Art History: Renaissance to Modern

Kehinde Wiley: Not Recreating, Reimagining

by Marc Monti

What exactly constitutes “revolutionary” change? Is it clear deviations from societal and cultural norms, or can it be quiet adjustments that upset the status quo? One individual’s work that embodies the latter are the portraits of New York based artist Kehinde Wiley. While an unconventional art style for his time, his Renaissance style portraits are nothing new to Western art, at least superficially. In fact, they strongly resemble those produced throughout Western Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries. Their realism, idealism, and symbolism were all practices used and mastered by Northern European artists of this foregone era. Considering these similarities, one would be forgiven for dismissing Wiley’s compositions as unnoteworthy compared to other modern art. However, there is much more weight and importance to his portraits than meets the eye. To understand the purpose of his portraits, you must first scrutinize both Wiley’s personality and American culture at large. As an African American and openly homosexual man, Kehinde Wiley embodies two identities with extremely difficult and controversial pasts in the United States. Considering this, one can see how his unapologetic depictions of Black men, often with erotic undertones, are as much about the subjects as they are about Wiley and his relationship to society. In this relationship lies another unique aspect of his art; the fact that he celebrates rather than ruminates on his struggles. Professor Richard Schur of Drury University identifies this theme as “post-Black”, where it is “...neither... for social, political or cultural equality... or a rallying point for cultural solidarity,” but “the foundation of African American identity and artists’ relationship to that identity,”. Thus, while the portraits of Kehinde Wiley physically resemble Renaissance-era counterparts, they contain a far more contemporary undertone: One of being proudly and defiantly Black and gay in modern America.

While Wiley’s beloved style is undeniably unique, it was refined through several experiences and realizations in his upbringing. The earliest of these was the influence of his mother, a graduate student studying African dialects and Ebonics. She raised Wiley to be aware of his heritage and the exploits of African culture, which would foster the conceptualization of this subject in his mature works. An equally pivotal but contrasting influence was his study of Western European art throughout primary school and university. This is where Wiley developed his deep interest in portraiture and its ability to evoke feelings of empathy and yearning. In fact, he profoundly remembered his earliest encounters with European Renaissance portraits, and the impact they had on him despite his ignorance of their history. “As a twentieth-century, poor, Black kid... I had no way of digesting it. But at the same time, there was this desire to somehow possess it or belong to it.” Like these portraits, Wiley continued to connect to the art he saw and brought their unique aspects together in his own interpretation. This includes the sexualization of the male figure he encountered in works by John Singer Sargent, Thomas Eakins, and George Bellows (see reference #1). He also gravitated toward the realm of Hip-Hop, which galvanized his identity as a Black man in America. Like the European art he viewed as a child, Wiley has commented about how he struggles to empathize with its “hypermasculinization and hypersexualization”. However, the grandiosity of Hip-Hop stars and their fashion, as well as the power and influence they appear to command, attracted him. The greatest influence of all, and the inspiration for his style of imitation protest art, originated in a realization he had as a college student. After feeling as though his opinions on race and racism were being lost by the novelty of his style, Wiley realized he had work within established standards, rather than against them. In other words, to fully convey his message, he had to put it across in a format that people knew well and would be able to fully digest it. Basing his style on the works of artists like John Currin and Lisa Yuskavage, Wiley realized how he could blend the classic methods of European portraits with modern subject matter to create the most impactful piece he could. This developed into his characteristic, European Renaissance style portraits that depict empowered Black men.

In conclusion, while Kehinde Wiley’s portraits may not be as dramatically modern as compared to other compositions, they are incredibly groundbreaking when fully understood. On initial inspections, his works are modern recreations of famous High and Post-Renaissance portraits. The poses, the figures, and the props they interact with, are all hallmarks of this age of traditional artmaking. However, when scrutinized against the backdrop of the artist’s race, sexuality, and political views, one can realize the piece’s ideological uniqueness. The many inspirations he had growing up, from his mother’s advocacy of his African heritage to his own studies on Western European art, all shaped his unique style and contributions to modern art. The exceptional realism of the subjects both celebrates the notion of race and adds a sexual allure to many pieces. The substitutions of Black men where white men are in positions of power, and where white women are in ones of sexual vulnerability, emphasizes Wiley’s attempts to portray his race and homosexuality in his work. Further, their clothing and background also plays a part in manipulating the entire theme and feeling of the piece. With all these factors, one can recognize how Kehinde Wiley is unparalleled in utilizing the portrait as both a work of art and a socio-political platform.

Bibliography

Horton, Jessica L., and Cherise Smith. “The Particulars of Postidentity.” American Art, vol. 28, no. 1, [The University of Chicago Press, The Smithsonian Institution], 2014, pp. 2–8, https://doi.org/10.1086/676623.

