Kehinde's three Muses: Spiritual, Emotions, and Experience at the Jewish Museum

ALGEMEINER
By Maxine Dovere

Associate Curator of the Jewish Museum Karen Levitov is dwarfed by the monumental work of Kehinde Wiley. Titled "Abed Al Ahse and Chalked El Aweari," this painting shows two young men in Israel. Photo: Maxine Dovere.

NEW YORK - Spiritual concepts, emotions or experiences may spark an artist’s creative imagination. Kehinde Wiley is inspired by all three. The Jewish Museum in New York City is currently exhibiting The World Stage: Israel, a series of paintings by Wiley, in its Bloomberg Gallery. Wiley found the muse for his monumental works in traditional European Jewish paper cuttings and ancient Hebraic embroidery, integrating realistic representations of Israeli youths of Ethiopian heritage—painted with almost photographic reality. [link]