In a Letter to President Trump, Artist Kehinde Wiley Asks to Repurchase His Painting Removed from US Embassy

Artist Kehinde Wiley is asking to purchase his painting Young Artists After Siamesas 1960 (2013) back from the US State Department, after it was removed from the US Embassy in the Dominican Republic in August.

On Monday, the artist’s gallery Sean Kelly Gallery shared a letter that Wiley had sent to President Donald Trump on September 24. “I am writing regarding Young Artists After Siamesas 1960, the painting I created for the United States Embassy in Santo Domingo through the State Department’s Art in Embassies program. I understand that the painting has been removed from the embassy and that the State Department is now considering whether it can be sold,” he writes in the letter. “If your administration has determined that it no longer wishes to display the work, I would like to ask for the opportunity to purchase it back.”

Wiley adds that he created the painting for a “particular place and with a particular purpose,” where he studied the work of Dominican artists and worked with young artists in Santo Domingo in creating the artwork that depicts four Dominican art students. “The idea was a simple one: that an American embassy could be a place where people see something of themselves, and that art could create a connection between our country and theirs. That has long been my understanding of the purpose of the Art in Embassies program and of the role that artists can play in cultural diplomacy,” Wiley writes.

On August 11, US Ambassador Leah Campos wrote in an Instagram post that Wiley’s painting was being swapped for an image of the American flag that reflects “American patriotism and the beauty of our great country.” The post was accompanied by the song “We’re Not Gonna Take It” by Twisted Sister. Campos wrote in her post that the “Trump Administration and under my leadership we are turning away from globalist and woke ideologies.”

Wiley in his letter to Trump added that he understands that the current “administration has reached a different conclusion about this painting and no longer believes it belongs in the embassy. However the painting remains important to me, as do the people and the ideas that it represents. If your administration no longer has a place for it, I would be grateful for the opportunity to bring it home and I am prepared to purchase the work through the appropriate lawful process.”