These two works, juxtaposed in the lobby of the Brooklyn Museum, show where art and museums are going.
The Fallen Angels by Salvatore Albano (1841–1893) harkens back to Greek and Roman prototypes. The sculpture is carved from marble (the medium of greats such as Michelangelo and Bernini) it references idealized beliefs (in this case Christianity), and the notion of art as elevated culture.
Kehinde Wiley’s (b. 1977) painting, Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps, hangs on the wall in the background. By referencing an 1801 painting by Jacques-Louis David* (1747–1825), Wiley, an African-American artist,† examines issues of portraiture, power, and privilege; the meaning of an art historical canon (and who gets to define it); representation in pop culture, and questions of race and gender. He replaces Napoleon Bonaparte with a Black man whom Wiley approached on the streets. (Wiley puts the man’s name in the lower left) Wiley’s fame jumped when he painted Barack Obama’s official portrait.§
Albano’s sculpture, Wiley’s painting, and David’s Napoleon painting are each referential in their own ways. Albano references classical Western sculpture and high religious themes. Wiley references David but uses that to assert the considerations of a multi-cultural, 21st century society. David references the lofty expectations we have for our heroes (in an earlier version, Napoleon is on a white horse). Few works of art are the “first” or are “original.” We can’t know the headwaters. We can only ponder the body of the river.
Albano, Wiley, and David might not have been responding to the classical muses. Instead, they were taking part in culture, commenting on it, and, at least in the case of Wiley, making subversion of the classical into his very subject.
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The Fallen Angels, or The Rebel Angels. Salvatore Albano, Italian, 1841–1893; 1893 (marble); 1883 (base). Marble, dark stone, bronze. Italy. Base from floor to top of upper plate: 40 x 57 1/2 x 57 1/2 in. (101.6 x 146.1 x 146.1 cm) Marble group at top: 61 x 58 in. (154.9 x 147.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum.
https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/13180
Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps. Kehinde Wiley (American, born 1977). 2005 Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps Oil on canvas, 108 x 108 in. (274.3 x 274.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum.
https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/david_20
* Napoleon Crossing the Alps. Jacques-Louis David
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_Crossing_the_Alps
† https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kehinde_Wiley
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_Barack_Obama_(painting)
§ https://npg.si.edu/learn/access-programs/verbal-description-tours/barack-obama