St. Francis of Adelaide, Kehinde Wiley; Cerealart Projects LLC

This sculpture pays homage to the history of art and to African American men. Alluding to art historical portraits of Catholic saints, Kehinde Wiley updates the Euro-American art tradition to rectify its exclusion of Black men while also honoring their presence in a society that has often undervalued them. His juxtapositions disrupt social categories and challenge models of class, race, power, and identity.

This work pays homage both to the history of art and to African American men. Making reference to art historical portraits of saints, Wiley updates the canon and corrects its exclusion of African American men while also honoring their presence in a society that has often undervalued them. His juxtapositions disrupt accepted social categories and challenge models of class, race, power, and identity. His anonymous, urban portrait subjects are clothed in the accessories of nobility and privilege, while their oversized jerseys or clinging t-shirts pronounce the prominence of hip hop culture.

“Then the mother of the murdered boy rose, turned to you and said, ‘You exist. You matter. You have value. You have every right to wear your hoodie, to play your music as loud as you want. You have every right to be you. And no one should deter you from being you. You have to be you. And you can never be afraid to be you.’” ("Between the World and Me," p. 113)

Kehinde Wiley’s iconoclastic juxtapositions create “a crisis of categories,” challenging historical and contemporary paradigms of class, race, power, and identity. His anonymous, urban portrait subjects are swathed in the accoutrements of nobility and privilege, while their outsized jerseys pronounce the ascendency of Hip Hop culture. This work is based on Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’s stained glass window, St. Francis of Adelaide, in Paris at The Chapel of Saint Ferdinand.