Kehinde Wiley’s image of a black man depicting Napoleon is pretty cool!

Kehinde Wiley should be viewed as a revolutionary artist in America. 

Kehinde Wiley should be viewed as a revolutionary artist because his art elicits a glimpse of black and brown American culture in such an amazing and qualitative way, which empowers. 

Although his art may sometimes be misunderstood and controversial, it inspires many minorities and gives them a voice to be heard. 

Wiley’s image of a black man depicting Napoleon is pretty dope, but he’s recently famous for drawing a portrait of Barack Obama. Skepticism started when one of his earlier works, showed a black woman beheading a white woman which started an uproar. Certain people criticized Obama for choosing an artist that embodied racism. This infamy inspired his art to be subject to greater scrutiny and brought some people to become uneasy about what Wiley represents. 

Napoleon

President Barack Obama

Judith and Holofernes

In this picture we see Leshia Evans protesting for the brutal killing of an African Amerian. I chose this picture because it struck me the most as a violation of our rights to protest it seems that the young women being detained by officers with layers of armor to take her down. I find this picture very powerful because she is standing tall for what she believes in with no fear of the consequences. This is a great representation of the black lives matter movement as there is no violence associated with it and this is American fighting for the American people’s rights. The strongest point I take from this image is that despite those officers wearing all that armor she is the more powerful one in the image fighting for a better America who protects all its people rather than kills them because of race or religion. I’m sure this image will be in future generations’ textbooks when they are being taught about the Black Lives Matter Movement.

I decided to write about the image of Donna Gottschalk where she is in a parade holding a sign that says  “I am your worst fear, I am your best fantasy”. I find this image to be really interesting and it also holds a lot of meaning to it. I believe that the message that she is trying to convey is that women have been seen as objects used to satisfy men’s desires, as Berger argues in episode 2 of ways of seeing; but also, the contrast that she makes with the phrase  “I am your worst fear” is trying to say that men are aware of how able and powerful women can be and that might intimidate them a little. Another thing that really caught my attention was the confidence that Donna emits standing there with such bravery to defend her rights as a lesbian (this picture was taken at the beginnning of gay rights movements in the 1970s). Her semblance is a reflection of what many women nowadays try to communicate to society and i would like to talk more in detail about this in my paper along with John Berger’s ideas about how women were depicted in society.

In episode #1 Berger talks about how Western European art was used to manipulate the viewers’ perspective and a lot of times it was meant to incite different feelings and questions, much like Berger’s point the 911 image at first it incites a happy and calm feeling but as you look deep into it, you could see the world trade center falling apart and burning which incites sadness and anger, at the same time the viewer is left wondering how are these people so happy during this event and what is the true meaning behind this image.

For the first paper, i’ll be choosing the painting by the artist Kehinde Wiley because I found this particular image so similar to ancient paintings where the artists show the power and victorious movement of emperors, to be exact here is Jacques-Louis David’s Napoleon Crossing the Alps. Kehinde painted a person of color instead of an Napoleon but the image still sends the same strong message that a powerful person is ready to lead a community or nation, be it Napoleon or people of color. It also uses some European traditions to recreate something new just like how John Berger describes in episode 1 of Ways of seeing. 

This is a photograph taken by Thomas Hoepke. In this picture we can see a group of people are relaxing and enjoying their leisure while the world trade center is burning behind them. In the first episode of Berger’s Way of Seeing, we have learned how images can manipulate our thinking process. When we look at this image the very first thing we notice is the tragic event. It raises a question, how can these people be so happy and not even care about the world trade center burning. This picture shows two opposite stories. First, the tragic event which affected so many people’s lives.  Second, people do not care about things which are not related to them.

Kehinde Wiley’s oil painting is giving a twist to the classical European paintings by substituting a white man with an African American one. I interpret this as him showing us that we live in a new world, one where black culture will be recognized. The man he painted is wearing modern clothing such as timberland boots and a bandana. The history of African Americans was never on the same level of importance as European’s, so Wiley decided to include them on his own, it just took so long that now we’re wearing the latest fashion. 

Episode 1 of John Berger’s “Ways of Seeing” will be referred to, to discuss the manipulation of an image to deliver a message. I’ll explain in detail how Wiley took a contemporary portrait of Napoleon an altered it to prove a point. Episode 3 will be used to discuss the history behind oil paintings and the power and wealth they displayed in Europe. Wiley purposely did an oil painting to relate back to the time period and giving black people power.