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136 Young Tarantine (Mamadou Gueye), 2022, bronze
Transcript
ABRAM JACKSON: “Young Tarentine”. That’s the title of this sculpture – and of the billboard-size painting of a woman lying among yellow leaves that we saw earlier. You can see it all the way down at the end of the previous gallery, right from where we’re standing. Wiley’s source for both pieces was a 19th century sculpture of a woman. But as so often, he takes that theme and pose and runs with it, trying it out with different materials – and genders.
CLAUDIA SCHMUCKLI: Again, playing with the fluidity of gender, that informs a lot of how he thinks of gender construction throughout the work.
ABRAM JACKSON: Both Wiley’s paintings and his sculptures contain new life, as well as sorrow.
KEHINDE WILEY: You'll see the sculptures having these tendrils, these vines, slowly continuing the act of living. There's a resistance in it, a recognition of the slaughter and the terrible history, but also an insistence upon being.
ABRAM JACKSON: The original 19th century Tarentine sculpture was an elegy to a young woman who died too soon. Wiley’s Tarentine painting and sculpture convey a similar feeling – although of course there is a more dire cause of grief that we can imagine happening to these contemporary figures. Hodari Davis:
HODARI DAVIS: There is a dignity and sort of an honor in being remembered, in being turned into an icon. But then there's an irony to that, relative to what's happened and what's happening in San Francisco. I can't imagine anybody riding a BART to get to the de Young, and not having to walk past bodies of people who are laid in ways that are similar to what they're gonna see in the art.
And we're reminded, whether it's Tyre Nichols or George Floyd or so many others, we're reminded.
ABRAM JACKSON: The oval-shaped painting of a woman nearby is our next stop.
Image: Kehinde Wiley (American, born 1977), “The Young Tarentine (Mamadou Gueye), After Alexandre Schoenewerk,” 1871, 2021. Bronze, 37 x 61 13/16 x 170 7/8 in., 1,752.66 lb. (94 x 157 x 434 cm, 795 kg), base: 5 1/8 x 75 3/16 x 185 7/16 in. (13 x 191 x 471 cm). © Kehinde Wiley. Courtesy of Galerie Templon, Paris. Photo: Ugo Carmeni
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By Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
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Transcript
ABRAM JACKSON: “Young Tarentine”. That’s the title of this sculpture – and of the billboard-size painting of a woman lying among yellow leaves that we saw earlier. You can see it all the way down at the end of the previous gallery, right from where we’re standing. Wiley’s source for both pieces was a 19th century sculpture of a woman. But as so often, he takes that theme and pose and runs with it, trying it out with different materials – and genders.
CLAUDIA SCHMUCKLI: Again, playing with the fluidity of gender, that informs a lot of how he thinks of gender construction throughout the work.
ABRAM JACKSON: Both Wiley’s paintings and his sculptures contain new life, as well as sorrow.
KEHINDE WILEY: You'll see the sculptures having these tendrils, these vines, slowly continuing the act of living. There's a resistance in it, a recognition of the slaughter and the terrible history, but also an insistence upon being.
ABRAM JACKSON: The original 19th century Tarentine sculpture was an elegy to a young woman who died too soon. Wiley’s Tarentine painting and sculpture convey a similar feeling – although of course there is a more dire cause of grief that we can imagine happening to these contemporary figures. Hodari Davis:
HODARI DAVIS: There is a dignity and sort of an honor in being remembered, in being turned into an icon. But then there's an irony to that, relative to what's happened and what's happening in San Francisco. I can't imagine anybody riding a BART to get to the de Young, and not having to walk past bodies of people who are laid in ways that are similar to what they're gonna see in the art.
And we're reminded, whether it's Tyre Nichols or George Floyd or so many others, we're reminded.
ABRAM JACKSON: The oval-shaped painting of a woman nearby is our next stop.
Image: Kehinde Wiley (American, born 1977), “The Young Tarentine (Mamadou Gueye), After Alexandre Schoenewerk,” 1871, 2021. Bronze, 37 x 61 13/16 x 170 7/8 in., 1,752.66 lb. (94 x 157 x 434 cm, 795 kg), base: 5 1/8 x 75 3/16 x 185 7/16 in. (13 x 191 x 471 cm). © Kehinde Wiley. Courtesy of Galerie Templon, Paris. Photo: Ugo Carmeni