Prater, Paige, and Rachel May Smith. “Double: Seeing Double: Kehinde Wiley’s Portraits.” Art Education, vol. 68, no. 6, National Art Education Association, 2015, pp. 46–53, http://www.jstor.org/stable/45239774.

Schur, Richard. “Post-Soul Aesthetics in Contemporary African American Art.” African American Review, vol. 41, no. 4, [Indiana State University, Saint Louis University, African American Review, African American Review (St. Louis University)], 2007, pp. 641–54, https://doi.org/10.2307/25426982.

Thompson, Krista. “The Sound of Light: Reflections on Art History in the Visual Culture of Hip- Hop.” The Art Bulletin, vol. 91, no. 4, [Taylor & Francis, Ltd., College Art Association], 2009, pp. 481–505, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27801642.

Wiley, Kehinde, and Thelma Golden. Kehinde Wiley. Rizzoli, 2012.

Japanese architect, Shigeru Ban, has gained the spotlight by tackling these issues by using an unprecedented architectural material: cardboard. Typically, materials like steel and concrete are used for buildings; however, by utilizing cardboard, Ban is able to fulfill his moral objective of recycling his building projects while maintaining aesthetic ideals. Most importantly, he uses his architectural knowledge to provide emergency relief to victims of natural disasters. He travels to locations in crisis to provide long-lasting shelters and rebuild churches. With the reputation of being the moral conscience of architecture, Shigeru Ban’s commitment to humanitarian causes and innovative work with recycled material has earned him recognition and awards like the Pritzker Prize in 2014.

Shigeru Ban is a man of the people; he uses his profession to provide for society. In Naomi R. Pollock’s article Ban-Aid, Ban explains that, “Some medical doctors work for their money while others engage in pro bono, humanitarian activities--yet architects rarely take on this kind of work” (Pollock, Ban-Aid). Ban’s commitment to socially equitable building practice is made clear in his 2013 TED talk Emergency Shelters Made fromPpaper. He explains that in the field of architecture “...we are not working for society, but we are working for privileged people… So, I was very disappointed that we are not working for society, even though there are so many people who lost their houses by natural disasters” (Ban). He goes on to state that people need “temporary housing, but there are no architects working there because we are too busy working for privileged people” (Ban). 

In 1994, a big disaster struck in Rwanda, Africa when two tribes, the Hutu and Tutsi, fought each other in a brutal civil war that caused over two million people to become refugees. The United Nations (U.N.) provided aid to the refugees by supplying them with plastic sheets and aluminum. However, in doing so, the U.N. created a serious deforestation problem. It just became big, heavy deforestation and an environmental problem. That is why they started providing aluminum pipes, aluminum barracks. Very expensive, they throw them out for money, then cutting trees again” (Ban). To combat these environmental and economic issues, Ban proposed to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva that he could improve the situation by using cheaper and stronger materials; specifically, recycled paper tubes.

His Rwandan civil war shelters (Image 1: UNHCR Shelter) are built with cheap materials, such as recycled-paper tubes, plastic joints, rope, and plastic sheets. Under the plastic sheets is a simple skeleton made from long paper tubes that are connected by plastic joints and tied firmly by rope. Notably, these shelters are made using light materials which means that they can be transported to other refugee camps or disaster areas; a signature trait that would return in Ban’s future designs. With each unit only costing fifty dollars and free labor from students and volunteers, Ban was able to provide shelter for refugees.

Wherever disasters strike, Ban is sure to be there to aid those in need with temporary shelter and structures. Following the construction in Rwanda, he quickly traveled to an earthquake-stricken Kobe, Japan, that had several of its cities burned down and leaving victims homeless. Shigeru Ban stated that, “... I found put there’s many Vietnamese refugees suffering and gathering at a Catholic Church. All the building was totally destroyed…They were living like this with very poor plastic sheets in the park” (Ban). Vietnamese refugees lost their homes and were living in flimsy tents in a park. Additionally, Ban discussed that, “I knew I had help after I read about a Catholic church, where many Vietnamese worshipped, that burnt down. Because of my work with refugees, I thought that minorities must have a more difficult time after a disaster, so I went to Kobe to look for this church… The conditions were horrible, yet these people had no choice but to stay there…” (Pollock, Ban-Aid). This time around, Ban had to tackle two challenges; provide a more suitable temporary shelter and build a new catholic church.

