Kahinde Wiley is a Gay American based painter born in Los Angeles, who has an international reputation. Wiley lives and practices between Beijing and Brooklyn.
Prince Tomosso Francesco of Savoy-Carignano, 2005, Oil on canvas, 9' x 12'
Sir Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641). Prince Tommaso Francesco of Savoy-Carignano, 1634
Kehinde Wiley Count Potocki, 2008 oil on canvas, 274.3 x 274.3cm
David, Jacques-Louis
Count Potocki, 1780-81, Oil on canvas, 9' 11 5/8" x 7' 1 7/8"
Count Potocki, 1780-81, Oil on canvas, 9' 11 5/8" x 7' 1 7/8"
Kehinde Wiley Support Army and Look after People, 2007 oil on canvas, 258.4 x 227.3cm
This weeks ALVC class focuses on the Postmodern theme "INTERTEXTUALITY", re-read Extract 1 The death of the author on page 39 of your ALVC books and respond to the oil paintings of Kehinde Wiley.
1. Find a clear definition of Intertextuality and quote it accurately on your blog using the APA referencing system. Use your own words to explain the definition more thoroughly.
The concept of intertextuality reminds us that each text exists in relation to others. In fact, texts owe more to other texts than to their own makers. Michel Foucault declared that:
The frontiers of a book are never clear-cut: beyond the title, the first lines and the last full stop, beyond its internal configuration and its autonomous form, it is caught up in a system of references to other books, other texts, other sentences: it is a node within a network... The book is not simply the object that one holds in one's hands... Its unity is variable and relative. (Foucault, 1974, p.23)
This means that an artist will have got his/her ideas from a piece of work that already exists or an idea that another artist has already presented.
The concept of intertextuality reminds us that each text exists in relation to others. In fact, texts owe more to other texts than to their own makers. Michel Foucault declared that:
The frontiers of a book are never clear-cut: beyond the title, the first lines and the last full stop, beyond its internal configuration and its autonomous form, it is caught up in a system of references to other books, other texts, other sentences: it is a node within a network... The book is not simply the object that one holds in one's hands... Its unity is variable and relative. (Foucault, 1974, p.23)
This means that an artist will have got his/her ideas from a piece of work that already exists or an idea that another artist has already presented.
2. Research Wiley's work and write a paragraph that analyzes how we might make sense of his work. Identify intertextuality in Wiley's work.
Favoring the non-essentialist idea that identity is something constructed and not inherently possessed, Wiley challenges these traditions by incorporating young black and brown men from within the urban setting in positions usually reserved for the powerful and wealthy European upper class.
In Count Potocki, Wiley has appropriated the subject composition from the French painter Jacque-Louis David, in which the original composition portrays the equestrian Polish patron, politician, and writer Count Stanislas Potocki sitting atop a horse with his hat outstretched in his right hand. In Wiley’s version of Count Potocki (2008), the black male subject is situated in the same position upon the horse as in the original composition, which can be seen to symbolically represent the displacement of European models of high culture and power within his work. (Beale, 2010)
Favoring the non-essentialist idea that identity is something constructed and not inherently possessed, Wiley challenges these traditions by incorporating young black and brown men from within the urban setting in positions usually reserved for the powerful and wealthy European upper class.
In Count Potocki, Wiley has appropriated the subject composition from the French painter Jacque-Louis David, in which the original composition portrays the equestrian Polish patron, politician, and writer Count Stanislas Potocki sitting atop a horse with his hat outstretched in his right hand. In Wiley’s version of Count Potocki (2008), the black male subject is situated in the same position upon the horse as in the original composition, which can be seen to symbolically represent the displacement of European models of high culture and power within his work. (Beale, 2010)
3. Wiley's work relates to next weeks Postmodern theme "PLURALISM" . Read page 46 and discuss how the work relates to this theme.
According to Caldwell (1999), Pluralism in art refers to the nature of artforms and artists as diverse. The cultural context of art is all encompassing in its respect for the art of the world's culture. Inclusion of individuals of differing ethnicities, genders, ideologies, abilities, ages, religions, economic status and educational levels is valued. Pluralism honours differences within and between equitable groups while seeing their commonalities.
