2008-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
Officer of the Hussars, 2007
- Kehinde Wiley, American, born 1977
Oil on canvas
- Overall: 108 3/16 × 105 7/16 × 1 7/16 inches, 168 pounds (274.8 × 267.8 × 3.7 cm, 76.2 kg)
Museum Purchase, Friends of African and African American Art
2008.3
On View
- About Children S250
- About Children S250
Department
African American Art
Details
Kehinde Wiley begins his anachronistic compositions by wandering casually through urban neighborhoods until someone’s distinct appearance and style catches his eye. He invites the person to his studio, where they page through art history books to select a classic portrait. The “model” recreates the pose, which Wiley photographs for reference. In such paintings as Officer of the Hussars, Wiley inserts young African Americans into a tradition that has previously excluded them. Sitting high on a leopard skin saddle and wielding a sabre, Wiley’s model mirrors the subject of Théodore Géricault’s The Officer of the Hussars (1812; Musée du Louvre). His garments—an athletic t-shirt, low-riding jeans, and Timberland shoes—differ from those of the European cavalry officer but serve to project a parallel image of confident masculine power. Bringing visual codes into convergence, Wiley answers what he believes is the most important question in contemporary America: “Why do we continue to undervalue the lives of young black men?” From Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts 89 (2015)
Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic. Exh. cat., Brooklyn Museum. Brooklyn, NY, 2015, pp. 68-69 (ill.). Tuite, Diana, ed. Bob Thompson: This House is Mine. Exh. cat., Colby College Museum of Art. New Haven, 2021, p. 66 (fig. 22).
The Officer of Hussars, oil on canvas © 2007 Kehinde Wiley
Kehinde Wiley, Officer of the Hussars, 2007, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Museum Purchase, Friends of African and African American Art, 2008.3.