
UPDATE: It turns that Wiley, the racist “artist” behind Obama’s portrait, doesn’t even do his own painting. Wiley hires Chinese labor to paint his “ideas” – for the follow-up story click here.
The artist who painted former President Obama’s portrait for the Portrait Gallery, part of the Smithsonian Institution, has an interesting past. While reviewing previous works by artist Kehinde Wiley, it was discovered that he has a great fondness for painting black women beheading white women. Both beheading pieces are titled “Judith beheading Holofernes”, referencing a story in the Book of Judith, which involves a beautiful woman who seduces an invading general before he is able to destroy their land, gets him drunk, and then decapitates him.
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Typical artists from the Rennaissance era have placed Judith in the role of a scriptural savior, “a type of the praying Virgin or the church or as a figure who tramples Satan and harrows Hell.” Given the historical context and how Wiley recreated it in his works, is hard to interpret his use of this theme as anything other than a blatant statement of racism; black women are the powerful angels of the earth, conquering the white devils.


Can you imagine for a second if George W. Bush, or any other former president, decided on a painter who was famous for depicting white people killing black people to paint his official portrait? It’s hard to imagine, right? Yea, that’s because it’s disgusting and backward.
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Users on Twitter expressed outrage at commissioning an artist with such obvious racist leanings to paint the portrait of an American president:
https://twitter.com/CorneliusRye2/status/963094677443420160
https://twitter.com/VancityMaggie/status/963146263586783232
Also by Obama portrait painter Kehinde Wiley: This darling little number. I just LOVE how he blended the floral notes with the beheading of the white kid. pic.twitter.com/m0e6dnXWYt
— Ben Crystal (@Bennettruth) February 12, 2018
https://twitter.com/BobCav/status/963128545055821824
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Kehinde Wiley the man who painted @POTUS44 presidential portrait has paintings showing blacks beheading whites pic.twitter.com/PvKCLXf78W
— Joe Biggs⭐️⭐️⭐️ (@Rambobiggs) February 12, 2018
Eye of the beholder. I like them. What disturbs me is the other art by this artist, African-American women holding the decapitated heads of white women. pic.twitter.com/UrUOqSWJj1
— Stephanie (@ExCalifornian) February 12, 2018