Last week, artist Kehinde Wiley unveiled his latest piece, a bronze sculpture on limestone titled “Rumors of War,” in Times Square. This is the artist's first work of public art and his first major piece since his portrait of President Obama, which hangs in the National Portrait Gallery.
The piece is Wiley's direct response to the ubiquitous Confederate sculptures that populate the country, particularly in the South. Standing at just under three stories tall, Wiley’s young, African-American figure is dressed in urban streetwear sitting astride a massive horse in a striking pose reminiscent of statues of Robert E. Lee and other Confederate figures.
Wiley said in a statement: “The inspiration for Rumors of War is war—is an engagement with violence. Art and violence have for an eternity held a strong narrative grip with each other. Rumors of War attempts to use the language of equestrian portraiture to both embrace and subsume the fetishization of state violence. New York and Times Square in particular sit at the crossroads of human movement on a global scale. To have the Rumors of War sculpture presented in such a context lays bare the scope and scale of the project in its conceit to expose the beautiful and terrible potentiality of art to sculpt the language of domination.”
At the press conference on Friday to officially unveil the piece, it was announced that the statue would stay in Times Square, on Broadway between 46th and 47th Streets, for two months before being permanently installed in Richmond, VA.
“Is it monumental? Absolutely," said Dr. Monroe Harris, Board of Trustees at The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, at the unveiling. "Monumental in pure size, monumental in beauty but it’s also monumental in the message that it gives because it says that a black man, a black woman can be displayed in regal splendor, on a horse! In the capital of the confederacy!”
Richmond Mayor Levar M. Stoney noted that there are still ten confederate monuments in Richmond today. “Now thanks to Kehinde, we will have this beautiful monument right here [in Richmond], a monument that speaks empathetically to a new worthy cause," he said. "Just as Lady Liberty stands as our universal symbol of freedom, in Richmond 'Rumors of War' will be our symbolic battle cry, it will be our guide right on our newly-renamed Arthur Ashe Boulevard riding boldly and sincerely right into the future."
Wiley, who was also at the unveiling, discussed his inspiration for the sculpture. “The story starts with going to Virginia and seeing the monuments that line the streets," he said. "But it’s also about being in this black body. I’m a black man walking those streets, I’m looking up at those things that give me a sense of dread and fear, what does that feel like physically to walk a public space and to have that your state, your country, your nation say this is what we stand by. No, we want more. We demand more.”
Additional reporting by Charline Charles
