privilege, identity, and above all highlight the absence or relegation of Black figures within European art.
In this exhibition, Wiley will shift his focus from one European tradition - Grand Manner portraiture – to another – landscape painting.
Through new artworks, including film and painting, Wiley will look at European Romanticism and its focus on epic scenes of oceans and mountains, building relationships with our collection of historical landscapes and seascapes by Turner, Claude, Vernet and Friedrich.
Like his work before, this new work will look back at Old Masters as a way to create new connections and raise fresh questions.
[National Gallery]
Ship of Fools II, 2021
Kehinde Wiley
Oil on canvas
Ship of Fools marks a shift in Wiley’s attention to seascapes and in particular to the collection of works he made for an exhibition at Stephen Friedman Gallery in London in 2017. Each of the seascapes is based on a work in a public collection, reinterpreting, for example, Winslow Homer and JMW Turner, with the white figures in the original paintings replaced by black figures. For Wiley, these figures represent migrants who have set sail in search of better lives. Ship of Fools is the centrepiece of this collection of works. The starting point for the picture is Hieronymus Bosch’s Ship of Fools (1490-1500), now in the Louvre. But while Bosch’s painting is critical of its subjects, Wiley’s raises questions about the risk migrants take to improve their chances of happiness. Royal Museums Greenwich has an important collection of marine paintings and offers a rich context for Ship of Fools. The picture is a post-colonial comment on the genre, questioning many of the assumptions about the glory of imperial might as portrayed in historic holdings. It is the first marine painting by a known black artist to enter the collection and the first work by Wiley to enter a public collection in the UK.
[ArtFund.org]
Taken in the National Gallery
Kehinde Wiley at the National Gallery: The Prelude
(December 2021 – April 2022)
Kehinde Wiley is an American artist best known for his portraits that render people of colour in the traditional settings of Old Master paintings. Most famously, in 2017, he was commissioned to paint Barack Obama, becoming the first Black artist to paint an official portrait of a president of the United States. His work makes reference to the canon of European portraiture by positioning contemporary Black sitters, from a range of ethnic and social backgrounds, in the poses of the original historical, religious or mythological figures. His images – as part quotation, part intervention – raise questions about power, privilege, identity, and above all highlight the absence or relegation of Black figures within European art.
In this exhibition, Wiley will shift his focus from one European tradition - Grand Manner portraiture – to another – landscape painting.
Through new artworks, including film and painting, Wiley will look at European Romanticism and its focus on epic scenes of oceans and mountains, building relationships with our collection of historical landscapes and seascapes by Turner, Claude, Vernet and Friedrich.
Like his work before, this new work will look back at Old Masters as a way to create new connections and raise fresh questions.
[National Gallery]