Through large scale canvases and bronze sculptures of fallen figures, Kehinde Wiley: An Archaeology of Silence uncovers the roots of Black and Brown trauma in the United States. The collection is on display at the de Young from March 18 to October 15.
Born in Los Angeles, California in 1977, Wiley’s love for art started at the age of eleven, when his mother enrolled him in art classes at California State University and a six-week art program in Russia the following year. To Freddie Mae Wiley, Kehinde Wiley’s mother, developing her son’s artistic talent was vital to protect him from the gang violence that Black youth in their neighborhood were often destined for.
His mother’s aspirations were successful, as Wiley later received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1999 and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Yale University in 2001.
After graduating from Yale, Wiley began his residency at Harlem Studio Museum where he found inspiration for his early series of paintings titled Conspicuous Fraud in the form of a New York City Police Department mugshot of a Black man on the street. The collection examined the beauty of natural Black hair by morphing the men’s hair into amorphous clouds and extending them to all sides of the canvas so they become the subject of the painting.
The same mugshot later inspired Wiley’s collection Passing/Posing which replaced the figures of portraits by Renaissance Italian and British painters with Black men. Within the artworks, these men wear their everyday clothing — hoodies, sneakers, sports jerseys — yet assume positions of power and prestige. By capturing his subjects in their expressions of their own Blackness, Wiley challenges the narrative that one’s identity must be compromised in order to attain acceptance by white society, instead allowing his figures to keep their individualism and racial pride intact.
As Wiley developed his craft and artistry, he continued to reimagine classical Western paintings and artistic styles with Black culture in his 2005 Rumors of War and 2008 Down collections. Both series of paintings explore themes of heroism and war, but possess contrasting portrayals of each. Captured on horseback, the figures of Rumors of War represent power and masculinity won through battle, whereas the subjects of Down appear as fallen soldiers who seek worship through their death.
Wiley’s most recent collection, Archaeology of Silence, expands upon his early exploration of Western iconography through a Black lens; however, the content transitions away from 16th century battle scars and instead focuses upon the present brutalities committed against Black and Brown communities.
Wiley began the collection of paintings and sculptures during the summer of 2020, after a video of George Floyd’s murder circulated among millions and sparked global protests against the criminal justice system. Rather than allowing Floyd’s death to immoblize him, Wiley concentrated his outcry into creating the works featured in the de Young’s exhibit.
Across the collection, the subjects assume similar positions as their faces point towards the ground, their bodies lay sprawled and they carry a shared anguish in their expressions. Through his use of vibrant colors and fine details, Wiley directs the viewer’s attention to the canvas and bronze, despite any unsettling feelings the art may provoke.
photo by Senai Wilks
The exhibit also includes an accompanying audio tour which contains interview clips from Wiley himself that bring life to his artwork. Describing the intentions he had while crafting each figure in the collection, Wiley said that “they are designed to take up space in the world, to demand presence, but they’re also begging that you take them seriously as individuals.”
Wiley experiments with scale throughout Archaeology of Silence, displayed through the enormity of many of the collection’s works. Paintings like Femme piquée par un serpent (Mamadou Gueye) and Young Tarentine II (Ndeye Fatou Mbaye) each span a whole wall, becoming larger than life. Additionally, Wiley’s titular sculpture, which features a man sprawled on the back of a seemingly spooked horse, fills its own room due to its giant size and wholly captures the viewer’s focus.
Despite the sheer enormity of some of the exhibit’s pieces, each work in the collection also contains intricacy, showcasing Wiley’s strong ability as an artist. However, Frances Homan Jue, the producer and writer of the exhibit’s audio tour, acknowledges Wiley’s additional reason for sculpting and painting each fine detail.
“Kehinde Wiley feels like individuals’ nature is so often just overlooked or erased, especially if they might be a Black person in this country. He wants to make sure that people’s true identity is celebrated and that they are loved for who they are. So if that means that his figures are wearing some Nike trainers that they love then he’s going to include every detail,” Homan Jue said.
For Alia Azad ’24, the pieces’ magnitude left her reflecting even after she left the de Young. “I think that because they were so big and so detailed, they kind of consume you when you are viewing them, which made me feel very small.” She continued, “I liked that feeling because clearly all of the art was showing something that was so much bigger than me and I felt grateful to be able to witness a movement that I could maybe play a small part in.”
As exhibited by Azad’s words, Archaeology of Silence prompts its audience to practice empathy and restore humanity to those who have had theirs taken from them.
