Artist Research || Supporting Documentation

Year 3 Fine Art || BA3b

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Kehinde Wiley

Kehinde Wiley is an artist who I have looked at previously as his work is very celebratory of culture and identity. The latter of which is very prominent in my practice.

Wiley is an African American painter who is changing the face of portraiture. His paintings feature black figures against bright, patterned backgrounds. His agenda with these paintings is to challenge viewers' perceptions of how black masculinity has become synonymous with fear and violence in the US. Wiley's work directly relates to my work formally in the use of portraits and patterns for effect. While his concept is a bit more political, I feel that the calm aesthetic nature in which it is portrayed matches how I compose my paintings. As a gay man himself he displays subtle gestures in many of his paintings that elude to homosexuality which lies parallel with my own work as I am experimenting with both over and covert was of displaying homosexuality through art. In his work he often references old masters paintings for the pose of a figure similarly to me. In previous work I have found myself looking at the Indian masters paintings as a guide for my composition. As much of my recent work is exploring my gay identity I have been looking to who I would call masters of the gay art scene, Wiley being one of them.

Wiley depicts his larger than life figures in a heroic manner, giving them poses that connote power and spiritual awakening. Within my own work I have been choosing poses that evoke a feeling of power and strength whilst also displaying beauty. In my recent work I have been playing with the composition of my paintings to evoke different kinds of emotions, both positive and negative as my experience as a gay man has been filled with both positive and negative experiences.

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Wiley's use of colour is very clever, the palettes he chooses and how articulate he is with his placement. Even though the colours he uses are very bold they don't take away from the figure, instead they compliment it which can be very hard to do when you're doing realism as well as patterns and bright colours. Even the way he adjusts the highlights on the skin based on what colour background is.

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In my practice fabric and pattern has started to become prominent so I have really looked to Wiley's work to learn from him and how he applies pattern and fabric to his paintings. I really appreciate the way the patterns surround the figure and overlap. It is something that I am considering experimenting with in my work.

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