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Kehinde Wiley Art

American, b. 1977

Named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of 2018, American painter Kehinde Wiley (b. 1977) is one of the most widely recognized artists of his generation, best known for re-creating Old Masters works with contemporary Black subjects.

Take, for instance, his large-scale masterpiece Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps (2005): The painting is nearly identical in both composition and name to Jacques-Louis David’s Bonaparte Crossing the Alps (1800–1), but instead of the French general posed atop a rearing horse, it’s a modern-day Black man, dressed in fatigues and Timberland boots, against a decorative patterned backdrop. Through such paintings and sculptures, Wiley engages in a political act, acknowledging the omission of Black and other nonwhite figures from historical and cultural narratives — especially as seen through the lens of European portraiture — and introducing them as heroes in poses and positions of power.

Born in Los Angeles, California, Wiley discovered his talents as a photorealistic portrait painter as a child, refining them at the San Francisco Art Institute, where he earned his BFA, and at the Yale University School of Art, where he earned his MFA. His art draws from a range of influences; while his paintings are most associated with Old Master portraits, particularly in the Venitian tradition of Titian and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Wiley often sets his subjects in front of ornate patterned backgrounds that reference African textiles and Islamic architecture. In 2017, the artist was commissioned by President Barack Obama to paint his official portrait to hang in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.

Wiley has garnered numerous accolades, including the U.S. Department of State Medal of Arts, the Brooklyn Museum Asher B. Durand Award for Artistic Achievement, the American Federation for Arts Cultural Leadership Award and the Pratt Legend Award. His works can be found in the collections of acclaimed institutions around the world, including the Brooklyn Museum of Art; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Walker Art Center in Minneapolis; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and the Zabludowicz Collection in London.

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Artist: Kehinde Wiley
Kehinde Wiley 'Sharrod Hosten Study III' Signed Archival Pigment Print 2020
By Kehinde Wiley
Located in Miami, FL
Kehinde Wiley's 'Sharrod Hosten Study III, 2020' is part of a limited edition print of only 30 copies. This piece was printed using archival ink on paper, signed and dated 'Kehinde W...
Category

2010s Contemporary Kehinde Wiley Art

Materials

Archival Pigment

LARGE Andries Stilte oversized beach towel (limited edition sold out) 70" x 60"
By Kehinde Wiley
Located in New York, NY
Kehinde Wiley Andries Stilte oversized beach towel, 2008 Silkscreen on 100% Cotton Large Beach Towel or hanging tapestry 70 × 60 inches (folded measurements included). Edition of 200...
Category

Early 2000s Realist Kehinde Wiley Art

Materials

Cotton, Mixed Media, Screen

The World Stage: Israel (Hand Signed by Kehinde Wiley)
By Kehinde Wiley
Located in New York, NY
Kehinde Wiley The World Stage: Israel (Hand Signed by Kehinde Wiley), 2012 Illustrated hardback monograph with dust jacket. Hand Signed by Kehinde Wiley Boldly signed in black marker...
Category

2010s Realist Kehinde Wiley Art

Materials

Mixed Media, Permanent Marker, Lithograph, Offset

Nine of Coins
By Kehinde Wiley
Located in Saint Louis, MO
Kehinde Wiley Nine of Coins, 2010 Archival inkjet print Framed Dimensions: 20.19 x 16.25 x 1 inches (51.27 x 41.27 x 2.54 cm) Edition AP 2/3, apart from the edition of 7
Category

2010s Contemporary Kehinde Wiley Art

Materials

Archival Ink, Inkjet

Alios Itzhak (Hand Signed by Kehinde Wiley) Skateboard Skate Deck Jewish Museum
By Kehinde Wiley
Located in New York, NY
Kehinde Wiley Alios Itzhak (The Worldstage: Israel), Hand Signed, 2011 100% Canadian maplewood skate deck. Hand signed by Kehinde Wiley 31 3/4 × 8 inches Boldly signed (by hand) in black marker by Kehinde Wiley on the image This long sold out skateboard, based upon Kehinde Wiley's painting, Alios Itzhak, was signed in black marker by the artist at The Jewish Museum on the occasion of his major exhibition "The World Stage: Israel", featuring portraits focusing on contemporary youth from Jewish-Ethiopian-Israeli...
Category