The Kobe cabins (Image 2: Kobe Paper Log House) are a cluster of cabins made of inexpensive materials, which include paper tubes, donated Kirin company beer crates, sandbags, waterproof tape, rope, and PVC tent material. Ban used the Kirin beer crates loaded with sandbags to form a square foundation that protects the cabins from damp terrain and flooding. A wooden slab provides flooring and upright paper tubes on the edges of the wooden slab to form the walls of the cabin. Underneath the white triangular PVC tent material roofing, there is a paper tube skeleton that is tied down by rope to keep the roof secure. The cabin’s interior design offers protection from weather and comfortability in a wide space. Most importantly, like the Rwandan shelters, these cabins could be deconstructed, recycled, and transported. These cabins would become a suitable method for providing inexpensive, easy-to-assemble, and widely available shelter to other countries that Ban has aided, such as Turkey and India. Additionally, with micro-adjustments to the design, he is able to make cabins that can adapt to different environments and weather. Now that the task of providing shelter was completed, a new catholic church had to be built.

After the cabins were finished, Ban began construction on a “paper” church that would serve as a temporary community space for a Catholic congregation. The Kobe Paper church’s exterior (Image 3: Paper Dome) is a rectangular plan that is surrounded by tall, clear plastic louvers that can be opened and closed. As every other project he has worked on, the signature paper tube skeleton is present and holds the rectangular exterior in place. Within the rectangular exterior, Ban places tall paper tube pillars in an elliptical pattern (Image 4: Paper Dome Interior). There are wide gaps between the front portion of the oval formation, which allow natural light to enter during the day and provide lighting upon the altar and the back of the church. The roof of the church has a cone-shaped dome on its flat white roof. Ban worked with his students to rebuild a temporary church in just five weeks. It was meant to be there for three years, but it was so loved that it stayed in Kobe for ten years. Taiwan suffered from an earthquake in 1999 and Ban donated the paper church as a permanent building.

On March 11, 2011, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake, followed by a massive tsunami, engulfed the Japanese architect’s homeland. Ban has been to several disaster areas around the world, but the amount of destruction appalled him. Evacuation centers formed in gymnasiums and other large structures throughout the region. Upon arriving at the Onagawa gymnasium evacuation center, Ban described that “There’s no privacy. People suffer mentally and physically” (Ban). Residents were huddled closely together with little provision for much-needed privacy and space. Thus, he brought his students along to build residents a simple shelter out of paper tubes and curtains. The partition system is easily constructed by creating a rectangular space formed by tube frames and white curtains that can be replicated to accommodate each family (Image 5: Partition System). “It’s really necessary to do it. They don’t have enough flat area to build standard government single-story housing… Even civil government is doing such poor construction of the temporary housing, so dense and so messy because there is no storage, nothing, water is leaking…” (Ban). Instead of constructing standard government single-story housing, Ban proposed a three-story housing plan to the Onagawa mayor. 

According to Naomi Pollock in Container Housing, “the project consists of nine separate buildings, supplying 189 residential units in six three-story and three two-story apartment blocks… Each building block is a vertical checkerboard of containers secured by a steel frame. Private areas, such as sleeping quarters and bathrooms, are concentrated within the containers themselves, while the kitchen and dining areas occupy the enclosed, void spaces in between” (Pollock, Container Housing). Ban and his students efficiently recycle paper tubes and shipping containers, furniture and appliances from the retailer MUJI to create a temporary comfortable environment for the residents to stay in (Image 6: Onagawa Temporary Container Houses). Each shipping container’s interior (Image 7: Onagawa Temporary Container Houses Interior) resembles a small apartment complex that provides the essential utilitarian needs with a pure white aesthetic and wooden furniture. Keeping the resident’s needs in mind, Ban emphasizes the feeling of a cozy, homely feel to ease Onagawa of the losses that they suffered in the earthquake. “The residents are satisfied with their interim accommodations that they have already expressed a desire to live here longer than the established two-year term” (Pollock, Container Housing). Much like Ban’s other projects, the container houses proved to be appraised by the public and rebuilt in other areas.

On February 22, 2011, New Zealand experienced a catastrophic earthquake. According to Andrew Barrie’s article Church Service, Christchurch, New Zealand’s Neo-Gothic Anglican cathedral church was the highest profile architectural casualty. This earthquake also affected Japan, as 28 Japanese students died from the collapse of the Canterbury Television building. Ban immediately flew over to rebuild the church and “carry out the design at no cost” (Barrie). Observing Ban’s design of the church (Image 8: Christchurch Transitional Cathedral), the cathedral’s exterior sports an A-frame structure with large waterproof and flame-retardant paper tubes wrapping around wooden beams of the roof. Steel shipping containers are used as the cathedral’s walls, while stone slabs line the floor as a foundation. Most notably light filters through several areas, such as the gaps between the tubes and the triangular stained-glass window panels (Image 9: Christchurch Transitional Cathedral Interior). The Paper Church’s “innovative construction and its impact as a first major sign of new life seem to have captured the collective imagination, and the now permanent structure seems set to become an enduring symbol of Christchurch’s revival” (Barrie). It is through Ban’s commitment, adaptability and public service that defines the influence and importance of an architect committed to good will and innovative design.