CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 10/4/2019

Kehinde Wiley challenges the history of art, empire and social domination

This week, we can think of no better artist to feature than Kehinde Wiley, whose bronze monument, Rumors of War, is currently on view in Times Square, en route to Richmond, Virginia, where it will stand among a group of problematic Confederate statues that it was designed to address. Pictured here is a detail from Charles I (2018), from the catalog to Wiley's recent exhibition at Saint Louis Art Museum, the models for which were cast from residents of north St. Louis and Ferguson, Missouri. "Wiley's conceptually ambitious portraits encourage us to question the hisories of domination adn exploitation within the discourses of empire, nation, state and city," curator Simon Kelly writes. "Ultimately, in reinscribing a sense of authority wihtin the hands of those historically marginalized, they affirm a hope for change. In the term used by the noted postcolonial theorist, Gayatri Spivak, they give power back to the 'subaltern.' In focusing on the African American population … Wiley offers a message that art can have an important role in redeeming historical injustices and encouraging greater inclusiveness in the future."