Painting by Barack Obama’s Portraitist Removed from U.S. Embassy

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Painting by Barack Obama's Portraitist Removed from U.S. Embassy

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Kehinde Wiley’s 2015 painting, “Young Artists After Siamesas 1960,” was deinstalled from the U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, this month. The removal was publicly documented by Ambassador Leah Campos in an August 11 Instagram post, where she stated the embassy was moving away from “globalist and woke ideologies” to embrace “American patriotism.” Erin Scavino, the current director of the Art in Embassies program, appointed during the Trump administration’s second term, also criticized the painting as “very woke” and “aesthetically terrifying” in a recent appearance on a YouTube show.

Wiley is widely recognized for his vibrant, large-scale portraits that often feature Black subjects in poses and settings historically reserved for European Old Master paintings, challenging traditional narratives in art history. He gained further prominence after painting the official portrait of former President Barack Obama in 2018 for the National Portrait Gallery.

The State Department confirmed it is exploring the legality of selling “Young Artists After Siamesas 1960,” which was commissioned through the Art in Embassies program and funded by taxpayers. While no specific objections to the painting’s content were formally stated, a senior official cited past comments by Wiley regarding a separate series of works and denied sexual misconduct allegations against the artist. The Art in Embassies program, established in 1963, has been a federal initiative to promote cultural diplomacy through visual art. However, during the Trump administration’s second term, the program has increasingly focused on patriotic imagery and American historical themes.

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