art
Kehinde Wiley: A Maze of Power
September 26, 2023 - January 14, 2024
Musée du Quai Branly—Jacques Chirac:
37 Quai Jacques Chirac, 75007 Paris

https://www.quaibranly.fr/en/exhibitions-and-events/at-the-museum/exhibitions/event-details/e/kehinde-wiley

Kehinde Wiley first began pondering the question of presidential leadership when Barack Obama was elected—and one he realized when the American painter was selected for Obama’s presidential portrait commission, which was unveiled in 2018 to much fanfare. During Obama’s term, Wiley imagined an original series dedicated to African heads of state and traveled the continent to meet them. Eleven resulting portraits—including of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s president Félix Tshisekedi and Senegal’s president Macky Sall—appear in this show, which was organized in partnership with Templon Gallery. “This is not a celebration of individual leaders,” Wiley says in an accompanying film, noting some of his subjects’ shaky politics. “This is a look at the presidency itself.”  

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