可海恩德·维里 Kehinde Wiley｜重新定义黑人的代表权 Redefining Black Representation
The Capture of Juliers (2006) by Kehinde Wiley. Oil and enamel on canvas 213.36cm x 243.84cm.
Racial representation and diversity has been a big part of the discussion since 2020 and will remain to be a major issue within our societies today. The artworld is not an exception to such matters with artists exploring the notion through their works. African American artist Kehinde Wiley is a well-known figure in this area, where, through his works, he alters the perceptions of those who share his identity and struggles.
2020年，种族问题的代表性和多样性一直在被热烈讨论，这将持续是当今社会中的一个主流议题。在艺术界也一样，艺术家们通过作品来探索这个问题。非裔美国艺术家可海恩德·维里（Kehinde Wiley）是这个领域的知名人物，他通过作品改变了那些和他相同身份，并一样在努力奋斗的人的观念。
About the artist
关于艺术家
Artist Kehinde Wiley
艺术家 可海恩德·维里
Los Angeles born Kehinde Wiley is an African American painter and sculptor famous for his natural depictions using heroic portraits of contemporary black individuals in the ordinary and pop-cultural realm. He uses an array of photorealism and mixtures of other art styles such as Rocco and surrealism in his works. Throughout his career, he has honed his craft to encompass techniques from Islamic architecture, African textile design, urban hip hop, and more. Wiley has been featured in Time magazine’s top 100 most influential people of 2018 and has exhibited in the National Portrait Gallery in London. He now splits his time and creation moving between Beijing, Dakar, and New York.
出生于洛杉矶的可海恩德·维里是一位美国非裔画家和雕塑家，他以当代黑人为灵感，自然地描绘出关于黑人的大型肖像画，并闻名于流行艺术领域。他的作品中除了写实主义，还融合了其他艺术风格的混合体，例如洛可可风格和超现实主义。他在自己的艺术生涯中不断精进自己的创作，其中吸取了包含伊斯兰建筑，非洲纺织品，和城市嘻哈中等一些艺术元素。维里曾入选《时代》杂志评选出的2018年最有影响力的100位人物。他的作品也在伦敦的国家肖像画廊展出。如今他往返于北京，达喀尔和纽约之间，继续着自己的创作。
“The heart of what my work is about is to be able to flesh out the tension and anxieties of life at the intersection between those two places. Not to run away from it but to be able to accept that conflict, and to be able to create images that at once celebrate and not denounce the very confusing state of being.”
“我的作品的核心是关于生命的紧张和焦虑，在这两种情绪的交汇处去充实它。不是为了去逃避这些经历，而是接受那种冲突。让创作避开谴责过去那些困惑的状态，而更加关注主题”
- Kehinde Wiley 可海恩德·维里
Barak Obama (2017) by Kehinde Wiley. Oil and enamel on canvas 213.7 cm × 147 cm.
Most notable for his heroic portraits of urban African Americans such as former US president Barak Obama, Kehinde Wiley explores a majestic visualization of such individuals while at the same time reinterpreting a traditional painting technique that encompasses notions of history, prestige, wealth, and status. Inspired by the classical European paintings of royals and nobility, Wiley trained using the paintings of Old Masters, absorbing their techniques and adapting them to visualize an illusion with a twist of his wits injected onto the canvas.
可海恩德·维里以他对都市美国非裔群体的肖像画而闻名，例如美国前总统贝拉克·奥巴马（Barak Obama），他探索这些人群庄严的一面，同时重新诠释了传统绘画的技术，这其中包含了关于历史，声望，财富和地位的概念。受到欧洲古典皇室贵族绘画的启发，维里用古典大师们的画作来训练自己，他吸收了他们的技巧，并结合自己的智慧将其运用在作品中，使它们在画布上形象起来。
Interestingly, apart from his contrast of traditional to the modern stylization of his heroic portraits, the artist juxtaposes the subject in an ambiguous location that is completely fabricated evoking a sense of surrealism. Wiley instead relates and surrounds the subject with decorative elements and facades such as wallpaper and textiles that speak to the subject’s culture.
有趣的是，除了他在大幅肖像画里展现出的传统和现代风格的反差，这位艺术家将人物主体放置在一个不明确的位置，营造出一种超现实主义的感觉。维里用各种装饰元素和背景立面（例如墙纸和纺织品等）来围绕着主体人物，以此来表现这个人物的背景文化。
Napoleon Leading the Army Over the Alps (2005) by Kehinde Wiley. Oil and enamel on canvas 274.32cm x 274.32cm.
Napoleon Crossing the Alps (1801- 1805) by Jacques-Louis David. Oil on canvas 2.6m x 2.21m.
Wiley’s creative process consists of photography, composition, and research of the works of Old masters he wishes to reference. In many of his works he depicts ordinary and pop-culture figures that he may or may not have come across throughout his journey, then he visualizes the characteristics of the subject, drawing parallels to the painted figures from classical European painter’s works as seen in his painting, Napoleon Leading the Army Over the Alps (2005). This work appropriates major elements of the original portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte created by Jacques-Louis David in the early 19th century titled, Napoleon Crossing the Alps. Both paintings share similarities such as the pose, references to the military through clothing, emotion, and the composition of the original painting. Wiley goes so far as to boldly sign and date the painting where Jacques-Louis did, on the breastplate of the horse. Using these methods, Kehinde Wiley asserts a statement on equality, using the image and status of colonial leaders who are mostly if not all, white to empower the black man in his own way.
