Portrait Of Dyouany Beretie Verly 2014

Kehinde Wiley's painting presents Dyouany Beretie Verly in a vibrant explosion of pattern and color. Imagine the artist at work, building up the layers, juxtaposing the figure with the decorative background. What was Wiley thinking as he painted? There’s a real tension here between the flat, almost screen-printed quality of the floral wallpaper, and the highly modeled, three-dimensional form of the figure. Notice the way the botanical tendrils snake across Dyouany's body. It’s a bold move, almost like an act of visual rebellion. The color story is something else entirely. Pinks and greens that vibrate against the warm yellow and orange flowers. It reminds me of the way artists like Elizabeth Murray or even Matisse would use color to push and pull the eye, creating these weird spatial effects. It’s as if Wiley is saying, "Let's see how far we can push this thing." He invites us to consider painting as a space of ongoing conversations and endless creative possibilities.