Artist Kehinde Wiley puts power in a new frame with paintings of African
leaders
[April 16, 2025]
By SAM METZ
RABAT, Morocco (AP) — American artist Kehinde Wiley unveiled a series of
large-format portraits of African leaders in Morocco on Tuesday,
building on his now famous 2018 portrait of former U.S. President Barack
Obama sitting casually amid a wild cascade of leaves and flowers.
His exhibition, entitled “A Maze of Power,” opened at the Mohammed VI
Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rabat, Morocco’s capital, after
previously showing in Paris and Dakar, Senegal.
The artwork borrows from classical easel painting techniques, posing
African leaders in a style mainly associated with European royalty and
aristocracy.
“What I wanted to do was to draw ideas in, to be able to look at the
depiction of power, both beautifully and problematically,” Wiley said.
In one portrait, Ethiopia’s former president, Sahle-Work Zewde, stands
before a window, her nation’s bustling capital stretching behind her as
her hand clasps a dangling flower.
In another, Hery Rajaonarimampianina, former president of Madagascar, is
depicted sitting confidently astride a horse. And Alassane Ouattara,
president of Ivory Coast, is seen clenching his brow as he grips a sword
in his right hand.
“I was thinking about the presidency at large as a symbol, as a seat of
power,” Wiley told The Associated Press at the opening of his
exhibition.
“A Maze of Power” arrived in Morocco seven months after first showing at
Paris’ Musée du Quai Branly — Jacques Chirac. It's part of the Moroccan
museum's efforts to become a hub for African art ahead of the next
year's opening of the Museum of the African Continent, across the street
in Rabat.
Wiley said that after his Obama portrait, he was able to leverage his
connections to gain audiences with leaders from across Africa and
persuade them to sit for him.
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American painter Kehinde Wiley stands in front of a portrait of
Alpha Condé, former president of Guinea, during the opening of his
exhibition A Maze of Power in Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and
Contemporary Art, in Rabat, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab
Elshamy)
 In addition to Obama’s, the
portraits also echo Wiley’s earlier works, in which young Black men
appear in poses most associated with paintings of kings and
generals.
Showing his would-be subjects a book full of classical paintings to
draw inspiration from, Wiley said he prepares for painting by taking
hundreds of photographs of each leader and then placing them in
settings both real and abstract.
Although he wanted to show political power, the leaders' individual
political choices were not relevant to the series, Wiley said.
The leaders depicted include some marred by corruption scandals and
others who ignored presidential term limits and repressed
protestors. There are also two whose militaries are fighting each
other in eastern Congo: Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame and Congo’s
President Felix Tshisekedi.
Though Wiley said the role of some art can be to shed light on those
affected by political decision-making, his goals were different.
“This project is more about pulling way back and having a sort of
bird’s-eye view at the phenomena of the political portrait itself,”
he said.
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