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Kehinde Wiley (American, born 1977). <em>Houdon Paul-Louis</em>, 2011. Bronze with polished stone base, 34 x 26 x 19 in. (86.4 x 66 x 48.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and A. Augustus Healy Fund, 2012.51. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2012.51_threequarter_PS9.jpg)
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Kehinde Wiley (American, born 1977). Houdon Paul-Louis, 2011. Bronze with polished stone base, 34 x 26 x 19 in. (86.4 x 66 x 48.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and A. Augustus Healy Fund, 2012.51. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2012.51_threequarter_PS9.jpg)
Kehinde Wiley (American, born 1977). <em>Houdon Paul-Louis</em>, 2011. Bronze with polished stone base, 34 x 26 x 19 in. (86.4 x 66 x 48.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and A. Augustus Healy Fund, 2012.51. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2012.51_threequarter_PS9.jpg)

Kehinde Wiley (American, born 1977). Houdon Paul-Louis, 2011. Bronze with polished stone base, 34 x 26 x 19 in. (86.4 x 66 x 48.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and A. Augustus Healy Fund, 2012.51. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2012.51_threequarter_PS9.jpg)

Kehinde Wiley (American, born 1977). <em>Houdon Paul-Louis</em>, 2011. Bronze with polished stone base, 34 x 26 x 19 in. (86.4 x 66 x 48.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and A. Augustus Healy Fund, 2012.51. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2012.51_front_PS9.jpg)

Kehinde Wiley (American, born 1977). Houdon Paul-Louis, 2011. Bronze with polished stone base, 34 x 26 x 19 in. (86.4 x 66 x 48.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and A. Augustus Healy Fund, 2012.51. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2012.51_front_PS9.jpg)

Kehinde Wiley (American, born 1977). <em>Houdon Paul-Louis</em>, 2011. Bronze with polished stone base, 34 x 26 x 19 in. (86.4 x 66 x 48.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and A. Augustus Healy Fund, 2012.51. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2012.51_back_PS9.jpg)

Kehinde Wiley (American, born 1977). Houdon Paul-Louis, 2011. Bronze with polished stone base, 34 x 26 x 19 in. (86.4 x 66 x 48.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and A. Augustus Healy Fund, 2012.51. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2012.51_back_PS9.jpg)

Kehinde Wiley (American, born 1977). <em>Houdon Paul-Louis</em>, 2011. Bronze with polished stone base, 34 x 26 x 19 in. (86.4 x 66 x 48.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and A. Augustus Healy Fund, 2012.51. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2012.51_profile_PS9.jpg)

Kehinde Wiley (American, born 1977). Houdon Paul-Louis, 2011. Bronze with polished stone base, 34 x 26 x 19 in. (86.4 x 66 x 48.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and A. Augustus Healy Fund, 2012.51. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2012.51_profile_PS9.jpg)

Kehinde Wiley (American, born 1977). <em>Houdon Paul-Louis</em>, 2011. Bronze with polished stone base, 34 x 26 x 19 in. (86.4 x 66 x 48.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and A. Augustus Healy Fund, 2012.51. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Image courtesy of Roberts & Tilton, CUR.2012.51_back_Roberts_Tilton_photograph.jpg)

Kehinde Wiley (American, born 1977). Houdon Paul-Louis, 2011. Bronze with polished stone base, 34 x 26 x 19 in. (86.4 x 66 x 48.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and A. Augustus Healy Fund, 2012.51. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Image courtesy of Roberts & Tilton, CUR.2012.51_back_Roberts_Tilton_photograph.jpg)

Kehinde Wiley (American, born 1977). <em>Houdon Paul-Louis</em>, 2011. Bronze with polished stone base, 34 x 26 x 19 in. (86.4 x 66 x 48.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and A. Augustus Healy Fund, 2012.51. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Image courtesy of Roberts & Tilton, CUR.2012.51_detail1_Roberts_Tilton_photograph.jpg)

Kehinde Wiley (American, born 1977). Houdon Paul-Louis, 2011. Bronze with polished stone base, 34 x 26 x 19 in. (86.4 x 66 x 48.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and A. Augustus Healy Fund, 2012.51. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Image courtesy of Roberts & Tilton, CUR.2012.51_detail1_Roberts_Tilton_photograph.jpg)

Kehinde Wiley (American, born 1977). <em>Houdon Paul-Louis</em>, 2011. Bronze with polished stone base, 34 x 26 x 19 in. (86.4 x 66 x 48.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and A. Augustus Healy Fund, 2012.51. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Image courtesy of Roberts & Tilton, CUR.2012.51_detail2_Roberts_Tilton_photograph.jpg)

