American artist Kehinde Wiley unveiled a series of large-format portraits of African leaders in Morocco on Tuesday, building on his now-famous 2018 portrait of former U.S. President Barack Obama sitting casually amid a wild cascade of leaves and flowers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His exhibition, entitled \u201cA Maze of Power,\u201d opened at the Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rabat, Morocco\u2019s capital, after previously showing in Paris and Dakar, Senegal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The artwork borrows from classical easel painting techniques, posing African leaders in a style mainly associated with European royalty and aristocracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat I wanted to do was to draw ideas in, to be able to look at the depiction of power, both beautifully and problematically,\u201d Wiley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In one portrait, Ethiopia\u2019s former president, Sahle-Work Zewde, stands before a window, her nation\u2019s bustling capital stretching behind her as her hand clasps a dangling flower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In another, Hery Rajaonarimampianina, former president of Madagascar, is depicted sitting confidently astride a horse. And Alassane Ouattara, president of Ivory Coast, is seen clenching his brow as he grips a sword in his right hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was thinking about the presidency at large as a symbol, as a seat of power,\u201d Wiley told The Associated Press at the opening of his exhibition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA Maze of Power\u201d arrived in Morocco seven months after first showing at Paris\u2019 Mus\u00e9e du Quai Branly \u2014 Jacques Chirac. It’s part of the Moroccan museum’s efforts to become a hub for African art ahead of the next year’s opening of the Museum of the African Continent, across the street in Rabat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wiley said that after his Obama portrait, he was able to leverage his connections to gain audiences with leaders from across Africa and persuade them to sit for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition to Obama\u2019s, the portraits also echo Wiley\u2019s earlier works, in which young Black men appear in poses most associated with paintings of kings and generals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Showing his would-be subjects a book full of classical paintings to draw inspiration from, Wiley said he prepares for painting by taking hundreds of photographs of each leader and then placing them in settings both real and abstract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although he wanted to show political power, the leaders’ individual political choices were not relevant to the series, Wiley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The leaders depicted include some marred by corruption scandals and others who ignored presidential term limits and repressed protestors. There are also two whose militaries are fighting each other in eastern Congo: Rwanda\u2019s President Paul Kagame and Congo\u2019s President Felix Tshisekedi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though Wiley said the role of some art can be to shed light on those affected by political decision-making, his goals were different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis project is more about pulling way back and having a sort of bird\u2019s-eye view at the phenomena of the political portrait itself,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
American artist Kehinde Wiley unveiled a series of large-format portraits of African leaders in Morocco on Tuesday, building on his now-famous 2018 portrait of former U.S. President Barack Obama sitting casually amid a wild cascade of leaves and flowers. His exhibition, entitled \u201cA Maze of Power,\u201d opened at the Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[223,212],"tags":[7,224,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-40412","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-art","8":"category-history","9":"tag-apie-project","10":"tag-art","11":"tag-history"},"yoast_head":"\n