Taking inspiration from Bellini’s St. Francis of Assisi, circa 1475-80, housed in The Frick Collection, New York, Kehinde Wiley vividly reimagines the religious image into one situated very much in the present day. The street gear worn by Kehinde's model (Keshawn Warren) is from a now defunct clothing line called A NY THING, meaning ‘a New York thing’ or simply ‘anything’. The young man who developed it is lovingly called A-RON ‘the downtown don’ but his real name is Aron Bondaroff, a leader of the young, downtown New York art community who helps unify its often disparate forces.
Giovanni Bellini, St. Francis in the Desert, ca. 1476-78, tempera and oil on wood, The Frick Collection, New York. Image: Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Scala, Florence.
來源
Jeffrey Deitch, New York Acquired by the present owner from the above in 2008