Viewing Room Main Site
Skip to content
Kehinde Wiley | Fondazione Giorgio Cini   Venice Biennale 2022: Highlights From The Olympics Of The Art World

By Joanne Shurvell

Inspired by Holbein's The Dead Christ in the Tomb, as well as historical paintings and sculptures of fallen warriors and figures in the resting state, the American artist has created a haunting series of prone black bodies, reconceptualizing classical pictorial forms to create a contemporary take on portraiture. For this new body of work, Wiley sheds light on the brutalities of American and global colonial pasts using the language of the fallen hero.