His exhibition at the de Young museum has a funereal mood: figures lie prone and lifeless, yet resonate strength
In a darkened show space inside San Francisco’s de Young museum, Kehinde Wiley strikes a contemplative pose for the camera, as if channeling the throngs of people expected to flutter through here to consider his latest exhibition: an Archeology of Silence.
The turnabout is fair play for Wiley, the estimable portraitist renowned for drafting people off the street to model for works in the style of old masters such as Jacques-Louis David. But instead of Napoleon on a horse, he’ll swap in a Black man wearing a bandanna, camouflage suit and Timberland boots.
