Willem van Heythuysen (Primary Title)
Willem van Heythuysen (Primary Title)

Kehinde Wiley, American, born 1977 (Artist)
Kehinde Wiley, American, born 1977 (Artist)

2006
American
Paintings
Paintings
oil and enamel on canvas
Modern and Contemporary Art
United States
Unframed: 96 × 72 in. (243.84 × 182.88 cm)
Framed: 106 1/4 × 82 1/4 × 3 1/8 in. (269.88 × 208.92 × 7.94 cm)
2006.14
G210 - South Great Hall

A big part of what I'm questioning in my work is what does it meant to be authentic, to be real, to be a genuine article or an absolute fake? What does it mean to be a real black man? Realness is a term applied so heavily to black men in our society. --Kehinde Wiley

Wiley’s lavish, larger-than-life images of African-American men play on Old Master paintings. His realistic portraits offer the spectacle and beauty of traditional European art while simultaneously critiquing their exclusion of people of color.

Wiley’s Willem van Heythuysen quotes a 1625 painting of a Dutch merchant by Frans Hals, whose bravura portraits helped define Holland’s Golden Age. Wiley’s model, from Harlem, New York, here takes the name of the original sitter from Harlem, the Netherlands, whose pose and attitude he mimics. Despite the wide gold frame and the vibrantly patterned background whose Indian-inspired tendrils encircle his legs, this subject’s stylish Sean John street wear and Timberland boots keep him firmly in the present and in urban America.

Signed on verso in pencil: "Kehinde Wiley 06"
Purchased with funds provided by Virginia Sargeant Reynolds in memory of her husband, Richard S. Reynolds, Jr., by exchange, Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Endowment, Pamela K. and William A. Royall, Jr., Angel and Tom Papa, Katherine and Steven Markel, and additional private donors
Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York, February 20 - May 24, 2015; The Modern, Fort Worth, Texas, September 20, 2015 - January 10, 2016; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, February 11 - May 8, 2016; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia, June 11 - September 5, 2016

LA ART in New York, Roberts and Tilton, LA Art Fair, Altman Building, New York, NY, March 10 - 12, 2006
Wit, Eva Maria de., and Eric J. Coolen. Willem Van Heijthuijsen: Het Mooie Aan De Eeuwigheid Is Dat Je De Tijd Hebt Om Te Kijken. Stichting Hofje Van Willem Van Heijthuijsen, 2018, color ill, p. 69.

Tsai, Eugenie, et al. Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic. New York: Prestel, 2015. (No. 7, pp 50-510).

VMFA Special Advertising Section. Richmond: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2013. (Cover).

Ravenal, John B. Modern and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Richmond: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2007. (Pp. 110-111).

Ravenal, John. “Recently Acquired, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Kehinde Wiley's Willem van Heythuysen." Blackbird, September 13, 2007. (Np).

Lazarus, Jeremy M. "Hip Hop at VMFA." Richmond Free Press, July 13-15, 2006. (P. B3).

Neman, Daniel. "Museum acquisitions are diverse." Richmond Times-Dispatch, Sunday, June 11, 2006. (P. H6).

“Jazzy Sunday Set for VMFA.” Richmond Free Press, Feb 7-9, 2008.

(Roberts and Tilton, Los Angeles) by 2006; Purchased by Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA), Richmond, Virginia in May of 2006. [1]

[1] Accessioned May 18, 2006. See VMFA Curatorial file.
© Kehinde Wiley

Kehinde Wiley Artist Talk
01:04:07

Artist Kehinde Wiley discusses his exhibition "A New Republic," in Leslie Cheek Theater. June 10, 2016.

Kehinde Wiley Artist Talk
01:04:07

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