2010s Contemporary Kehinde Wiley Art

Materials

Wood, Screen, Permanent Marker, Mixed Media

Kehinde Wiley 'Dimietrus Study' 2021
By Kehinde Wiley
Located in Miami, FL
Kehinde Wiley’s 'Dimietrus Study' is a 2021 archival ink print in the artist's original frame. This piece is signed and dated 'Kendinde Wiley 2021' Ed. 17/30. -- Kehinde Wiley’s Dimietrus Study (2021) features a portrait of a young, Black New Yorker amidst a wreath of pink and blue flora that Wiley originally created in 2008. Returning to the composition, Wiley explains, “This portrait continues a theme that exists within the selection of prints...
Category

2010s Contemporary Kehinde Wiley Art

Materials

Pigment

Kehinde Wiley 'Sophie Arnould Study II' Print, 2016
By Kehinde Wiley
Located in Miami, FL
Kehinde Wiley's 'Sophie Arnould Study II' is part of a 2016 limited edition print of only 30 copies. The prints in this edition are enhanced by the artist’s hand application of silve...
Category

2010s Contemporary Kehinde Wiley Art

Materials

Pigment

Barack Obama White House Portrait
By Kehinde Wiley
Located in Draper, UT
Kehinde Wiley restages classical portraits and sculptures, replacing historical white subjects with contemporary subjects of color. His lush, narratively rich canvases draw on textil...
Category

2010s Contemporary Kehinde Wiley Art

Materials

Lithograph

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By Keith Haring
Located in Surfside, FL
Artist: Keith Haring, American (1958 - 1990) Title: New Year's Invitation 1988 Year: 1988 Medium: Silkscreen on Paper Image Size: 11 x 8 inches This bears a printed signature. It is not hand signed as issued. Keith Allen Haring (May 4, 1958 – February 16, 1990) was an American artist and social activist whose work responded to the New York City street culture of the 1980s by expressing concepts of birth, death, sexuality, and war. Haring's work was often heavily political and his imagery has become a widely recognized visual language of the 20th century. Keith Haring was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, on May 4, 1958. He was raised in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, by his mother Joan Haring, and father Allen Haring, an engineer and amateur cartoonist. He had three younger sisters, Kay, Karen and Kristen. Haring became interested in art at a very early age spending time with his father producing creative drawings. His early influences included Walt Disney cartoons, Dr. Seuss, Charles Schulz, and the Looney Tunes characters in The Bugs Bunny Show. In Haring's teenage years, he left his religious background behind and hitchhiked across the country, selling vintage t-shirts and experimenting with drugs. He studied commercial art from 1976 to 1978 at Pittsburgh's Ivy School of Professional Art but lost interest in it. He made the decision to leave after having read Robert Henri's The Art Spirit (1923) which inspired him to concentrate on his own art. Haring had a maintenance job at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts and was able to explore the art of Jean Dubuffet, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Tobey. His most critical influences at this time were a 1977 retrospective of the work of Pierre Alechinsky and a lecture by the sculptor Christo in 1978. Alechinsky's work, connected to the international Expressionist group CoBrA, gave Haring confidence to create larger paintings of calligraphic images. Christo introduced him to the possibilities of involving the public with his art. Haring's first important one-man exhibition was in Pittsburgh at the Center for the Arts in 1978. He moved to New York to study painting at the School of Visual Arts. He studied semiotics with Bill Beckley as well as exploring the possibilities of video and performance art. Profoundly influenced at this time by the writings of William Burroughs, he was inspired to experiment with the cross-referencing and interconnection of images. He first received public attention with his public art in subways. Starting in 1980, he organized exhibitions at Club 57, which were filmed by the photographer Tseng Kwong Chi. Around this time, "The Radiant Baby" became his symbol. His bold lines, vivid colors, and active figures carry strong messages of life and unity. He participated in the Times Square Exhibition and drew animals and human faces for the first time. That same year, he photocopied and pasted provocative collages made from cut-up and recombined New York Post headlines around the city. In 1981, he sketched his first chalk drawings on black paper and painted plastic, metal, and found objects. By 1982, Haring had established friendships with fellow emerging artists Futura 2000, Kenny Scharf, Madonna and Jean-Michel Basquiat. He created more than 50 public works between 1982 and 1989 in dozens of cities around the world. His "Crack is Wack" mural, created in 1986, is visible from New York's FDR Drive. He got to know Andy Warhol, who was the theme of several of Haring's pieces, including "Andy Mouse". His friendship with Warhol would prove to be a decisive element in his eventual success. In December 2007, an area of the American Textile Building in the TriBeCa neighborhood of New York City was discovered to contain a painting of Haring's from 1979. In 1984, Haring visited Australia and painted wall murals in Melbourne (such as the 1984 'Detail-Mural at Collingwood College, Victoria') and Sydney and received a commission from the National Gallery of Victoria and the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art to create a mural which temporarily replaced the water curtain at the National Gallery. He also visited and painted in Rio de Janeiro, the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Minneapolis and Manhattan.[9] He became politically active, designing a Free South Africa poster...
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20th Century Contemporary Kehinde Wiley Art

