Revisiting President Obama’s Presidential Portrait By Kehinde Wiley, The Sixth Finger, Digital Projector, And More – OpEd

With President Joe Biden's prospects of staying in the 2024 presidential race being hotly debated, some have suggested that Michelle Obama could replace him. In a Reuters/Ipsos poll of registered voters, released July 2, 2024, Michelle Obama was the only hypothetical candidate to definitively defeat Donald Trump, gaining 50 percent of the vote to Trump's 39 percent. Independent candidates and nonvoters made up the other 11 percent. Michelle Obama's favorability rating was more than 10 percentage points ahead of both Trump and Biden. She was also the top choice of Democrats to replace Biden on the 2024 ticket in February 18-20, 2024 Rasmussen Reports polls.

While I doubt Michelle Obama will be the candidate, as she has repeatedly said she will not run for president, her double-digit lead over Trump in the poll generated discussions about former president Barack Obama's legacy. This includes comments about the official White House portraits of President Obama and the First Lady Michelle Obama, which were unveiled at the Smithsonian Institute's National Portrait Gallery February 12, 2018.

The former president chose the African-American artist Kehinde Wiley to paint his presidential portrait. While it garnered some praise, other observers said it looked more like a cartoonish lampoon than a dignified representation of the former president of the United States (US). The portrait was polarizing, dividing much of the country into opposing - love it or hate it - camps, laced with supportive or disparaging comments that tended to run along political lines. While the portrait sparked much controversy, some of the deeper meanings conveyed by the painting were overlooked.

The Sixth Finger

There was speculation as to whether the artist - 41-year-old, New York-based, Kehinde Wiley - added a sixth finger to former President Obama's left hand. He did, and it has several potential meanings. I believe the extra appendage is a subtle reference to "The Sixth Finger," a 562 page book by Nigerian born author, Chux Onyenyeonwu that was published in 2015. His book, which was inspired by Alex Haley's "Roots," tells fictional stories of the plight and diaspora of Nigerians and other Africans caught up in the slave trade, along with stories about their descendants, covering several generations.

The Nigerian coastal city of Badagry, founded in 1425 near Lagos, was a major slave port, shipping slaves to the Americas, the Caribbean, and Europe. The city maintains a slave museum, slave market, and other reminders of the slave era that Onyenyeonwu was familiar with. In interviews, Onyenyeonwu states, “Although the slave trade is over, the aftermath is still there. Blacks have not been fully integrated into their respective diaspora societies in the US, Cuba, Brazil and elsewhere. Blacks over there still have the mental attitude of slaves. They need to free themselves mentally."

Chux Onyenyeonwu believes that the descendants of slaves are still being discriminated against and have not been given the appropriate status and recognition they deserve by their current host countries. Onyenyeonwu states, "Without black labor in the plantations, America would not be the great country it is today." He called the American visa lottery system a modern day form of slavery, because many black immigrants end up working low paying, menial jobs. This ignores the fact they are choosing to come to the US, while slaves had no choice. Onyenyeonwu believes that the diaspora continues to enslave the helpless and innocents with impunity.

In selecting the title of the book, "The Sixth Finger," Onyenyeonwu said he wanted something that would attract prospective readers, perking their interest to learn the stories behind the title. Perhaps, Kehinde Wiley had the same motivation in adding the symbolic sixth finger to Obama's left hand. Wiley and the Obama's were likely familiar with the book, The Sixth Finger. Wiley has strongly embraced and repeated these sentiments, as have the former president and first lady. It is unlikely that Wiley would have added the sixth finger - a glaring artistic anomaly - without the former president's knowledge, approval, and understanding of what was being conveyed.

Kehinde Wiley said that he and Barack Obama looked through art history books, discussing the potential pose, content, and backdrop of his portrait. Wiley said they decided to go against historical tradition and precedence and create something new that was unlike any of the previous presidential portraits. Kehinde Wiley and former president Obama are also projecting the slave theme, just as Michelle Obama did in wearing a dress selected by her artist, Amy Sherald, who said that she and first lady looked at several dresses before picking the one she ultimately wore.

"The dress was something that [Mrs. Obama] allowed me to have creative control over," said Amy Sherald, the 44 year-old, Baltimore-based, African-American artist. "When I saw that dress I knew that was something that would work as well, because that dress is almost like a painting in itself...the design also reflects the inspired quilt masterpieces made by the women of Gee's Bend, a small remote black community in Alabama." The traditional Gee's Bend pattern of quilts have been produced by the former slave community and their descendants at Boykin, Alabama, southwest of Selma.

Like Wiley, Sherald's work focuses on issues of race and identity, making portraits of people who they feel have been traditionally marginalized. The two artists were well compensated for their recent portraits. The Smithsonian received $500,000 in private funds to pay for the paintings.

Heavy Foliage and a Chair

Kehinde Wiley's backdrop of heavy green foliage dominates the portrait. Wiley states that the foliage is competing with Obama to see who will be the focus of the painting, the man sitting in the chair or the stories that reflect his life. Along with the foliage, Wiley adds flowers to reflect Barack Obama's heritage and important influencers - blue lilies for Africa, jasmine for Hawaii, and the chrysanthemum, the official flower of Chicago, Illinois. Wiley said he chose these three flowers, which are woven into the green foliage, as his method of "charting [Barack Obama's] path on earth."

Obama sitting on a chair in Western clothing, while floating in front of the thick foliage, is a symbolic projection of the Sixth Finger diaspora of Africans to North America and other continents. The painting projects Obama's African roots traveling to the seat of power in the United States, following the route of the slaves.

Wiley said photographs of Obama were taken with different poses and expressions. They agreed upon the image and facial expression depicted in the painting. Wiley added what appeared to be a one-armed chair to the portrait, but a small bit of the missing arm can be seen on Obama's left side. Considering Wiley's use of symbolism, the hidden chair arm and the extreme height of the chair arms, may project his and Onyenyeonwu's belief of the inequality, struggles, and two-tier standards faced by Africans and their descendants in the United States and other countries.

African Deities

The facial expression and body posture of former president Obama is similar to some current and historical portrayals of African deities and leaders, including former Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari. The sixth finger on Obama's left hand is symbolic of the popular six-fingered African god, Obatala, who is credited with molding clay to create the Yoruba people of Nigeria. Obatala is the compassionate son of the primary African god, Olorun, who is powerful and all-knowing. Olorun, one of the two creator-gods in Yoruba mythology, is also referred to as King of the Sky or Lord of Heaven.

Many religions and myths refer to a god creating humans out of clay or dirt, including the Bible, the Qur'an, and Chinese, Egyptian, Sumerian, Mayan, and other cultures. Obatala is still celebrated in festivals held in Africa, the Americas, and the Caribbean.

While African mythology deemed Obatala to be androgynous, he is married to Yemoo, also called Yemoja, the goddess of oceans and protector of women. These gods and mythology were popular among West African communities depleted by the slave trade. The slaves took their beliefs to their new locations in the Americas, the Caribbean, and other regions. Yemoja is called Yemaya in the diaspora to Spanish speaking countries. She is often depicted wearing long gowns that represent flowing waters. The goddess' gowns are often portrayed as flowing from her waist, similar to the dress that Michelle Obama is wearing in her official portrait painted by Amy Sherald.

Historically, the world is full of stories, myths, statues, and artifacts that depict gods and giants as having six fingers. The Bible also contains verses about giants with six fingers and six toes. In 1540, a painting by Jan Van Scorel, showed the Biblical Adam as having six fingers on his left hand.

Polydactyly

Hexadactyly is the term for the birth defect of having six fingers or six toes, while polydactyly refers to having one or more extra digits on one or more hand and / or foot. The extra appendage appear through genetic transmission or random occurrence. The extra digits may be normal or undersized.

In the United States, polydactyly occurs once every 1,339 Caucasian births. Among US African-Americans, it occurs once every 143 births, 9.34 times the rate for US Caucasians. The extra finger may appear between the fingers or on either side of the hand. Among US African-Americans, the extra finger is more likely to be on the outside of the hand, below the small finger. Among Nigerians, polydactyly occurs about once every 43 births, 31 times the average for US Caucasians.

The Unveiling of the Portraits and More

The Obama's reviewed a number of artists, interviewing several of them before selecting Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald. The former president, like the first lady, said they selected their respective artists based upon their compelling work and a personal connection they made with them. Videos of the portraits' unveilings and speeches can be found on the internet.

During the unveiling ceremony, former president Obama said that he and Kehinde bonded during the process of planning and completing his portrait. Obama said he realized how much he and Wiley had in common. "Both of us had American mothers who raised us with extraordinary love and support," said Obama. "Both of us had African fathers who had been absent from our lives and in some ways, our journeys involved searching for them and figuring out what that meant. I ended up writing about that journey and channeling it into the work that I did because I cannot paint. I'm sure that Kehinde's journey reflected some of those feelings in his art."

Obama reflected on why he selected Kehinde Wiley. "What I was always struck by whenever I saw [Wiley’s] portraits, was the degree to which they challenged our conventional views of power and privilege; and the way that he would take extraordinary care and precision and vision in recognizing the beauty and the grace and the dignity of people who are so often invisible in our lives and put them on a grand stage, on a grand scale, and force us to look and see them in ways that so often they were not."

Obama continued "...So often out of sight and out of mind, Kehinde lifted them up and gave them a platform and said they belonged at the center of American life; and that was something that moved me deeply, because in my small way,that is part of what I believe politics should be about. Not simply celebrating the high and the mighty, expecting that the country unfolds from the top down, but rather that it comes from the bottom up. Families all across America who are working hard and doing their best and passing on the wisdom and resilience and stories to their children in the hopes that their lives will be a little bit better."

Isiah Obot, Kehinde Wiley's Nigerian father, came to the US to study at UCLA, where he met Kehinde's mother, Freddie Mae Wiley. He left before Kehinde and his fraternal twin brother were born, leaving Kehinde's mother to raise and support six children on her own. Kehinde's mother relied upon welfare to survive, while encouraging Kehinde and his siblings to take after-school art classes to keep them off the streets. Twenty years later, Kehinde traveled to Nigeria to find and meet his father - for the first time.

At the unveiling ceremonies of February 12, 2018, Kehinde Wiley provided insight regarding his art and his approach to creating the portrait of Barack Obama. "Growing up as a kid in south central Los Angeles," said Wiley, "going to those museums in LA. There weren't too many people who happened to look like me in those museums on those walls. So as the years go on, I try to create my own type of work...to project out into the world this desire to see something corrected...This is our ability to say, 'I matter, I was here.'"

Wiley continued, "I was humbled by this invitation, but I was also inspired by Barack Obama's personal story. That sense in which he and I both do have that echo of single parents, African fathers, that search for the father. That sense of twinning. There is this sense of 'He and I' in that narrative."

"When you look at this painting...there are botanicals going on there that nod towards his personal story," said Wiley. "There's the chrysanthemums, the flower of Chicago, Illinois. There's flowers that point to Kenya. There's flowers that point towards Hawaii. In a very symbolic way, what I am doing is charting his path on earth through those plants that weave their way." Wiley continued, "There's a fight going on with he in the foreground and the plants that are trying to announce themselves. Who gets to be the star of the show - the story or the man who inhabits that story? It's all chance driven."

Obama said, "Kehinde, in the tradition of a lot of great artists, actually cared to hear how I thought about it before doing exactly what he intended to do." Being the first African-American artists commissioned by the National Gallery to paint the official portraits of the first African-American US president and first lady is a significant historical, social, and cultural event. Some critics, including supporters of the Obama's, said that was not the time to allow egos and creative license to push personal agendas and self-promotion. That it was time to follow traditional standards for official portraits of the former president and first lady of the United States.

Many people, including Obama supporters and African-Americans, said Wiley's bizarre portrait is an embarrassing disgrace to the dignity of the presidential office, to former US presidents, African-Americans, and everyone else in the United States.

The Obama's knew what they were getting with the artists they selected. They also had the option of rejecting or modifying the works during or after the process, as former president Teddy Roosevelt did in burning his first official portrait after members of his family made derogatory remarks about it. President Lyndon Johnson chose a second artist, calling the first artist's portrait of him, "ugly."

President Barack Obama's Parents

President Barack Obama's mother - Stanley Ann Dunham - met Barack senior in 1960 at the University of Hawaii, when they were taking a Russian language class. She was 17-years-old when they met. He was 26. Barack senior did not tell her that he had a wife and two children in Kenya, Africa. When they married February 2, 1961, Stanley was three months pregnant and he was still married to his African wife. When Barack junior was born August 4, 1961, his parents planned on giving him up for adoption. However, Barack Obama's parents separated shortly after his birth, with his mother and the baby moving to Seattle, Washington, where she began attending college classes in early September. Stanley Ann Dunham and Barack junior later moved back to Hawaii.

Barack senior stayed in Hawaii. Later, he entered in the economics PhD program at Harvard. Stanley Ann Dunham filed for divorce from Barack Obama senior in 1964, the same year he moved back to Kenya, after his request for a visa extension was denied by the US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), due to Harvard's desire to discontinue his residency. Stanley Ann Dunham said that Barack senior was a very intelligent man, but a lousy husband, who was abusive, angry, frustrated, and drunk. Barack senior got an MA from Harvard, but did not complete the PhD program. Stanley Ann Dunham got a PhD in anthropology from the University of Hawaii.

The last time Barack Obama junior saw his father was in 1971, at age 10, when Barack senior came back from Nigeria for a brief visit. Barack senior was an intelligent, but reckless man, who had four wives, eight children, and trouble keeping a job. Barack Obama senior died when he ran into a tall tree stump on the side of the road in 1982. He was 48. Given Barack Obama senior's ongoing abuse of alcohol that continued when he returned to Africa, it's likely that he was intoxicated when he ran into the tree. If Barrack senior had remained a factor in Barrack junior's life, it's unlikely Obama would have been president. Obama's mother had cancer and passed away in 1995 at age 52.

Kehinde Wiley

Kehinde Wiley was a controversial and questionable selection to paint the official portrait of former president Barack Obama. In addition to issues regarding the style of his work, in 2012, Wiley created two paintings of black women holding knives and the decapitated heads of white women. When he was asked about the severed head's paintings, Kehinde Wiley said, "It's sort of a play on the Kill Whitey thing." Wiley had expressed this to people in a variety of ways, including a quote that appeared in the April 22, 2012 New York Magazine article by Christopher Beam.

One of the many tweets about Kehinde Wiley showed two of Wiley's decapitation paintings, with African-American women holding the severed heads of white women in one hand and swords in the other hand. The caption read, "This [is] what is confusing to me ... you can’t have Confederate flags ... you take down historical statues because they are racist but the 44th POTUS picks the guy who painted these pictures to paint his presidential portrait and that’s just fine? Maybe I’m missing something?"

The paintings of the severed heads and the racially charged quote was virtually ignored by the mainstream media. While I am an independent, I can imagine what the media coverage would have been if Donald Trump or George W. Bush commissioned a white artist, who had previously created paintings of white women holding the severed heads of black women. If this white artist explained the severed heads, by saying, "It's sort of a play on the Kill Darkies thing," or similar offensive references, there would be protests across the nation. Politicians, the public, and the press would be outraged, symbolically calling for the head of the artist, and the man who hired him.

A litmus test for prejudice and discrimination is to switch roles, positions, or statements and see if the reverse is deemed racist or prejudicial. If it is, then it usually applies to all cases. Some apologists will argue that minorities can't discriminate or be racist because they don't have the power. Rubbish! Anyone can discriminate if they are treating people differently because of their race, ethnicity, gender, age, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, weight, wealth, or other characteristics and traits.

The implausible excuse that Wiley gave for his racially charged decapitation paintings is that he was simply putting a black spin on the Biblical story of Judith beheading theAssyrian general Holofernes. The characters in the Biblical story and Wiley's paintings are too different in race, gender, affiliation, and context to have any resemblance to the racially-charged brush strokes of Wiley and his assistants.

In the work of Giovanni Baglione, who painted Judith and the Head of Holofernes in 1608, Judith is pictured cutting off the head of Assyrian General Holofernes, who is besieging her town. This theme is taken from an Old Testament story in the Bible. The only similarities between the original Bible story, Baglione's painting, and Wiley's rendition is that a sharp object is used to cut off a head. Wiley radically changes the setting, the characters, and the message. It was troubling for some Americans that then-President Barack Obama sought out and selected such a controversial figure to paint his official portrait representing the legacy of his administration.

During the unveiling, former president Obama said, "What I was always struck by whenever I saw [Wiley's] portraits was the degree to which they challenged our conventional views of power and privilege." That would include Wiley's paintings of black women beheading white women, the artist's brutally violent play on his interpretation of power and privilege.

In 2015, while Obama was president, Wiley was awarded the US Department of State Medal of Arts in recognition of using his art to promote cultural diplomacy. This allows Wiley to display his art in US embassies around the world. Hopefully, this does not include any renditions of Wiley's culturally diplomatic "Kill Whitey" decapitation themes.

Outsourcing to China

In addition to the racial controversy, critics pointed out that much of Wiley's paintings are done by teams of Chinese artists working out of his Beijing studio. In 2006, Wiley set up a production studio in the outskirts of Beijing, China to provide inexpensive artists and outsourced production facilities. He reportedly had studios in Beijing, China, Dakar, Senegal, New York City, and possibly other locations.

The proliferation of Wiley's outsourcing, combined with corporate contracts, the increasing demand for his work, and the incredible rate at which paintings were produced before and after the Obama portrait, brings into question exactly how much - if any - of the work Kehinde Wiley does on individual pieces of art that he is selling for prices that can exceed $100,000. Critics claim that Wiley is selling the "concept" of his art, not his contributions of personally painting each canvas. Some of Wiley's paintings have sold for $885,000, $846,000 and $649,000 through March of 2024.

During his 2012 interview with New York magazine, Wiley said that he employed an American studio manager and four to ten Chinese artists in his Beijing studio. Based upon the extensive media coverage and increased demand for his art from the private and public sector following the Obama portrait, there was likely a significant addition to the number of local artists and laborers in China, Senegal, and other locations. Increased outsourcing - in remote locations - makes it implausible that Wiley was doing much - if any - of the work on many orders.

While some famous artists have used apprentices or assistants to help with large projects, such as Michelangelo's paintings in the Sistine Chapel, it appears that Wiley took it well beyond the traditional minor level of assistance, to full-time, outsourced, assembly-line, production studios.

One sign of using Chinese laborers and other contract artists is the repetition of patterns seen in many of Wiley's paintings, including the foliage in the portrait of former president Barak Obama. Repeating a pattern over and over is cheaper and faster than relying upon the artistic instinct and creativity of higher quality artists. Repeating patterns is a common practice in art studios around the world that focus on mass production.

A review of Wiley's previous works shows that many of them are admitted knockoffs of famous paintings, in which the aristocrats or other subjects are changed to African-Americans, wearing casual street clothes. In many of these reproductions - along with other Wiley offerings - the backgrounds are changed to repetitive patterns that are often reminiscent of old wallpaper, likely painted by Wiley's discount artists.

Digital Projectors

Mass produced reproductions of original paintings and photographs are sold in China, Vietnam, and other countries. Some of these knock-offs are sold as original art. Reproductions of Van Gogh, Renoir, and other artists are purchased for the striking accuracy and textured feel they provide, compared to traditional prints and posters.

Digital projectors have been used at all levels, from professional artists and studios to small shops in China, Vietnam, and other countries. The small shops and studios will offer to project, trace, and paint any photograph or image - from family photos to famous paintings - on virtually any size canvas selected by the customer. Some of the more popular famous paintings and images are mass produced in an assembly-line manner by a crew of artists and laborers. These mass productions are offered for sale through a variety of outlets, from small and medium shops to larger galleries and distributors.

Digital projectors make it easier and faster to reproduce paintings, prints, and photos, transferring vivid colors and minute traced details to the canvas, even in well-lit rooms. Most project the image from in front of the canvas, but a few project through it from the rear. Variable settings enable the image to be enlarged or reduced to fit the respective canvas so that an exact copy can be reproduced with incredible detail and resolution.

Artists and laborers simply trace and paint in the image on the canvas, creating an exact duplicate, if desired. It's easier than a paint-by-numbers coloring book. Some paintings are sold as originals created by a specific artist, even though much or all of the work is outsourced, traced, and painted by local artists and laborers.

Some of the great masters used assistants to help them with large projects, but digital projectors, expanding numbers of artistic laborers, and assembly-line format studios have taken this to new levels that some critics consider cheating and fraudulent. Assembly-line, digitally projected and traced paintings, sold as originals or as freestyle produced copies of masterpieces, is very profitable, enabling the use of mediocre talent, instead of skilled artists, while greatly reducing the time needed for each painting.

Critics speculate this is one reason why many of Wiley's paintings have been knockoffs of the masters and others. It's easier to reproduce projected digital photographs of someone else's original work, then to create it yourself. The hired help can trace and paint in all of the details, with the exception of the main character, who will be switched to an African-American. The image of the new figure can be painted from the photo, or projected, traced, and painted by local artists. If the background is changed to a predictable, repetitive theme, then the contract laborers can do that with the help of a projector or simply repeating patterns over and over until the canvas is covered.

This is how most reproduction artists of China, Vietnam, and other countries work. This method is at the least, artistic cheating, which is used by artists who lack the skills to recreate a similar likeness, without the images being projected and traced. This is also useful when turning out assembly-line paintings done by mediocre artists and laborers.

Kehinde Wiley has been using digital projectors for years, so photographs of paintings and images projected on the canvas, can be traced and reproduced to the smallest details, and then painted in, matching the colors projected onto the canvas, as desired. Wiley and his workers want to conceal the secrets of his production methods, along with the fact that Wiley may do little of the work on paintings that are being produced overseas with cheaper labor and lax regulations.

Even on earlier rare occasions, when Wiley painted some, most, or all of a painting, it appears he relied upon digital projectors to create an easy, outlined, paint-by-numbers, coloring book canvas for him to trace and color in. Wiley's actual artistic skills are unknown, since he projects, traces, and paints photographs and the works of others.

Kehinde Wiley admitted that he and his helpers use digital projectors, though he does not like to discuss it, nor the fact that local artists are doing much of the work on paintings sold as "Kehinde Wiley originals." It appears that Wiley is the manager and marketer selling the concept of his art, while others do most of the tracing and painting.

Wiley productions - Kehinde and his outsourced labor pool - produced a reproduction of "Equestrian Portrait of King Philip II," in 2009, substituting the face of Michael Jackson for the King. One critic said, "It's a bit like making a color copy of a famous painting and then gluing someone else's face on the main subject." Regardless, the painting sold for $175,000 at an auction.

Some critics and journalists have called Kehinde Wily a con man and a fraud, due to his dependence on projectors and his use of local artists and laborers to trace other artist's work, and then paint the projected images to create "Wiley Originals." Critics claim customers are paying inflated prices for modified, projected reproductions that are traced and painted primarily by local artists in China, Senegal, and the US. Wiley supporters claim that since the concepts of the paintings are Wiley's, they can still be considered his works, regardless of the fact that other people are doing the work.

Wiley has also faced multiple sexual assault charges - ranging from groping to rape - made by male acquaintances during at least the last two decades, including a charge filed May 2024. Several art museums in the United States have cancelled their plans to host future Wiley exhibits, due to these sexual assault accusations.

High school and college art teachers would give students an "F" for submitting work they had projected, traced, and copied, but Wiley makes millions selling small to large paintings of traced, projected reproductions, painted by discount artists, and sold to customers, who think they are buying original art painted by Kehinde Wiley.

Given the price of his art, and the belief that much of it is done by outsourced laborers, Wiley might consider including a modified certificate of authenticity with each of his paintings. This would include a small photograph of the art, with diagrams and text to show what parts - if any - Wiley actually painted, himself. Wiley could also include a small image of the original work it was projected and copied from, along with a posed photograph of the African-American, who was projected or added into the painting.

The Street Boys and Other Paintings

There have also been questions about Wiley's statements that he and his team simply wander the streets, looking for ordinary African-Americans to elevate through art. The "Street Boys" paintings provide the feel good story line of chance meetings and regal transformation by having ordinary youth mirror poses from classic masterpieces. This theme is also very profitable, with some paintings ranging into six figures.

Wiley is a savvy self-promoter. He has been championed for his oft-repeated story-line of selecting and elevating young African-Americans from the streets - just as they are. It's a good story that garnered additional sales and support, and lucrative contracts. While some of the subjects may have been recruited from the general public, Christopher Beam's excellent 2012 article in New York Magazine shed light on the process, noting that Wiley admitted that in many cases, none of the official process, including the street casting, selection of poses, and other hyped details, happen at all. The models may be hired through an agency and the clothing simply fabricated, along with the poses, to match the desired theme and the image or painting being projected.

Christopher Beam wrote, "Often times, if there’s a show of ten paintings, four of them will be complete frauds...Wiley likes to keep his intentions ambiguous, comparing himself to the two-faced Nigerian trickster god Eshu."

Wiley Calling Himself Eshu

It's significant that Kehinde Wiley proudly referred to himself as Eshu, the conniving, unpredictable, trickster god of the Yoruba people of Nigeria. This fits in with "The Sixth Finger" and Wiley's projection of Barack Obama as Obatala, the compassionate six-fingered African god of the Yoruba people of Nigeria. Eshu is fond of pranks, some of which can be cruel, disruptive, and life-altering. In myth, Eshu also serves as a messenger between the orisas (gods) and the people.

In Aimé Césaire's 1969 play, Une Tempête ("A tempest"), based on Shakespeare's play, the theme is changed to the post-Colonial period with the focus on the conflict revolving around issues of race and power. In the 1969 play, key players include: Prospero, the white master; Caliban, a black slave; and Ariel, a mulatto.

Based upon Wiley's experiences and personality, he was probably reflecting upon the role of Eshu in this play, along with traditional Nigerian folklore, when he identified himself with the character during the 2012 New York Magazine interview. Eshu is described as a black devil-god by the author of the play, and as a trickster by the character, himself, in Act 3, Scene 3, as he strives to outwit Prospero, the white master. Kehinde Wiley is the self-proclaimed embodiment of Eshu - from Nigerian myths and this 1969 play. The sixth finger on former president Barack Obama's left hand, along with other aspects within this portrait, are trickster moves, Wiley and Eshu moves.

Summary

Portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama have clear references to slavery. Arguably, they also project aspects of popular African gods. Some critics of Kehinde Wiley's portrait of former president Obama, claim it is a self-indulgent, ego-centric plug for the artist that was disrespectful to the stature of the office. A few reviewers felt the potential downside of the cartoonish portrait - what some called, "Presidential Pop Art" - might both overtly and subconsciously undermine current and future African-American political candidates, business leaders, and others.

While Wiley slipped in a few symbolic tweaks, such as the sixth finger, the overall composition simply reflects who he is and what he paints. Barack Obama knew this when he hired him. At this point, one can question his judgment and argue as to what - if any - obligation Barack Obama had to the legacy of the presidency, the National Portrait Museum, African-Americans, and the United States. All of them were effected to varying degrees by Obama's selection of Kehinde Wiley, and the specific portrait and subjective baggage that came with that decision.

Kehinde Wiley said it best, when he was questioned about his nontraditional portrait of former president of the United States, Barack Obama. “You don’t hire Kehinde Wiley to have a tame painting...I think in a sense [Obama] sort of got what he was asking for." I agree. I believe that Barack and Michelle Obama got the paintings they wanted - including the sixth finger on Barack, and the references to slavery and a strong rejection of tradition in both of their portraits. That's it. The subjects - Barack and Michelle Obama - got the portraits they wanted, while most of the country quickly divided into two divisive camps, regarding their respective support or rejection of the finished products.

Cultural relativity is the process of judging individual or group behavior, culture, and customs by their own standards, which may be quite different than your own. This includes everything from dating and marriage to politics and religion. Ethnocentrism is judging individuals and groups by one's own cultural standards. Most things are not implicitly right or wrong, but subjective, based upon one's culture, experiences, and personality. This would include choices in food, entertainment, and art.

People have the right to be outraged or supportive of the Obama portraits and the artists. However, what people think about the official portraits of the former president and first lady reveal as much about them, and their personal experiences and perspectives, as it does about the portraits.

Wiley's portrait of former president Obama is bizarre compared to the portraits of the previous 43 US presidents at that time. All of the previous presidents followed traditional standards, with the exception of the 43rd, President George W. Bush, who appeared without a coat and tie. Political detractors joke that this was because Bush was expecting Vice President Dick Cheney to pose for the portrait.

Wiley's portrait of Barack Obama is like many issues and events around the world. Even when people can agree upon the specifics of a situation - such as school shootings, poverty indicators, illegal immigration, or regional conflicts - their respective interpretation, analysis, and suggestions will be shaped by their unique culture, experiences, and personality. At that point, what is right or wrong becomes subjective, with few absolutes other than the fact that while inhabiting this earth, individual human experiences and opinions will vary.