Week 4 - Kehinde Wiley and inter-textuality

Kehinde Wiley

1. Untitled (2009)

2. Untitled(2009)

3. Kehinde Wiley Count Potocki, 2008 oil on canvas, 274.3 x 274.3cm

4. Kehinde Wiley Support Army and Look after People, 2007 oil on canvas, 258.4 x 227.3cm

Kehinde Wiley is a Gay American based painter born in Los Angeles, who has an international reputation. Wiley lives and practices between Beijing and Brooklyn.

This weeks ALVC class focuses on the Postmodern theme "INTERTEXTUALITY", re-read Extract 1 The death of the author on page 44 of your ALVC books and respond to the oil paintings of Kehinde Wiley. 

1. Find a clear definition of Intertextuality and quote it accurately on your blog using the APA referencing system. Use your own words to explain the definition more thoroughly.

"Intertextuality, the condition of any text whatsoever, cannot, of course, be reduced to a problem of sources or influences; the intertext is a general field of anonymous formulae whose origin can scarcely ever be located; of unconscious or automatic quotations, given without quotation marks” (Barthes, 1981).    

The relation each text has to the texts surrounding it, we call intertextuality.  Intertextual analysis examines the relation of a statement to that sea of words, how it uses those words, how it positions itself in respect to those other words. As a result the works of many postmodern visual communicators disscuss the notion of intertextuality itself or are explicitly intertextual in nature. It's  the links between one literary work and another or others, it refres to the way that any written or visual text is influenced  or made up by a variety other texts. 

2. Research Wiley's work and write a paragraph that analyzes how we might make sense of his work. Identify intertextuality in Wiley's work.

Intertextuality is an important issue in postmodern theory, it suggests that whenever we try to make sense of a text we are constantly referring back to our understanding of its influences to help us understand it. The definition linked to Wiley's work that we can make sense he created melds a fluid concept of modern culture, ranging from French Rococo to today’s urban landscape. 

Wiley creates a fusion of period styles, it is ranging from French rococo, Islamic architecture and West African textile design to urban hip–hop and the "Sea Foam Green" of a Martha Stewart Interiors color swatch. His painting realised classical combine hip hop modern style especially when Hip hop culture meets The Renaissance deeply gives the viewers strong visual effect.

3. Wiley's work relates to next weeks Postmodern theme "PLURALISM" . Read page 51 and discuss how the work relates to this theme.            

According to Caldwell (1999) pluralism in art refers to the nature of art forms and artists as diverse(para1). It relates to Wiley’s paintings because he often blur the boundaries between traditional and contemporary modes of representation. He creates a fusion of period styles, ranging from French Rococo, Islamic architecture and West African textile design to urban hip hop and the "Sea Foam Green" of a Martha Stewart Interiors color swatch. As a result Caldwell emphasizes Art can communicate multiple identities within one culture as well as make cross- cultural comparisons. Artistic processes and products may also show cultural mixing( para4). It is shows into Wiley's paintings, also his work mentioned individuals of differing ethnicities, genders and economic status. 

4. Comment on how Wiley's work raises questions around social/cultural hierarchies , colonisation, globalisation, stereotypes and the politics which govern a western worldview.  

Wiley's portraits initially depicted African-American men against rich textile or wallpaper backgrounds whose patterns he has likened to abstractions of sperm. Personally he created a new way to represent his thinking, made himself a brand therefore everyone are getting to familiar with this artist. This is how Globalization changed by increasing his social status. When the artists break the stereotypes and created something new and eye-catching. the viewers will easily remember the artists because postmodern art work always gives audiences strong visual effect.     

5. Add some reflective comments of your own, which may add more information that
you have read during your research. 

Kehinde Wiley has become one of the most dominant figures in the New York art scene in recent years. His large scale oil portraits of contemporary urban men, shown in poses quoted from works by some of art history's greatest masters, are now internationally well known. True to the photographs they are realisticly and complexly rendered, while their highly decorative and ornamentative qualities and formidable scale make them doubly impressive. As the works shows above, they contains strongly Renaissance style also combined with modern fashion people,Once glance at this works told me made by Wiley because they are so unique.

I researched Kehinde Wiley's interview from internet and I really appreciated that he talks about ideas more important than just painting.
     
Wiley said: "My work is driven by an idea, more than a marketplace, or how many people want paintings. If I have a great idea that's going to take a very long time to actualize I don't hesitate to do it, because I think what makes for a great work of art is a constant vigilance on that work, rather than the people who consume that work. In that sense I'm doing the viewership a favor, by ignoring it."





 Reference:

Cadwell, B. (1999) Cultural context. Retried 18 Aug, 2012
from: http://www.public.iastate.edu/~design/ART/NAB/PluArt.html


http://www.art-interview.com/Issue_009/interview_Wiley_Kehinde.html
http://www.cretique.com/archives/4012
http://www.deitch.com/artists/sub.php?artistId=11
http://www.thinkcontra.com/kehinde-wiley-on-current/