Kehinde Wiley (American, born 1977). Houdon Paul-Louis, 2011. Bronze with polished stone base, 34 x 26 x 19 in. (86.4 x 66 x 48.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and A. Augustus Healy Fund, 2012.51. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Image courtesy of Roberts & Tilton, CUR.2012.51_detail2_Roberts_Tilton_photograph.jpg)

Kehinde Wiley (American, born 1977). <em>Houdon Paul-Louis</em>, 2011. Bronze with polished stone base, 34 x 26 x 19 in. (86.4 x 66 x 48.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and A. Augustus Healy Fund, 2012.51. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Image courtesy of Roberts & Tilton, CUR.2012.51_Roberts_Tilton_photograph.jpg)

Kehinde Wiley (American, born 1977). Houdon Paul-Louis, 2011. Bronze with polished stone base, 34 x 26 x 19 in. (86.4 x 66 x 48.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and A. Augustus Healy Fund, 2012.51. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Image courtesy of Roberts & Tilton, CUR.2012.51_Roberts_Tilton_photograph.jpg)

Kehinde Wiley (American, born 1977). <em>Houdon Paul-Louis</em>, 2011. Bronze with polished stone base, 34 x 26 x 19 in. (86.4 x 66 x 48.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and A. Augustus Healy Fund, 2012.51. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Image courtesy of Roberts & Tilton, CUR.2012.51_side1_Roberts_Tilton_photograph.jpg)

Kehinde Wiley (American, born 1977). Houdon Paul-Louis, 2011. Bronze with polished stone base, 34 x 26 x 19 in. (86.4 x 66 x 48.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and A. Augustus Healy Fund, 2012.51. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Image courtesy of Roberts & Tilton, CUR.2012.51_side1_Roberts_Tilton_photograph.jpg)

Kehinde Wiley (American, born 1977). <em>Houdon Paul-Louis</em>, 2011. Bronze with polished stone base, 34 x 26 x 19 in. (86.4 x 66 x 48.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and A. Augustus Healy Fund, 2012.51. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Image courtesy of Roberts & Tilton, CUR.2012.51_side2_Roberts_Tilton_photograph.jpg)

Kehinde Wiley (American, born 1977). Houdon Paul-Louis, 2011. Bronze with polished stone base, 34 x 26 x 19 in. (86.4 x 66 x 48.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and A. Augustus Healy Fund, 2012.51. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Image courtesy of Roberts & Tilton, CUR.2012.51_side2_Roberts_Tilton_photograph.jpg)

Houdon Paul-Louis

Kehinde Wiley

Contemporary Art

Though Kehinde Wiley is best known for his painted portraits, here he shifts from painting to sculpture. In both the lift and turn of the young man’s head and the open V of his zippered collar, this bronze refers to an eighteenth-century marble bust by Jean-Antoine Houdon (see illustration).

Yet in many other ways, Wiley’s work could hardly be more different: in substituting male for female, black for white, and present for past, he upends the earlier sculpture even as he quotes it. His radical reinterpretation encourages us to examine the stereotypes that can be found in portraiture.

—Rujeko Hockley, Assistant Curator, Contemporary Art, Brooklyn Museum
ARTIST Kehinde Wiley, American, born 1977
MEDIUM Bronze with polished stone base
  • Place Manufactured: China
    • DATES 2011
    DIMENSIONS 34 x 26 x 19 in. (86.4 x 66 x 48.3 cm) 153 lb. (69.4kg)  (show scale)
    COLLECTIONS Contemporary Art
    ACCESSION NUMBER 2012.51
    CREDIT LINE Frank L. Babbott Fund and A. Augustus Healy Fund
    EXHIBITIONS
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
    CAPTION Kehinde Wiley (American, born 1977). Houdon Paul-Louis, 2011. Bronze with polished stone base, 34 x 26 x 19 in. (86.4 x 66 x 48.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and A. Augustus Healy Fund, 2012.51. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2012.51_threequarter_PS9.jpg)
    EDITION Edition: AP 2/2
    IMAGE threequarter, 2012.51_threequarter_PS9.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2014
    "CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
    RIGHTS STATEMENT © Kehinde Wiley
    Copyright for this work may be controlled by the artist, the artist's estate, or other rights holders. A more detailed analysis of its rights history may, however, place it in the public domain. The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
    RECORD COMPLETENESS
    Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.
    Kehinde Wiley (American, born 1977). <em>Houdon Paul-Louis</em>, 2011. Bronze with polished stone base, 34 x 26 x 19 in. (86.4 x 66 x 48.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and A. Augustus Healy Fund, 2012.51. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2012.51_threequarter_PS9.jpg)

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