joseph scissorhands: Kehinde Wiley: fragments from the treasure house of darkness

Kehinde Wiley - Bound (Abalabe Alexander), 2024. detail.

I was so looking forward to this exhibition which presented a new angle to the work of Kehinde Wiley. Wiley is most famous for his portrait of former American President Barack Obama and his large, signature portraits of black men and women among stylised backdrops of foliage, or striking poses adopted from well known historical European paintings. Here the artist continues in this vein but works in the tradition of miniatures. The term ‘miniature’ only entered the vernacular in the 18th century, and derives from the Italian miniatura, ‘manuscript illumination or small picture’, which in turn comes from the Latin miniare, ‘to paint red’. Portrait miniatures appeared on illuminated manuscripts in the 15th century, and minium — or red lead — was used to colour the capital letters. Portrait miniatures first appeared in European royal courts in the 16th century, and flourished during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. By the 18th century their popularity was widespread, with leading miniature painters such as Nicholas Hilliard, Isaac Oliver and Samuel Cooper establishing themselves among the wealthy elite in London, Bath and Dublin. Miniatures were painted on grounds such as vellum, ivory and enamel, and particularly sought after by soldiers and sailors who wanted to leave their loved ones with a likeness to cherish while they were away. In the 16th and 17th centuries portrait miniatures primarily served as diplomatic gifts; tokens of love, which were sometimes exchanged during marriage negotiations; or mementoes to commemorate births or deaths. Miniatures dating to this period often bear emblems and impresa (heraldic devices), symbolising courtly love, melancholy or pageantry. By the 18th century miniatures were often worn as jewellery, on a gold chain around the neck, or set into a ring or bracelet. Sometimes they would contain a lock of hair sealed in the reverse. In this exhibition Wiley presents a series of 60 miniature paintings and two multi-part paintings, and his work translates beautifully to a smaller, much more intimate scale. The vibrant, jewel-like colour palette makes these miniatures really sing against their heavy black frames, and the subdued gallery lighting as well as the dark blues, greens and red colours of the gallery walls. The first room of the exhibition where you are confronted with a whole wall full of these portraits is particularly impactful. In this show Wiley wisely plays to his strengths portraying just single figures. This is a much more successful show than his last one with the Stephen Friedman gallery - Kehinde Wiley: In Search of the Miraculous, a none too convincing series of large seascape paintings. The subjects of the paintings here are Nigerian students from the University of Lagos. Wiley directs them to strike a variety of poses which convey a more sensitive portrayal and narrative in respect to young black men in particular, than that usually portrayed in art and the media. All of the figures are posed against the stylised, decorative floral backdrops Wiley is famous for. I can only ever recall seeing one example of a black figure in a miniature painting, the title of which was - the Russian Tsar Peter the Great with a Black Page ca. 1720 by Baron Gustav Von Mardefeld measuring a diminutive 21.6 x 16.5cm. The painting is tucked away in a drawer of one of the galleries in the V & A museum. So this exhibition like so many of Wiley's paintings are, is an opportunity to redress the imbalance of representation of black figures in art in the Western canon. These paintings are a valuable addition to the miniature portrait genre and tradition in art.