The power of décor : Kehinde Wiley's interventions into the construction of black masculine identity
Contemporary artist Kehinde Wiley creates portraits that employ conventional representations of young black males in varying degrees of hip-hop inspired attire placed against intricate, botanical patterns. Criticism of the artist's work claims that the subjects of his imagery are the old master paintings which often function as the artist's templates. It also implicitly suggests that Wiley accepts racialized typologies. In my analysis of the artist's distinct style, I argue that these images confront the construction of black masculinity and its reduction to a limited set of possibilities through its decorative system. I discuss the black male subjects in combination with the decor woven around their bodies. Interpreting botanical ornamentation as a visual analogue to American consumerism, I expand the subject of the paintings to include contemporary culture. These patterns act as social capital and function as an extension of the body. In addition to light, prints recalling an ethnic other and hip-hop attire, Wiley's decorative elements imbue the sitters with power and prestige through their references to history and their transgressions through race, class and gender. While Wiley's portraits do not completely revalorize black masculinity, they disrupt the reductive enframing from which it suffers
Thesis, Dissertation, English, 2010