维里的创作过程中会包含摄影，构图和研究那些他希望参考的古代大师的作品。在许多作品中，他描绘了那些他也许会或不会遇到的普通人和流行文化人物。他将人物的特征形象地表现出来，他笔下的人物类似于欧洲古典画家作品中的人物，例如作品《拿破仑领导军队穿越阿尔卑斯山（2005）》。这幅作品借用了19世纪初雅克·路易斯·大卫（Jacques-Louis David）创作的《拿破仑穿越阿尔卑斯山》中拿破仑的人物原型。这两幅画有着相似之处，比如人物姿势，军事参考的服装，情感，以及原画的构图。维里甚至大胆地模仿原作者雅克·路易斯在马的胸甲上签名和标记日期脚注。他用这些方法来声明自己对平等的主张，利用殖民地领导者（这些领导者大部分都为白人）的形象和地位，以自己的方式呼吁黑人的权力。
The Chancellor Seguier on Horseback (2005) by Kehinde Wiley. Oil and enamel on canvas 182.88cm x 274.32cm.
Equestrian Portrait of the Count-Duke Olivares(2005) by Kehinde Wiley. Oil and enamel on canvas 274.32cm x 274.32cm.
Officer of the Hussars (2007) by Kehinde Wiley. Oil and enamel on canvas 274.32cm x 274.32cm.
Over the course of his career, Kehinde Wiley has adapted his works to cross over into many different cultures around the world. He would also begin to create larger works with a vibrant aesthetic that embraces the exaggeration of power and masculinity in his art at scale. In his series titled, Rumors of War (2019), Wiley further visualizes such aesthetics with ordinary people he met in 125th street, Harlem– Men who are displaced in a surreal environment alluding to the duality of their ongoing struggles, and current state.
在他的艺术生涯中，可海恩德·维里尝试让作品融入世界各地的不同文化。他还将创作更大型的作品，用一种充满活力的美学，在艺术规模上来营造一种夸张和阳刚的力量。在一系列名为《战争的谣言（2019）》的作品中，维里继续用这种美学理念将他在哈莱姆125街遇到的那些普通人描绘在画布上，这些人物被放置在超现实的环境中，暗含着他们目前的处境和当下的挣扎。
Kehinde Wiley, Rumors of War (2019). © 2019 Kehinde Wiley. Courtesy of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Times Square Arts, and Sean Kelly. Photo: Ka-Man Tse for Times Square Arts.
可海恩德·维里，《战争谣言》（2019）。©2019 Kehinde Wiley。提供于弗吉尼亚艺术博物馆，时代广场艺术和 Sean Kelly。图片：Ka-Man Tse for Times Square Arts
Alongside the large paintings, Wiley created a bronze statue that would go on to be displayed in Times Square, New York for three months in 2019. This sculpture plays a vital role in the black identity as it raises issues with the statues memorializing pro-slavery confederate officers of the past that still exist in modern America. By replacing the confederate officer and using the image of an urban black man, he simultaneously takes away its symbolic meaning, protesting it, and morphing it into the pride and celebration of the African man in America.
除了大型画作外，维里还创作了一座铜制塑像，在2019年纽约时代广场上展出了三个月。这座雕塑对黑人身份的认同意义重大。因为如今的美国依旧还留存曾经支持奴隶制的联邦官员的纪念雕像，维里的雕塑引发了人们对此的关注和讨论。
The Two Sisters (2012) by Kehinde Wiley. Oil on linen 182.88cm x 243.84cm.
Ena Johnson (2012) by Kehinde Wiley. Oil on canvas 177.8cm x 152.4cm.
While most of the artist’s works focus mainly on masculinity, his series titled Economy of Grace (2012) is an exception. It is his first series that appreciates the female African Americans in the context of predominantly white art history and also features a documentary that tracks his process throughout the whole project. The artist explains that the title of the series explores the ideas surrounding prestige and dignity, its valuation, and its perception of human nature.
尽管这位艺术家的作品大多是关于男性人物，但他的系列作品《优雅的经济（2012年）》是一个例外。这是他在以白人主导艺术史的环境背景下，第一个表现美国非裔女性的系列。有一部纪录片记录下了他整个创作的过程。维里解释说，这个系列的标题探讨了围绕威望和尊严的思想，关于它的价值，以及它对人性的感知。
Juliette Recamier (2012) by Kehinde Wiley. Oil on canvas 182.88cm x 243.84cm.
Judith and Holofernes (2012) by Kehinde Wiley. Oil on canvas 304.8cm x 228.6cm.
Like his other works, Wiley’s references to historical portraits are consistent, using poses and occasion based on female portraits by the likes of artists such as Thomas Gainsborough and John Singer Sargent. By doing so, he is able to create a discussion about gender stereotypes and the presence of black women within art history while at the same time exploring concepts of beauty and gracefulness that were not focal to his previous works.
如同其它作品一样，维里会持续参考历史肖像，他借鉴了一些其他艺术家例如托马斯·庚斯博罗（Thomas Gainsborough）和约翰·辛格·萨金特（John Singer Sargent）的女性肖像画作品中的姿势和场合。以这种方式，他引发了一场关于性别刻板印象和黑人女性在艺术史中的存在性的讨论，同时他探索了以往作品中未曾关注过的关于美和优雅的理念。
“If art can be at the service of anything, it's about letting us see a state of grace for those people who rarely get to be able to be seen that way.”
“如果艺术可以服务于任何事情，那便是让我们看到这些在典雅的状态中的人，这些人在平日往往很少以此种方式被关注到。”
-Kehinde Wiley 可海恩德·维里
For more information on the artist, please click here
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Translation 翻译 Rona Xia
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