Kehinde Wiley Offers to Buy Back His Painting Removed From U.S. Embassy
Kehinde Wiley wants to buy back his own painting after it was removed from an American embassy.
The artist made the offer after officials took his large canvas off the wall of the United States embassy in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. He spoke about the plan in interviews reported this week.
The work is titled Young Artists After Siamesas 1960. It was made in 2015 and measures 3.66 metres wide by 2.75 metres tall, about 12 feet by 9 feet, according to Ocula.
The painting was commissioned by the U.S. Department of State in Washington for the embassy in Santo Domingo, as reported by The Art Newspaper. It was later removed from the building. The removal was first reported in August, with Artnet confirming that the Wiley work was taken down from the Dominican Republic post.
Officials in the Trump administration mocked the work before it was removed, the New York Times reported on 28 September. The same report said officials then suggested the painting could be auctioned or sold.
Wiley is a Los Angeles native and New York-based visual artist. He has said he first visited Africa in 1997, discovering Dakar during a layover.
In 2019 he founded Black Rock Senegal in Dakar, a non-profit artist-in-residence programme that gives artists housing and studio space to live and work for a set period. The Kehinde Wiley Shop launched in 2020 as a partnership between the artist and Black Rock Senegal.
What makes this stand out is simple. Artists rarely try to buy back a government commission. Wiley now wants his embassy picture returned to his own hands.
