Trump officials take down, explore sale of Kehinde Wiley painting commissioned for US embassy

The US Department of State removed Kehinde Wiley’s painting Young Artists After Siamesas 1960 (2015) from the US embassy in Santo Domingo after ambassador Leah Campos, appointed by President Donald Trump, criticized it as representing “globalist and woke ideologies.” A senior State Department official said the department is exploring whether it can legally deaccession and sell the work, which was commissioned through the Art in Embassies program using taxpayer funds. The official cited sexual misconduct allegations against Wiley (which he has denied) and referenced his past comments about works based on Judith beheading Holofernes, arguing the artist’s “violent and racist words and depictions” are incompatible with an “America First” agenda. The painting, created after Wiley worked with art students in Santo Domingo and studied Dominican painters Gilberto Hernández Ortega and Celeste Agustina Woss y Gil, is described as more than 12 feet wide and nearly 9 feet tall.

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