Passing;Posing 2005

Kehinde Wiley made this painting, “Passing; Posing,” and right away you can see how he’s using colour and light not just to depict, but to transform. His approach feels like a collaboration with art history, but with a very personal twist. The surface of the painting is so smooth and the paint handling is so deft, that you almost forget it’s paint at all. But then you notice, say, the way the light catches the folds of that blue tracksuit, and you realize how carefully Wiley’s observed the way fabric hangs and drapes. Look at how the artist has caught the sheen of the gold ring in the central figure’s hand, the colour is built up in layers. It’s like he’s saying, “Yes, this is a painting, but it’s also a moment, a feeling, a statement.” Wiley reminds me of someone like Mickalene Thomas, in the way he reclaims and remixes art historical tropes. But in the end, he’s doing his own thing, creating images that are both beautiful and thought-provoking, and that’s what makes his work so compelling.