Interact with this painting in Augmented Reality.
Scan the QR code below to take an interactive audio and visual tour of Three Wise Men Greeting Entry Into Lagos through the use of Augmented Reality.
Scan the QR code below to take an interactive audio and visual tour of Three Wise Men Greeting Entry Into Lagos through the use of Augmented Reality.
Kehinde Wiley
WATCH THE VIDEOThree Wise Men Greeting Entry into Lagos, 2008 by Kehinde Wiley is in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts collection. Its scale is enormous, an impressive 72” x 95 1/4” in size. Such large scale is typical for works by Kehinde Wiley. The medium is oil paint on canvas presented in an unassuming wooden frame.
Created as part The World Stage Series collection, containing works inspired by the artist’s travels to Africa. In Africa, Wiley would set up satellite studios to live and work for extended periods in the communities, drawing inspiration from the local culture. The Africa Series had particular importance to Wiley. His father, who left the family when Kehinde was a baby, is Nigerian. Wiley said of his work in Africa that he was “Longing for a country that was never really part of his existence. Longing for a father who was never there. Longing for a sense of authentic attachment to Africa, the real Africa, not the one that is received on television.”(Wiley)
Wiley has often drawn from historical works of art, especially 18th century portraiture, appropriating aspects from the past and recreating them in a contemporary fashion. For the Nigerian and Lagos paintings, Wiley took inspiration from traditional and public sculptures he encountered in Africa. He is “suggesting that precolonial or independence-era statues are comparable to Ingres or Rubens as inspiration.”(Haxall) Making a statement that African Art is as equally important as Western art. For this painting, he drew from the Welcome to Lagos sculpture created by artist Dr. Bodun Sodeinde that greets visitors at the entry of Lagos. The sculpture features three emissaries dressed in white, wearing white caps. Royal families would send such emissaries to represent their families when visiting dignitaries or other royal families. The emissaries would use traditional Owo Awo greetings of respect, which included hand gestures like those incorporated into the sculpture. “In Wiley’s painting, three young men adopt their poses and, by extension, attain the authority and power of their ancestors.”(Haxall) Wiley’s models’ act as emissaries of Africa, using the same gestures, they greet all who see this painting.
Wiley’s paintings are distinctive because of the wonderfully detailed backdrops he created behind his subjects. The patterns he selects will always hold a deeper meaning related to the subject of the portrait. For example, Wiley would infuse the backgrounds of his hip-hop culture-inspired portraits with extravagant baroque or rococo backgrounds, a connection to the attitude of wealth and consumerism in hip-hop. For the African series, Wiley visited local markets and drew inspiration from the fabric patterns he encountered. Three Wise Men Greeting Entry into Lagos incorporates the bold, bright colors and repeated patterns of organic elements to form the backgrounds of this series. In Three Wise Men Greeting Entry into Lagos the floral and vine background pattern of orange, red, and yellow contrast against a field of a bright cyan-blue. Far from a static background, Wiley brings the vines to life; they are animated, interact, surround, and even pass in front of the three figures.
In his typical fashion, Wiley would recruit models from the street to use in his images. Three Wise Men Greeting Entry into Lagos features three local Nigerian men. The three men look out at the viewer with fixed confidence; in fact, Wiley has angled the composition so that the models appear to look down upon us. They wear tunics that align with traditional Nigerian attire including culturally relevant fabric patterns, but they wear blue jeans. This mixture of attire may suggest “a continuity of African customs, albeit one fused with Western influence.”(Haxall) Given a chance to see this painting in person, one is sure to stand in awe of these larger-than-life figures.
The dynamic portraits he creates in Three Wise Men Greeting Entry into Lagos are mesmerizing to observe. The power of seeing Kehinde Wiley’s work in person is always an experience to remember and the only way to truly experience his genius. The delicate and beautiful details of the backgrounds require close inspection to comprehend their intricacies; digital depictions of his work can never reflect the scale of his canvases. Given the opportunity, visit the collection at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts to see Three Wise Men Greeting Entry into Lagos painting in person, it is an unforgettable experience.
