“Woke” Art?

I just finished reading an article in the San Francisco Chronicle written yesterday by Aidin Vaziri for the Arts & Entertainment category. The title was somewhat lengthy: “Kehinde Wiley painting removed from embassy after officials call it ‘woke’.” The venue in question was the United States Embassy in the Dominican Republic. Wiley was commissioned to create this painting in 2013.

The result was “Young Artists After Siamesas 1960.” It depicts four Dominican models against a lush floral background. Given the controversy over the painting, the Chronicle did not provide a photographic reproduction.

Kehinde Wiley’s painting being installed in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic in 2015 (photograph courtesy of Roberts & Tilton for Art in Embassies, from the article about the painting in The Art Newspaper)

What troubles me is that most of the rest of the Chronicle article involves support for the removal of the painting. It turns out that our State Department has an Art in Embassies program directed by Erin Scavino, who (in the words of the article) “described the painting as ‘very woke’ and ‘aesthetically terrifying.’” This was followed by the assessment by Ambassador Leah Campos: “In the Trump Administration and under my leadership we are turning away from globalist and woke ideologies and instead embracing American patriotism and the beauty of our great country!”

(Note how many times the word “woke” is quoted in the above paragraphs!)

This struck me as the latest trope on one of the oldest clichés in the book: “I don’t know anything about art, but I know what I like!” In other words, the painting was removed because too many of the individuals in charge did not like it. Sadly, Vaziri did not give Wiley much say in the matter, observing only that he “spent two years studying the work of Dominican artists Celeste Woss y Gil and Gilberto Hernández Ortega and worked with art students in the country.”

Perhaps the State Department should turn its attention only to “matters of State” and leave art to the artists and qualified art critics!