Kehinde Wiley's been accused of sexual assault

Who???

We're surprised at what people do?

Since the stereotype is so true?

Too bad. He’s an outstanding artist.

The first accuser also has Nigerian oil wells they need to sell at a major discount.

Anytime power and fame guarantees one an express ride to pussy and mussy that fame will be abused for more and unhealthy amounts of pussy and mussy.

He had a large painting prominently featured downstairs in the front entrance area of the Brooklyn Museum. If it’s still there time will tell if it lasts.

[quote] In June, three museums canceled major shows of Wiley’s art—including a massive traveling exhibition, An Archaeology of Silence, that had made its U.S. debut at San Francisco’s de Young museum in early 2023 and had additional venues lined up through part of next year. The Pérez Art Museum in Miami, which had planned to open its iteration in late July, never even unpacked its crates of Wiley’s work. The Minneapolis Institute of Art also bowed out, along with Omaha’s Joslyn Art Museum, which postponed a September show of new portraits by Wiley featuring Nebraskans.

I flew across country last summer to see this exhibit at the DeYoung. It was brilliant.

And I would have found a way to see it again in Minneapolis as the Minneapolis Institute of Art is one of my favorite museums in the country.

Holy shit, this is disappointing.

Of all of his works, this one in Mpls is one of my top 3 favorites

All this sounds like guys that may or may not have hooked up with him trying to fleece a famous person for money. None of their stories are consistent or even that harrowing.

“I awoke to a man I went on a date and fell asleep with trying to give me a boowjob and when i asked him to stop… he DID!” The horror!

R1, he's THE most prominent Black painter in America today, and is best known for painting Obama's presidential portrait. He's been active for 20 years now, but we already know "they all look alike to you." 🙄

OP, I'm not sure how I feel about it, either, but mainly because so many facts are in dispute. Wiley's been accused of awful things by multiple people, but he's also a very high-profile affluent Black man, and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if someone was trying to play him.

He's ok. He doesn't even paint 1/2 of it himself. He is not the most prominent, Kerry James Marshall is better. Anyways, it's long been rumored he basically picks up dudes off the street to pose for him. I wasn't surprised!

On 9th June 2021 - I was sexually assaulted by @kehindewiley. It almost destroyed me.

[quote] My universe changed when the police surrounded my apartment. I was violated that day in a way very few understand. I was further harmed less than a year later when I was raped and physically assaulted by someone who was pursuing me romantically. This person was a predator that met me at my most vulnerable and knew that I was just starting to heal. He actively exploited my pain and today I am taking back my power.

What a joke. I do NOT believe this “vicitm”.

“Starting to heal“ and “taking back my power“ - Tiktok brain rot or HR department? Who can tell?

Aren't some of his paintings actually completed in China by other artists?

[quote] Kerry James Marshall is better.

I strongly disagree,

But I also don't think either of them is the best currently working Black painter (but certainly the two richest and most famous).

He is a good artist who adheres to principles of true perspective, naturalism and classicism, which is uncommon nowadays. However, after the hysteria of the Me Too movement, when even the mildest of accusations was taken as incontrovertible truth of sexual assault, I do find it curious that we're gravitating towards the other extreme as rapidly. There needs to be an investigation to find whether the accusations are true, but I am shocked that so many people in here are willing to justify Wiley just based on the fact that the accusers are non-Caucasian men.

I didn't know that, R12 and R17. That's pretty embarrassing for such a renowned artist.

Jeff Koons isn't painting most of his stuff either...that's what assistants are for. I'm sure there's others too.

Wiley is definitely not painting the patterned backgrounds. I heard something about he having them done in China too.

Damien Hirst has been called out for relying on assistants as well. If you look into this topic, you hit on the idea that some of the Renaissance masters used assistants. A sort of studio model of art production.

I don’t not believe them because they are black. I don’t believe them because they are gay men. Like, sure of course he made a pass at them but acting like he forced himself on them is a joke. Even if there is a social power imbalance it’s not like they couldn’t resist. They probably thought they could flirt and use him to elevate their own careers in the arts. And when he made a move for sex they either decided it was worth the risk or not. So one reportedly rejected him, and didn’t get any further along so now he’s pissed. The other one did put out a little bit KW got bored and dropped him so now he wants revenge.

In 2021, while Wiley was working on that presidential series, Ghana’s Creative Arts Council threw a dinner in his honor at the Noldor Artist Residency in Accra. The space had been founded the year before by a young collector and dealer who was now making art as well, Joseph Awuah-Darko.

Awuah-Darko was known in Ghana’s cultural circles for his brief spell as an alternative pop singer who went by Økuntakinte and had a regional radio hit, 2016’s “Melanin Girls.” Pivoting to visual art, he amassed a 200-piece collection including contemporary African artists as well as global stars such as Zaha Hadid.

As the sociable son of wealthy insurance executive Harold Awuah-Darko, he was able to travel between his art-filled homes in London and South Africa. But because of Ghana’s strict laws against homosexuality, he was closeted to all but his closest friends at the time.

In Wiley’s version of events, the two men flirted throughout that dinner in Accra on June 9, 2021, with Awuah-Darko calling his hotel room twice shortly after 4 a.m. Wiley let him in. Wiley says they had consensual sex. Around an hour later, Wiley says he called his assistant to order a car service for Awuah-Darko, who told him he had to prepare for a meeting later that morning.

Around noon, Wiley checked in, texting, “Did you make your meeting?”

“Lol yes,” Awuah-Darko texted back. “Sent you an iMessage confirming babe (via text).”

“Cool, just making sure”

“😘”

In the years that followed, Wiley says he and the younger artist kept in touch on occasion but never hooked up again. Wiley invited Awuah-Darko to attend his birthday party in Lagos the next winter, and Awuah-Darko flew from London to attend, both men agree.

Later the following summer, Awuah-Darko texted Wiley again to ask if he could visit him at the Catskills cabin. Wiley says he demurred. As recently as February 2023, Awuah-Darko sent him another birthday text: “Hope you know you are loved.”

Wiley says he had no idea that Awuah-Darko felt differently about their history until he got a call from Wiley’s ex, Craig Fletcher, in late March. Wiley was in the southern Nigerian port city of Calabar, overseeing the construction of a second Black Rock campus.

Fletcher, a New York data analyst for a pharmaceutical company, had dated Wiley for about five years and remained friendly with the artist. On the call, he told Wiley that he had just gotten an Instagram message, and then a call, from this artist from Ghana who claimed that Wiley had assaulted him back in 2021, after a dinner. Fletcher sent Wiley a link to the video Awuah-Darko had posted three days before.

Watching the video, Wiley felt his stomach drop. Wait, whoa, he means me?

The WSJ article says he has something like 200 employees so he’s clearly not doing all the work.

Kee - hindy

Wiley

Nick Cave is and always has been very open about needing assistants.