Kehinde Wiley - Contemporary Evening Sale London Sunday, July 5, 2009 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Roberts & Tilton Gallery, Los Angeles

  • Catalogue Essay

    The heroic portraits of contemporary African-American men by NewYork artist Kehinde Wiley are modern interpretations of classic poses from the annals of art history. Culled from a wide range of sources including the cupola-shaped frescoes of Giotto, the ornamental rococo portraits of Fragonard and the opulent canvases of 18th century British painters Thomas Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds, Wiley's imagery addresses the image and status of the young men he depicts in a photo-realistic style.The present lot, a large scale painting in the artist's elaborately sculpted and gilded frame, comes from Wiley's highly acclaimed Passing/Posing series. The subject of Wiley's first solo museum show at the Brooklyn Museum in 2004-05, the portraits in the series all depict young blackmen in urban street clothes- sports-team jerseys, hoodies, baseball caps, baggy jeans, puffy jackets- floating in front of lushly coloured decorative backgrounds.The title of the series, Passing/Posing, is a reference to the common cultural behaviour seen amongst young African-American men in the streets of New York's Harlemand Los Angeles' South Central. In St. Helena, Wiley has portrayed one of these posing youths with a cross instead of a gun and giving a sign of benediction instead of gang affiliation. In this bold and richly colored portrait, the youth takes the place of St. Helena, the mother of the first Christian emperor Constantine, who was sent on a Holy mission to find the True Cross, the cross upon which Christ was crucified.
     

23

Passing/Posing - St. Helena

2004
Oil on canvas in the artist's gilded wooden frame. 
182.9 x 152.4 cm. (72 x 60 in).
Signed, titled and dated 'Kehinde Wiley Passing/Posing - St. Helena 04' on the reverse. 

Estimate
£25,000 - 35,000 

Sold for £51,650

Contemporary Evening Sale

29 June 2009, 7pm
London