The Truth about Obama’s Painter: Contemporary Art 

I'm going to start making these types of videos again. I think I'm going to start with Amy Sherald. Let me know what artists you'd like to see me cover.

very impressed with the effort put into this video, don’t see too many videos of this quality being put out by smaller channels, specifically on contemporary art education. keep up the great work!

very detailed video. you forgot the part where he has assistants paint his backgrounds thats why hes able to produced all these works so fast

I think his painting is so remarkably beautiful . So glad he’s painting.

Your FIRST RU-vid video!? This is so well made congratulations!! 🎉 I can’t wait to see what other topics you talk about!! As a BFA student I appreciate the work you put in this

Nice work! Especially for a first episode. Please keep it up, it's hard to find good biopics of contemporary artists. I'll be sharing this with the MFA and BFA art students at FSU.

I’m a senior that lives on a Pacific Island, I absolutely love your channel. The information and your lovely voice makes this pleasant. 🌺

Fabulous job on this artist documentary of Kehinde Wiley! I'm glad you included information on why it took him so long to portray women in his work and how he has intentionally evolved with work series to include women of color in his paintings. Well done!

the algorithm blessed me today with this on my home page. what a fantastic first video! you have a gift i hope to see you succeed in whatever you choose

Had the pleasure to see some of his work in person at an exhibition. The scale of it took my breath away. The colors and pattered were stunning. His use of modern and ancient design techniques is absolutely unique.

I like your teaching style: Relaxed yet professional, lots of info yet, entertaining. Thanks for your channel.

I’m thrilled your first video is of my favorite artist. Kehinde has changed the way I consume art and his place as the premier video is perfectly earned. I am eager to see your next video.

Loved every moment of this video..the images were fabulous. Thank you

There’s one of his pieces in NC and I got to see his work in person, it was AMAZING !

This was fabulous. Thank you for making such an interesting and informative video.

Well done! I enjoyed your first video, it’s well-narrated and informative. Thank you!

Keep them coming! Great video, good pace nice transitions 💫

Loved it a ton!!! Thank you for this awesome video!!!

I love this video. Keep going Seun. I know it takes alot.

I don’t understand a lot with what goes on with contemporary artists and paintings and channels like this really help me understand the history and the context for others. Thank you for this.

Thank you for making this wonderfully informative video about Kehinde. I have seen other videos about him but yours beats them all. Bravo. ❤

It’s interesting that the most recent video on RU-vid to feature Wiley’s work, made to publicize an exhibition, had some narration by both Wiley and his brother. They talked about the rough neighborhood of their childhood, but the videographer didn’t include any mention of their mother, as if they had triumphed over adverse circumstances without any help. Hopefully, they both did mention their mother in the course of being interviewed, but the videographer edited that out. Otherwise it would remind me of an amusing and embarrassing interview with Wynton Marsalis in DownBeat magazine, in which he claimed to have had a deprived childhood, without enough money for decent shoes. The next issue of the magazine contained a letter from Wynton’s mother, assuring everyone that she was proud of her son(whom she referred to as “Mr. Marsalis”) but that his childhood was anything but poor or deprived, and that he had always been well-clothed and fed. As to your video, thanks for it. I learned more than I knew before.

I loved this video, great job for your first one

I enjoyed this video very much. A bit of serendipity going on here because I just started doing wallpaper kinda drawings (yes I'm an artist) with self portraits integrated into them, and I had never heard of Wiley. So what a joy and surprise to discover his work, which I find magnificent. So thank you for sharing :)

Wonderful analysis, great vid!

I really enjoyed your video! Thank you!

Really nicely done. I learned so much about Wiley and can't wait to see his exhibit in San Francisco.

Fantastic video! Much appreciated!

The integration of the figure with the background patterns in contrast with black skin is electric. It makes the figure both implode and explode. It is both classical and psychedelic. I am swept away.

Excellent Job! Watched it to the very end...when is the next installment? Thanks!!

Excellent video! A wonderful way to expose people to the work of this great artist of our time!

This is a treat. Thx!

such great video. thank you.

Great video of an extraordinary artist. Many thanks for your contribution.

Beautiful!! Thank you

A very thorough and informative video of a great artist.

Fascinating, thank you for sharing!

This was an awesome video!

I cannot believe this, I saw TWO of this artists paintings in the High Fructose exhibit at the Crocker Art Museum and I loved them both!!!

Outstanding!

Very concise, clear and inspiring - great bio Thanks!

Good video. Very informative and well researched

Loved the video!

Very well done video: Well researched and illustrated. Wiley is very impressive technically and has an interesting and engaging approach. I recently saw a video on Amy Sherald and think that she is certainly worth additional exploration. Thanks for this bio!

dope video man!!!

You did amazing keep it up.

great video, thanks!

