Family Group in a Landscape (1645-1648) by Frans Hals
TITUS KAPHAR
Titus Kaphar (American b.1976) is a visual artist who works in painting, sculpture, film, and video. He seeks, through his work, to “interact with the history of art by appropriating its styles and mediums.” In his 2013 installation, “The Vesper Project”, he constructed an elaborate narrative of a black family “passing” in 19th century New England and brought pieces of their house and history into the gallery space despite the fact that this family, The Vespers, were an invention.
“I’ve always been fascinated by history: art history, American history, world history, individual history — how history is written, recorded, distorted, exploited, reimagined and understood. In my work I explore the materiality of reconstructive history. I paint and I sculpt, often borrowing from the historical canon, and then alter the work in some way. I cut, crumple, shroud, shred, stitch, tar, twist, bind, erase, break, tear and turn the paintings and sculptures I create, reconfiguring them into works that nod to hidden narratives and begin to reveal unspoken truths about the nature of history.”
CHECK OUT: Titus Kaphar’s website
WATCH: Titus Kaphar’s Ted Talk: Can Art Amend History?
WATCH: The Cost of Removal
Titus Kaphar’s TIME magazine cover (2020)
KEHINDE WILEY
Kehinde Wiley (American, b.1977) is a painter best known for his naturalistic portraits of African American men and women in heroic poses. Born in Los Angeles, CA, he earned his BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and his MFA from the Yale University School of Art. Wiley’s early work consists of Photo-Realistic paintings of men, whom he had met on the streets in Harlem, set against a floral background. In all of his work, Wiley combines a wide range of references from classical painting and pop culture. He developed an early interest in portraiture and frescos, particularly the work of Venetian painters such as Titian and Giambattista Tiepolo, and draws inspiration from French Rococo painting, Islamic architecture, African textile design, contemporary fashion, and urban hip hop.
Portrait of Andries Stilte (1639-1640) by Johannes Cornelisz Verspronck (left)
Portrait of Andries Stilte (2006) by Kehinde Wiley (right)
Morpheus (2008) by Kehinde Wiley
Olympia (1863) by Edouard Manet
Napoleon Leading the Army Over the Alps (2005) by Kehinde Wiley (left)
Napoleon Crossing the Alps (1801) by Jacques-Louis David (right)
Barack Obama (2018) by Kehinde Wiley
Deborah Kass employs the visual motifs of post-war painting to explore the intersection of politics, popular culture, art history and personal identity. Her celebrated series, The Warhol Project, from the early 1990’s refocused Andy Warhol’s eye for celebrity portraiture. Her work incorporates lyrics from Broadway musicals, movie quotations and Yiddish sayings into canonical formats like Frank Stella’s concentric squares, Ellsworth Kelly’s rainbow spectrum and Andy Warhol’s camouflage patterns. She is a Senior Critic in the Yale University M.F.A. Painting Program.
READINGS:
Titus Kaphar: Time Cover: “I Cannot Sell You This Painting”
WATCH:
