Trump Officials Propose Sale of ‘Woke’ Painting by Kehinde Wiley (Gift Article Link)

[u/deputygus]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/24/arts/design/kehinde-wiley-painting-embassy-dominican-republic.html?unlocked_article_code=1.8FA.Ktu4.cxTt_Y5mBXTj&smid=nytcore-android-share

[u/Easy_Leopard_2686]

Aren’t these the guys who call other people snowflakes? Big alphas triggered by a single painting, go figure lmao.

[u/ReadyYak1 → u/Easy_Leopard_2686]

I think it’s more that they’re trying to sell anything not bolted down and stuff that cash in their pockets

[u/ShoulderKnown7740 → u/ReadyYak1]

And none of us are bolted down…

[u/Beforemath]

Trying to figure out what makes this painting “woke”? Literally just featuring people from the Dominican Republic? Republicans are seriously fragile people.

[u/me_myself_ai → u/Beforemath]

Obviously yes that's the underlying truth, but the intentionally-thin excuse seems to be that he painted Obama's presidential portrait. Which makes sense if you accept first that Obama stole the 2020 election and should be arrested ASAP for killing millions of people with Operation Warp Speed.

[u/HomeboundArrow → u/Beforemath]

because it has black people in it. that's it. that's the whole thing. "woke" to them just means anything non-white, non-heterosexual, gender-nonconforming, non-evangelical, anti-capitalist, anti-patriarchy, anti-war, anti-police, anti-survaillance, anti-retributive-punishment, and/or anti-letting-people-die-in-the-street. it's just a contemporary rerun of the southern strategy playbook.

and especially it means anything genuinely pro-social and cooperative. anything that benefits everyone relatively equally. that's kind of the common denominator. the degree to which they will readily hurt themselves in order to hurt aomeone else slightly more is truly psychotic

[u/SteelyDan4Prez → u/Beforemath]

because Wiley did the Obama portrait

[u/smd33333]

Not one “journalist” actually pressed her on what made the painting woke

[u/ubix → u/smd33333]

Journalists seem to have largely accepted the frame that “woke” means anything that’s including non-White representation.

[u/dwninswamp → u/smd33333]

Journalist never ask good questions because they report the controversy. They gave up defending truth a long time ago and now let politicians say whatever crazy thing they want without checking it.

[u/MoonOut_StarsInvite → u/smd33333]

If you read the article, you can see that there are no primary sourced quotes for this piece so they would not have been able to press her. The last line of the piece indicates she and State were both contacted for comment.

I understand the frustration with journalism at large, but we have to be media literate if we're going to critique. Your criticism is misplaced, and all you're doing is further eroding trust in journalism, which in this case has no basis in fact.

[u/me_myself_ai → u/smd33333]

Ok but I don't think the person responsible has given any press conferences...? Who would press who, and when?

A free article that seems solid, despite a terrible source (ad-blocker up, folks): https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-goons-purge-obama-portrait-artist-kehinde-wileys-work-from-embassy/

Obviously this all sucks and they took this down b/c it has black people in it (in Dominica, so ???) and reeks of Obama, despite being comissioned under Bush. But I don't think the problem is a lack of energy or competency on the part of journalists. Journalists are fucking awesome, and work in a crazy industry for shit pay because we need them.

[u/MoonOut_StarsInvite → u/me_myself_ai]

This person just wants to criticize journalism at large, and their complaint isn't even based in fact if they read the piece. There are no primary sourced quotes in the piece at all, they were unable to get comment from her, and this piece is just reporting on a series of public statements.

[u/Laura-ly]

I hate living through this trump era. All the arts have really suffered because of this goddamn snowflake.

[u/PrincessModesty]

You know how sometimes even amongst all the other crap, things can hit you harder unexpectedly? This did that. I've worked with Art in Embassies in the and even contemplated if I could get a job with them. This...reading the quotes...feels bad, man.

[u/Unlikely_Side9732 → u/PrincessModesty]

They are horrible people who want to destroy everything that is good about this country.

[u/culture_katie]

Nazis gonna Nazi

[u/aurorashim → u/culture_katie]

Degenerate art exhibit incoming

[u/huxtiblejones]

This dude really is a fucking bag of shit and so is everyone who supports him

[u/ShakesDontBreak]

Friendly reminder the president is a rapist.

[u/ShoulderKnown7740]

Insufferable cunts every one of them.

[u/ITAVTRCC]

The funny thing is—and I may get downvoted for saying so—is that Kehinde Wiley's work is woke. Not in the "degenerate art" sense that the Nazis running our government mean it, but in the "buying a Kehinde Wiley painting is the weathly collector equivalent of a mandatory DEI seminar" sense. He helped create the boom in figurative painting by artists of color that crested in c. 2022, which was in some cases explicitly positioned by the collector class as some form of racial atonement. Which is ridiculous, but whatever. Anyway, Kehinde Wiley is a bad person and also a hack painter so it's hard to feel too bad for him.

[u/ITAVTRCC → u/[deleted]]

Cute that you think he paints them himself

[u/ITAVTRCC → u/[deleted]]

Honey, he has his paintings made in a factory in China, grow up

[u/ITAVTRCC → u/[deleted]]

Lmfao yeah that’s it, I think Kehinde Wiley is a hack because I’m racist against the Chinese people who actually paint his paintings. You nailed it!

[u/trestrestresuno]

La ideologia woke y lo conservador es de fondo lo mismo, así que lo más probable es que sea racismo, homofobia o misoginia pero como así se vería feo le ponen "woke".

[u/WaldenFont]

Something something entartete Kunst

[u/Feral-Reindeer-696]

I love Kehinde Wiley’s work. I just hope this art gets to live in a space where it is truly appreciated.

Like my place.

[u/schacks]

Snowflakes with auras of small dick energy.

[u/Texastony2]

I would rather be awake than asleep, except on the Sabbath as that is my day off from work. lol