The Mint and other NC museums keep popular artist on display amid sex assault allegations
Amid sexual assault allegations, several museums across the country have canceled exhibits by New York artist Kehinde Wiley, who rose to fame painting former President Barack Obama’s official portrait. But several North Carolina museums, including the Mint Museum Uptown in Charlotte, are not among them.
Wiley, 47, is facing rape and sex assault accusations from four men that were made public online since May, The Wall Street Journal recently reported.
Wiley is known for inclusivity. His paintings insert Black people in powerful historical images, reflecting Old Masters’ works that transform society’s views of masculinity, sexuality and Black identity.
Wiley has not been charged over any of the claims, and has denied the men’s allegations. “I’m seeing such caricatures of myself, and the person being described in these posts is just so foreign to me,” the artist told the Journal. “ I’ve never assaulted anybody.”
Two men accused him of rape and another two claimed he groped or assaulted them during or after dates, the Journal reported. Wiley told the paper that he had had consensual sex with two of the men, and never met the other two.
But since May, three U.S. museums have canceled Wiley art shows or exhibits, in Miami, Minneapolis and Nebraska, several national news outlets including The Wall Street Journal reported.
The National Coalition Against Censorship, an alliance of more than 50 national nonprofits supporting the First Amendment, has spoken out against the cancellations.
“This is concerning because museums are neither equipped nor mandated to be enforcers of moral orthodoxy,” the coalition based in New York stated in a June news release. “Their shared role is to instead identify and contextualize works that have artistic merit and cultural relevance.”
Kehinde Wiley in Charlotte
In Charlotte, only one museum has a painting by Wiley, while another has ties to the artist through its residency program.
Two years ago, The Mint Museum touted a “major addition” to its collection when it acquired Wiley’s 2006 “Philip the Fair” oil on canvas painting, which represents modern urban Black men recast in European old-master paintings. The piece had been on loan to the Mint since 2007 from a private collector in New Jersey.
It depicts a Black man wearing a throwback baseball jersey of the Houston Astros, with a colorful floral background behind the figure. Likewise, Obama’s oil on canvas portrait had a striking, predominantly green, floral background.
The Mint has no plans to remove its Wiley painting, the museum said in a statement to The Charlotte Observer. It’s on display at in the American Contemporary galleries at 500 S. Tryon St.
“The Kehinde Wiley painting remains on view as the allegations are under investigation,” the Mint stated. The Mint Museum declined additional comment and would not make President and CEO Todd Herman available for an interview.
Over at Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture, an exhibit there also has ties to Wiley. The Black Rock Senegal, a residency group that brings international artists to live and work in Dakar. It was founded in 2019 by Wiley. The Gantt is the sole national exhibitor, which is on display through Jan. 20 at the uptown Charlotte museum.
A Gantt official was not made available for an interview, and the museum did not answer questions about whether the allegations would affect the five-year residency partnership.
“Our agreement with the Black Rock Global Arts Foundation is to curate and present exhibitions that feature the work of artists who have participated in the residency in Senegal,” Gantt CEO Bonita Buford said in a statement to the Observer.
Kehinde Wiley in the Raleigh area
Two other North Carolina museums in the Raleigh area also have paintings by Wiley on display.
The North Carolina Museum of Art has two works, museum spokeswoman Lizzie Newton said. Its permanent collection includes the artwork “Judith and Holofernes” (2012), Wiley’s modern take on a 17th-century painting by Giovanni Baglione of Judith, a Biblical heroine, beheading the military commander Holofernes.
And on temporary loan is “Mrs. Hale as “Euphrosyne” (2005). Wiley’s version of the 18th-century painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds replaces Mrs. Hale with a Black man wearing sports-related clothing.
The museum did not make an official available for interview, and Newton did not answer a question on whether the assault allegations will affect the displaying of Wiley’s works.
In Durham, “St. John the Baptist II” (2006) by Wiley is on display in the European Art Gallery at Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, according to the museum’s website. The oil on canvas shows a Black man in sneakers, denim and a polo shirt replacing St. John the Baptist’s in Jacob Jordaens’ 1617 painting.
Officials with Nasher have not responded to a request for comment.
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