Studio Museum in Harlem
144 W 125th St
212.864.4500
This event has passed.
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Kehinde Wiley, Rubin Singleton, Courtesy artist and Deitch Projects
- When
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July 17, 2008 – Oct 26, 2008
Wednesdays–Fridays (noon–6pm)
Saturdays (10am–6pm)
Sundays (noon–6pm)
- Where
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- Price
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$7 suggested donation
- Links
Borrowing the poise and posture once reserved for 18th-century royalty, Kehinde Wiley's portraits feature young, African-American men — from anonymous neighborhood kids to Biggie Smalls — rather than the rotund European gentry that populate most art-historical textbooks. Such quotation is sometimes direct, as in the artist's usurpation of Jacques-Louis David's Napoleon Crossing the Alps, but elsewhere quite subtle, as in his lavish backdrops that draw from decorative period styles and architectural motifs. For the current chapter of his multinational series, The World Stage, Wiley finds sitters in Lagos, Nigeria and Dakar, Senegal. In a celebration of youths' ascent to positions of power, each figure assumes the stance of a local public statue.