According to Caldwell (1999), Pluralism in art refers to the nature of artforms and artists as diverse. The cultural context of art is all encompassing in its respect for the art of the world's culture. Inclusion of individuals of differing ethnicities, genders, ideologies, abilities, ages, religions, economic status and educational levels is valued. Pluralism honours differences within and between equitable groups while seeing their commonalities.
4. Comment on how Wiley's work raises questions around social/cultural hierarchies , colonisation, globalisation, stereotypes and the politics which govern a western worldview.
Wiley incorporates young black and brown African men in positions usually reserved for the powerful and wealthy European upper class. While history has generally looked upon the black male subject as something of a commodity or a fetishized object. In one of the paintings, 1 man is wearing a Chicago Bulls t-shirt. (Two Heroic Sisters of the Grassland, 2007) It is clear that this man has come from Africa and is now living in America.
Two Heroic Sisters of the Grassland, 2007
Wiley incorporates young black and brown African men in positions usually reserved for the powerful and wealthy European upper class. While history has generally looked upon the black male subject as something of a commodity or a fetishized object. In one of the paintings, 1 man is wearing a Chicago Bulls t-shirt. (Two Heroic Sisters of the Grassland, 2007) It is clear that this man has come from Africa and is now living in America.
Support the rural population and serve 500 million peasants, 2007
International relations and sterotypes are questioned when a young black and brown man is carrying a doctors bag and is being sent to rural towns in China to help with 500 million people. 5. Add some reflective comments of your own, which may add more information that you have read during your research.
Wiley has definately stepped outside the box in terms of his artwork. Using
young urban black and brown men from around the world blurs the boundaries of representation and identity of the urban male, as Niru Ratnam states, “using the devices of art to highlight the contradictions of reality” (Niru, 2004). Wiley engages these devices in a way that stimulates visual thought about the many socio-political issues challenging contemporary urban black and brown men in today’s institutions and societies. (Beale, 2010)
There is a another example of Intertextuality- Flora By Gucci Commercial. Australian model Abbey Lee Kershaw is in a field of 20,000 flowers surrendering to the power of her every move. Kershaw is depicted like the Roman goddess Flora, who with waves of her arms causes the flowers to bow to her. The heroine become possessed with the Flora personality and changes "from mademoiselle to empowered woman." She becomes "a woman initially delicate and feminine transforming into someone stronger and more powerful." This short and simple commercial immediately gets your attention with its siren-like chorus with a sunset field and movements that border on orgasmic. (Possessed Girl in Flora By Gucci Commercial, 2009)
If you have seen Botticelli’s Primavera, the Gucci ads may remind you of his image of Flora, who holds spring flowers in the folds of her sheer floral dress.
Sandro Botticelli |
detail
If you have seen Botticelli’s Primavera, the Gucci ads may remind you of his image of Flora, who holds spring flowers in the folds of her sheer floral dress.
REFERENCES:
http://www.cretique.com/archives/4012
http://www.deitch.com/artists/sub.php?artistId=11
Window, A. (2010). kehinde wiley and his inspiration.
http://albertis-window.blogspot.com/2010/03/kehinde-wiley-and-his-inspiration.html
Cadwell, B. (1999). Cultural context. Retrieved from http://www.public.iastate.edu/~design/ART/NAB/PluART.html
Beale, J. (2010) Retrieved from http://igobyandy.blogspot.com/2010/05/kehinde-wiley-and-representation-of.html
Niru, Ratnum, “Art and Globalisation” Themes in Contemporary Art. Eds. Gill Perry and Paul Wood. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2004. 280-284.
Foucault, M. (1974). The Archaeology of Knowledge. London: Tavistock
Possessed Girl in Flora By Gucci Commercial, 2009. Retrieved from http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/possessed-girl-in-flora-by
I like the idea that with intertextuality nothing is original and new but reinvented and altered always a continuation on something that has been before and connected to something from the past. I like that Kehinde Wiley has taken poses and compositions from previous periods and reinvented them for the 21st century focusing on what is missing in our current artistic palette. I like that we can see the differences as to what is shown usually today and what was in the past shown, as well as the contrast to the common things amongst the artworks in the poses and technique he uses.
ReplyDeleteI agree that stereotypes are questioned when there is a young black man carrying a doctor's bag about to go save lives in China. Because that's really unrealistic and unusual to see nowadays, more so because the man is wearing gangster looking clothes.
ReplyDelete