Waking Up With Kehinde Wiley
I’ve made and sold works of art all my life. Shit, I sold my very first “large” oil painting right out of my first studio painting class. The painting was nothing memorable at all, just three winged figures on a black background. I remember the disappointment from the buyers when they learned I WASN’T a graduate student (1993) on some meteoric Art World trajectory and was a mere first year student of illustration. I wish I had the presence of mind to say “Well kind ma’am and sir, this is Tucson gawdamnit. Neither of us can afford that type of prestige!”
Installation View of Robert Colescott Retrospective at the Contemporary Art Center, Cinncinatti, 2019
Even being in New York this last 18 years, I’ve had some luck with commissions and patrons buying my personal work, No big deal, right? No big deal ‘til I woke up with Kehinde Wiley.
No big deal, right?
No big deal ‘til I woke up with Kehinde Wiley.
Let me back up to Tucson where I went to the University of Arizona in the 90’s. There were some great professors of art there and I feel mostly good about the $42-46,000 of student loan debt I amassed in Arizona. I made the most of my opportunities in that art department, but that debt did not come with a lot of prestige. One renowned artist and painter who was on the faculty as a Professor Emeritus (link) was Robert Colescott (Oakland, 1925 – Tucson, 2009). He was not the reason I transferred from the architecture department to the art department. But I was aware of his work as it was included in the shows in the department gallery. Colescott’s expressive figurative paintings dealt with the medium and identity in ways that I am still inspired by. So when I saw the opening of a large retrospective of his work was going to open in the Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center, I planned a trip to try and fill the void of NOT getting to be mentored by Colescott during my BFA. So a short time later with a plane ticket and a reservation at the 21C (link) later I was on my way to get my extracurricular post-graduate study on…
Here are some shots from the exhibition that I took…
So the night before these pictures were taken, we came in a little travel worn and took a quick circuit of the show in the actual lobby of the 21C Hotel before heading out to look at the previous week’s street art festival and get some BBQ. Notably this show was called Dress Up, Speak Up: Regalia and Resistance and was curated by the hotel’s head curator Alice Gray Stites. This was a fantastic discovery as we had only booked at this particular hotel because it is physically attached to the venue where the Colescott retrospective was and it would keep us from having to rent a car or see the show all in one go! Smart right? Well not unlike how a Remora fixes itself to a shark and this nice symbiosis develops, the exciting synergy at play between the Colescott Exhbit and the contemporary Black artists in the Regalia show MADE this trip!
I must say there was a HUGE Kehinde Wiley painting anchoring the show behind the reception desk. The specific piece is 15 feet long and called Morpheus. Which we took note of upon arrival before getting settled.
21C Lobby - On loan from Seattle Art Museum, Kehinde Wiley, Morpheus, 2008, Oil and Enamel on Canvas, 108 × 180 in.
Now for added context. I’m more than a little nutty about things I enjoy, am a part of and the places I’ve worked, schooled or lived. My friends and family have always remarked about how I possess a thing or speak as if I do. My house, my work, my client – it’s not magic because I own it but because I said yes to it or we said yes to one-another. To paraphrase Rand “there’s a particular quality to a thing that I put in my pocket. A quality of magic to an item or place that is important enough for it/me to end up there.”* With a good rest, good meal, good conversation, a little London Police discovery and a few really good drinks later, I’m really enjoying Cincinnati.
The next morning we made our way back to the lobby, via the stair from the second floor because in my pre-artting enthusiasm I hopped off in error. Immediately we see sun raking in through the front of the hotel and Morbeus staring back at us.
I was GAWDSMACKED! Only the visitor in this hotel, it’s ludicrous but I had that sense of ownership. For a moment I had an inkling of what waking up with Kehinde’s work hanging on my wall would be like…As a struggling artist, painter of portraits and hip hop historian, I’ve followed Kehinde’s work since the VH1 Hip Hop awards, seen just about all of his New York shows since 2002 and have a few of his coffee table books. But seeing his work on my way to breakfast was amazing! At that moment I laughed at myself because that painting wasn’t mine, at best I was renting space to look at it and because imagine the cost of the thing!
But in that moment two thoughts crystallized in my mind:
1. I want people to experience this
fierce irrational ownership and
magic when they live with my work!
2. I want to be an art owner!
Now I’ll return to the first one in a moment. But if that second one seems strange to you. it just may be. But as a creator of things who has lived in his own art studio all his adult life, I never thought of it. I didn’t /don’t mean I want/ed blue chip investment art like Morbeus as much as I wanted to live with more art. I mean if I’m not INVESTING my hard-earned income on art, how can I ask others to invest theirs in mine, right? But more to the point, even if were framed prints or art traded with my art-peers, I made a commitment to make more, sell (trade) more and buy (trade) more Art.
It may be a bit macabre to others, but if I had my choice of Kehinde pieces from the “Down” body of work, I’d prefer The Virgin Martyr of Saint Cecilia. As it would kick my ass every tired morning where I wanted to succumb to comfort rather than make a difference in the world. It would be a piece that, for me, I would feel a compulsion to live up to!
Musing about the “Home Gallery”…
Imagine how your life, your evenings, your mornings, your social moments, your private moments would be improved by having artwork you loved in your home. If money were no object and you had the space, what would you want on your walls? If you could live with any one piece of art what would that be?
So where is all this going?
As long as I’m reminiscing about waking up with Kehinde’s work, I’ve taken some time to create a very specific slide show/list of artists and artist’s works I’d most like to live with if money and availability were no object. This tells you as much about my influences, about my aesthetic inspirations as it does about my career goals - It’s PURELY aspirational, of course, but here goes:
My List as of the Writing of this Post:
1..Jenny Saville Self Portrait Red Painting
2. Jenny Saville Voice of the Shuttle (Philomela), 2014 – 15 Print
3. Mark Bradford, Untitled Mixed, media on canvas
OR
Mark Bradford, “ROCKET”, Mixed media on Canvas
4. John Baldessari, Tetrad Series: LIKE THIS, Inkjet print collage on paper
Or
John Baldessari's "Pelicans Staring at Woman with Nose Bleeding", Gelatin silver prints with oil tint
5. Gauguin, Ea haere ia oe? (Where Are You Going?), Oil on canvas
In my fullest imagining I’d have only one or two of these at a time in my home and the others I’d lend to museums. Imagine how your life, your evenings, your mornings, your social moments, your private moments would be improved by having artwork you loved in your home.
Consider these three strategies to start your own “Home Gallery”:
See if you have people doing art or design in your friend group and support them by at least amplifying their work - sharing it with people that don’t know them or their work. (if you only just found out there are artists in your family /Covid-bubble, shame on you)
Find your local artists and galleries and see what projects they are working on that you like.
Figure out what you like and what your art budget is
We’ve all spent an extra 2,500 hours in our homes since the pandemic began. How would a beautiful sculpture, challenging painting, or a large art photograph from your favorite artist have made that time BETTER upon you and your family?
If money were no object and you had the space, what would you want on your walls? If you could live with any one piece of art what would that be? (answer in the comments below.)
This Regalia show still hangs at 21C until January of 2021 and is worth the trip if you are in the area or not adverse to travel.