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Category

2010s Contemporary Kehinde Wiley Art

Materials

Giclée

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Located in East Quogue, NY
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Vintage Poster Clinton Capitol Building Pop Art Hand Signed Peter Max Lithograph
By Peter Max
Located in Surfside, FL
Artist: Peter Max, German/American (1937 - ) From the President Bill Clinton Inaugural, An American Reunion, New Beginnings, Renewed Hope Poster depicting the 1993 inauguration of Bill Clinton at the Capitol Building. Hand signed in marker with dedication Year: 1993 Medium: Poster Size: 36 in. x 24 in Provenance: collection of Friede & Rubin L. Gorewitz Peter Max (born Peter Max Finkelstein, October 19, 1937) is a German-American artist known for using bright colors in his work. Works by Max are associated with the visual arts and culture of the 1960s, particularly psychedelic art and pop art. Max was born in Berlin, the son of German Jews, Salla and Jakob. They fled Berlin in 1938, settling in Shanghai, China, where they lived for the next ten years. In 1948, the family moved to Haifa, Israel, where they lived for several years. Peter attended school in Mount Carmel, but was often drawing instead of taking notes. His principal suggested to his parents that he be put in art lessons after school, and he began to study under Professor Hünik, a Viennese Expressionist. From Israel, the family continued moving westward and stopped in Paris for several months—an experience that Max said greatly influenced his appreciation for art. In their short time in Paris, Max's mother enrolled him in drawing classes at the Louvre, where he began to study Fauvism. After nine months in Paris, Max and his family made their final move, settling in Brooklyn, New York, USA. In 1956, Max began his formal art training at the Art Students League of New York in Manhattan, studying anatomy, figure drawing and composition under Frank J. Reilly who had studied at the League alongside Norman Rockwell. In 1962, Max started a small Manhattan arts studio known as "The Daly & Max Studio," with friend Tom Daly. Daly and Max were joined by friend and mentor Don Rubbo, and the three worked as a group on books and advertising for which they received industry recognition. Much of their work incorporated antique photographic images as elements of collage. Max's interest in astronomy contributed to his self-described "Cosmic '60s" period, which featured psychedelic, counter culture imagery. Max's art was popularized nationally through TV commercials such as his 1968 "un cola" ad for the soft drink 7 Up which helped drive sales of his art posters and other merchandise. In 1967, Max solidified his place as a counter cultural icon by designing the flyers for the second ever 'Be In', a political gathering of mainly hippies in New York's Central Park after the Easter parade on March 26, 1967. In 1970, many of Max's products and posters were featured in the exhibition "The World of Peter Max," which opened at the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco. The United States Postal Service commissioned Max to create the 10-cent postage stamp to commemorate the Expo '74 World's Fair in Spokane, Washington, and Max drew a colorful psychedelic scene with a "Cosmic Jumper" and a "Smiling Sage" against a backdrop of a cloud, sun rays and a ship at sea on the theme of "Preserve the Environment." According to The New York Times, "His DayGlo-inflected posters became wallpaper for the turn on, tune in, drop out generation." On July 4, 1976, Max began his Statue of Liberty series leading to his efforts with Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca to help in the restoration of the statue. Max has been the official artist for many major events, including the 1994 World Cup, the Grammy Awards, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Super Bowl and others. In 2000, Max designed the paint scheme Dale Earnhardt...
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1990s Pop Art Kehinde Wiley Art

