Ambassador Leah Campos Called Removed 2015 Wiley Embassy Painting a 'Lesbian Picnic'
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Sep 4
Ambassador Leah Campos Called Removed 2015 Wiley Embassy Painting a 'Lesbian Picnic'
1 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Sep 4
Summary
An April radio interview shows Ambassador Leah Campos described Kehinde Wiley’s removed 2015 embassy painting in the Dominican Republic as “a picnic in a park with flowers and some lesbians.”
Campos said the work was “total evidence” of Biden-era “indoctrination,” offering a new possible motive for its removal beyond the State Department’s public objections tied to misconduct accusations against Wiley, which he denies.
The State Department last week proposed selling the painting, which officials also called “aesthetically terrifying,” without clearly explaining what in the work itself the Trump administration found objectionable.
Art experts said Wiley based “Young Artists After Siamesas 1960” on images by two Dominican artists and used four local art students as models; the piece was commissioned under Obama, not Biden.