Kehinde Wiley - Photographs New York Friday, April 5, 2024 | Phillips
  • Most widely acclaimed for his reverent paintings of Black young men, Kehinde Wiley has also created photographs of the same subject matter and utilizes the medium as an integral element of his studio practice. In September 2009, Deitch Projects showcased 17 of his pictures in the exhibition Black Light.

     

    Rather than oil and canvas, Wiley employed illumination and post-production processes to generate regal likenesses. Wiley’s sitters – posed in the style of the Old Masters are surrounded by vivid, lively patterns sampled from 1950s home décor magazines and a 1999 Martha Stewart furnishings collection. Shot from a slightly lower angle, the camera peers upwards towards the subjects, conferring status and prestige onto the men. In keeping with Wiley’s paintings, the photographs subvert traditions of portraiture by recasting the subject as a modern, Black man whilst retaining the grand backgrounds and formal physicality.

    • Provenance

      Deitch Projects, New York

    • Exhibited

      Beyond Truth: Photography After the Shutter, Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, 10 February - 26 May 2019
      Photo Fictions, Emily Davis Gallery at the University of Akron, Ohio, 12 September - 22 October 2011
      Pattern I.D. Show Supplement, Akron Art Museum, Ohio, 1 December 2009 - 1 June 2010

    • Literature

      Wiley, Black Light, p. 35

HIGH VOLTAGE: CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE COLLECTION OF FRED AND LAURA BIDWELL

265

After Titian’s (Tiziano Vecellio) Penitent Mary Magdalene

2009
Archival pigment print.
29 1/2 x 22 1/4 in. (74.9 x 56.5 cm)
Overall 39 1/8 x 31 3/4 in. (99.4 x 80.6 cm)

Signed and numbered 1/6 in ink on the verso.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$8,000 - 12,000 

Sold for $16,510

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Sarah Krueger
Head of Department, Photographs
skrueger@phillips.com
 

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Worldwide Head of Photographs and Chairwoman, Americas
vhallett@phillips.com

Photographs

New York Auction 5 April 2024