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Plate No. 242 - Print, Portrait, Christmas, Gold, Fashion, Skyscape, Sculpture
By Johanna Goodman
Located in Brighton, GB
Please bear in mind that all prints are produced to order. Lead times are expected between 15-20 days. Giclée print on Archival Matte Paper with Archival Pigment Ink. In 2017 she w...
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2010s Contemporary Kehinde Wiley Art

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"Conception" - Portrait of a Native American on a Vision Quest
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1990s Realist Kehinde Wiley Art

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Located in Brighton, GB
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2010s Contemporary Kehinde Wiley Art

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2010s Contemporary Kehinde Wiley Art

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2010s Contemporary Kehinde Wiley Art

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1990s Contemporary Kehinde Wiley Art

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Located in Asheville, NC
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2010s Contemporary Kehinde Wiley Art

Materials

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THE DANCER
By Pino Daeni
Located in Aventura, FL
Giclee on canvas. Hand signed and numbered on front by Pino Edition of 500. Canvas is not stretched. Artwork is in excellent condition. Certificate of authenticity included. All ...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Kehinde Wiley Art

Materials

Canvas, Giclée

THE DANCER
THE DANCER
H 16 in W 12 in

Kehinde Wiley art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Kehinde Wiley art available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Kehinde Wiley in screen print, lithograph, offset print and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 21st century and contemporary and is mostly associated with the contemporary style. Not every interior allows for large Kehinde Wiley art, so small editions measuring 7 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Annie Leibovitz, Mark Jenkins, and Howard Kanovitz. Kehinde Wiley art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $850 and tops out at $45,000, while the average work can sell for $9,000.

Artists Similar to Kehinde Wiley

Questions About Kehinde Wiley Art
  • 1stDibs ExpertApril 5, 2022
    Kehinde Wiley is an African American painter known for realistic portraits of people in heroic defeat or triumph. His photo-realistic paintings use a range of references from classical paintings to pop culture. He is best known for his paintings, but he has delved into bronze sculpture as well. Shop a selection of Kehinde Wiley pieces from some of the world’s top art dealers on 1stDibs.
  • 1stDibs ExpertFebruary 13, 2024
    Kehinde Wiley's most famous portrait is arguably of Barack Obama. In 2018, the American artist received a commission to paint the 44th President of the United States. Wiley’s depiction shows Obama surrounded by what are intentionally several types of flowers. The flowers represent Kenya, his father's birthplace; Hawaii, the president's own birthplace; and Chicago, where Obama lived and worked. Other well-known works by Wiley include Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps, Judith and Holofernes, A New Republic and Femme Piquée Par Un Serpent. Explore a variety of Kehinde Wiley art on 1stDibs.

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