Kehinde Wiley (American, born 1977). <em>Houdon Paul-Louis</em>, 2011. Bronze with polished stone base, 34 x 26 x 19 in. (86.4 x 66 x 48.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and A. Augustus Healy Fund, 2012.51. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2012.51_threequarter_PS9.jpg)

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Kehinde Wiley (American, born 1977). Houdon Paul-Louis, 2011. Bronze with polished stone base, 34 x 26 x 19 in. (86.4 x 66 x 48.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and A. Augustus Healy Fund, 2012.51. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2012.51_threequarter_PS9.jpg)

Houdon Paul-Louis

Kehinde Wiley

Contemporary Art

On View: American Art Galleries, 5th Floor, Witness

Though Kehinde Wiley is best known for his painted portraits, here he shifts from painting to sculpture. In both the lift and turn of the young man’s head and the open V of his zippered collar, this bronze refers to an eighteenth-century marble bust by Jean-Antoine Houdon (see illustration).

Yet in many other ways, Wiley’s work could hardly be more different: in substituting male for female, black for white, and present for past, he upends the earlier sculpture even as he quotes it. His radical reinterpretation encourages us to examine the stereotypes that can be found in portraiture.

—Rujeko Hockley, Assistant Curator, Contemporary Art, Brooklyn Museum

ARTIST Kehinde Wiley, American, born 1977

MEDIUM Bronze with polished stone base

Place Manufactured: China

DATES 2011

DIMENSIONS 34 x 26 x 19 in. (86.4 x 66 x 48.3 cm) 153 lb. (69.4kg) (show scale)

COLLECTIONS Contemporary Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 2012.51

CREDIT LINE Frank L. Babbott Fund and A. Augustus Healy Fund

PROVENANCE 2011, commissioned from the artist, via Roberts & Tilton, by the Brooklyn Museum.

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EXHIBITIONS

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is on view in American Art Galleries, 5th Floor, Witness

CAPTION Kehinde Wiley (American, born 1977). Houdon Paul-Louis, 2011. Bronze with polished stone base, 34 x 26 x 19 in. (86.4 x 66 x 48.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and A. Augustus Healy Fund, 2012.51. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2012.51_threequarter_PS9.jpg)

EDITION Edition: AP 2/2

IMAGE threequarter, 2012.51_threequarter_PS9.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2014

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