State Department Proposes Selling 2013 Kehinde Wiley Painting After Embassy Removal
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Aug 24
State Department Proposes Selling 2013 Kehinde Wiley Painting After Embassy Removal
2 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Aug 24
Summary
A Kehinde Wiley painting commissioned by the U.S. government in 2013 is now slated for sale after State Department officials removed it last week from the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic.
The artwork—showing four Dominican models—was first covered with an American-flag tarp, then taken down as Trump officials branded it “woke” and, in one case, “aesthetically terrifying.”
State Department spokeswoman comments on Monday did not address the image itself, instead citing Wiley’s 2023 “kill whitey” remarks about another painting and sexual-assault accusations he has denied.
Leah Campos, the U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republic, praised the removal in a social-media video, calling the work an example of “globalist and woke ideologies.”