Beautiful 😍 I went to a show of his at the Seattle Art Museum in May 2016. I took my mother with me. It was for my art class back then. 💜

I'm glad I found this. I'm subbed. This was thorough and to the point, and it kept my attention without urging me to neither speed up to 1.50× or double tapping to skip ahead by 5-10 seconds at a time. I love finding intelligent entertaining gems like this randomly in YT. I knew I recognized his style when I saw the thumbnail to your video - that final portrait of Michael Jackson. Michael had another painter he commissioned in I believe the late 80s to mid 90s(?) who painted Michael in such a similar fashion; and I don't mean by just putting him in regalia or having him posed in similar fashions to those of the old portraits of white nobility, mentioned here in the video. But Michael's original painter had a very similar way of portraying light in his paintings, to what I see here in this artist's work. Its as if they're portraying the figures and even the surrounding scene(s) to look as thought they're lit in unnatural studio type lighting (which, I'm sure the subjects ARE lit in such a way FOR the purpose of the artist to have a good base of reference lol)- but they work it in a way that looks so pleasing; they could light their subjects perfectly natural if they so desired. I'm no art major or anything, just something I noticed between the two artists that I haven't seen elsewhere! I'm ashamed I don't know Michael's portrait artist that I'm talking about here, as much of a fan as I am. I remember trying to find out more about him years ago, and only coming up with the address and barren website of a small art studio/gallery. Maybe that subject may spark an interest for you as a subject for another video, and Ill have the answers then! 😂 Liked & subbed & diving through the channel for more

awesome video, so informative!

Yes, I saw Michaela Cole straight away👍🏾❤ I enjoyed this video immensely, thank you for introducing such an important body of work and taking time to research it 🙏🏾

This is great - Thanks!

Brilliant..🎉

Such a good story, masterfully done

I saw Kehinde Wiley's mind and heart blowing "Archeology of Silence" at San Francisco's DeYoung Museum. Your video is an excellent companion to that experience.

Thank you it is so informative and inspiring

Excellent. thank you

Kehinde is currently at the DeYoung Museum and I have to say that his sculptures are an absolute revelation of artwork. I've never cried so hard in a museum exhibition and the DeYoungs choice to have a room set aside for people to write their thoughts down and take a moment to breathe was a beautiful way to give people space to process the enormity of his artwork.

Wonderful video

Seun, you did a great job.

Great information

Fantastic.

I went to see the Obama paintings when they were in LA and they were breathtaking!!! They gave me a sense of pride and also happiness! His Barack Obama portrait is absolutely gorgeous! It’s like the President was looking directly at you! I loved them both but Barack’s looks so real it’s like he’s there in front of you and was the closest I got to ever meet them in person! ❤❤❤❤

Great video keep it up

Wow, you can see love went into putting Wiley’s work together for this video. Love, love, love. Even after him existing, he was never mentioned in any of my art classes but I love his work, is majestic, full of color and warmth.

good and an interesting story. feel the obama portrait is much more approachable than "standard" work. happy to see joy and power,which obama had such a fight to keep.

Algorithmic punch (I am 3 years late, but you did great.)

I absolutely love his paintings

I used to love the work of Charles white, but this is out of the park. Just so original.

I do like the green leaves backgrounds.

I love his work.

GOOD JOB

Nice

His backgrounds are like bad old lady wallpapers.

🙏🏾🔥🔥🔥

I went to art school with Kehinde. He was a very nice person and talented back then. I have been very happy for his success! He def was not born in the 80s though.

Having admired Wiley’s work, it’s great to know more about his thoughts. I can appreciate his work even more. Thanks for the video.

Brilliant compilation of Mr. Wiley's work.

❤

Who is the lady on the right at 2:06 …?

Why did he called a painting with the historical name of the emperor of Russia, but has absolutely nothing to do with him? Like me painting an apple and calling it Barack Obama.

That Hillary clip though 😅👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

I almost feel he is a sort of Normal Rockwell of the 2000's

6:58 i always thought it was her...

Lose the clickbait title, this video is better than that

He was actually born in 1977, not the 80’s. In other video’s he said he grew up in the 80’s. Which is true that is the time he grew up. But he was born in 77. Overall your video is great. Just do your research in more depth and get all the facts correct. I subscribed. I’m looking forward to your Amy Sherald video.

Bruh this doesn’t have hundreds of thousands of views???

Kudos to Barack Obama for selecting Kehinde Wiley to paint his portrait for the presidential gallery. The portrait that Kehinde Wiley created captured the time and era that President Obama served in and will forever be the point in the presidential gallery where things get interesting. Hopefully future presidents will feel the art of their time should be reflected in their choice for a portrait artist. I kind of wish Michelle Obama would have also chosen Kehinde because the two portraits would have looked so beautiful and right together, but I can totally see where she wanted to choose a female artist to represent her.

Damn, they quoted Hillary Clinton, she said it… Can’t take it back!

Even if the painting were 10m by 12m, it would not distract from the fact that the depicted is anything but a "God"

REMAIN CREATIVE

Basquiat actually painted all his paintings himself.

I don't like that his portraits look like photographs. Cheapens the same dea but f a painted portrait which should be something more than photographic.

Would he have been as famous if he was or tapped into ....

As a math teacher, I created a course that asks, "What is the intersection between social justice, math and art?" There I feature a few black male artists as most of my students are African American males in high school.

Interesting, but I don’t really understand why he felt ‘alienated’ from the Canon of European Art from the 18thC. It would be absurd for a white European to say that they felt alienated from African art produced during the same period.

Insperation is great blatant copying not

Barracks was beautiful... Michelle's didn't do her justice

Wholly unimpressive work for a connected artist.

The jackson one is not good