The Virgin Martyr St. Cecilia 2009

Kehinde Wiley made "The Virgin Martyr St. Cecilia" out of oil and mixed media on canvas, and you can almost feel him experimenting, right? Trial and error is very present. I can imagine Wiley thinking about those old master paintings and how they idealized and mythologized their subjects. Here, it feels like he's asking, what if we put a Black body in that same position? How does that change the narrative, and how does it stay the same? The floral background is so lush and decorative, but then you have this figure, and that hand, almost reaching out. What's so compelling is that it’s this really intimate and vulnerable pose, but it's also powerful. He's using the language of painting to talk back to art history, and to make something that feels totally fresh and new. He's definitely in conversation with other painters, and with the whole history of art.