KEHINDE WILEY
Rumors of War (2019) Edition 2 of 9
Patinated bronze, 53 × 64 × 24 in
Upon first glance, Rumors of War appears to be a traditional war monument: a man commands a rearing stallion, cast in bronze, atop a stone plinth. However, look more closely - this sculpture, by artist Kehinde Wiley, is not your usual statue.
In Rumors of War, the figure in bronze is an African-American man wearing trendy ripped jeans and a hoodie with his dreads tied in a top-knot as he looks back in defiance over his shoulder. The horse he rides, the firm stature, echoes historic paintings and monuments crafted to intimidate and display military prowess and power. For this particular sculpture, Wiley drew inspiration from a series of monuments that were meant to do just that in Richmond, Virginia - public art as rewritten narrative, portraying leaders of the defeated Confederate Army from the US Civil War, as victor.
The original cast of Rumors of War was an imposing 16-feet wide and 27-feet tall, by far one of Wiley’s largest works to date, and also his first public artwork. It was unveiled in 2019, & has a permanent home at Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
This petite edition of Rumors of War is 1 of 9, offers an exquisite example of how to imagine and develop a more complete and inclusive American story, as it investigates and comments on what it means to be a citizen? Wiley’s career has focused on addressing and remedying the absence of Black and Brown men and women in our visual, historical, and cultural narratives. Who is deemed a victor? Who is cast in monumental form?
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Los Angeles native and New York based visual artist, Kehinde Wiley has firmly situated himself within art history’s portrait painting tradition. As a contemporary descendent of a long line of portraitists, including Reynolds, Gainsborough, Titian, Ingres, among others, Wiley, engages the signs and visual rhetoric of the heroic, powerful, majestic and the sublime in his representation of urban, black and brown men found throughout the world.
By applying the visual vocabulary and conventions of glorification, history, wealth and prestige to the subject matter drawn from the urban fabric, the subjects and stylistic references for his paintings are juxtaposed inversions of each other, forcing ambiguity and provocative perplexity to pervade his imagery.