Kehinde Wiley: Art Analysis

Kehinde Wiley is a famous artist known for his naturalistic portraits of African-Americans and for his unique representation of people living in the 21st century. One of the many works he did is known as Prince Albert, Prince Consort of Queen Elizabeth, which was made in the year 2013, and the medium used was oil. The size of the canvas is 72 x 60 inches and has a striking black frame that relates to paintings made years ago. In this painting you see an African-American man, standing in a position of power and security. This painting and others are part of a collection that the artist decided to call "The World Stage", where he traveled to different countries taking pictures of different people, which later he transferred to the canvas. This specific artwork is part of the
This particular painting makes part of a big collection called "The World Stage: Jamaica". In this collection, he portrays the Jamaican culture through its people. The goal of this project was to draw a connection between classic European painting and Jamaica, which he managed to do turning portraits of that time, in portraits of the people that today live in this island. For example, the painting I chose was inspired by an old painting of Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the husband and consort of Queen Victoria. I think that the best way to understand what the artist is trying to convey is by analyzing the painting from two different perspectives. The first is analyzing the frame, the posture, and the face of the man, all those things are connected with the original portrait, it is very important the way he is standing because it conveys power and security, which relates to the power that these characters had in previous years in Great Britain. The second is understanding the image of who this man is and how he lives, in order to get a clear picture of what Jamaica represents