Can this exhibition not be postponed better? Museum van Loon shows the American artist Kehinde Wiley accused of sexual violence

Disclaimer: Anyone who is the first to look at the number of balls at an art review has been warned. Because no ball can be found with this piece. This piece is about the problematic attitude of Museum van Loon in Amsterdam opposite the well -known American painter Kehinde Wiley (48) accused of sexual violence. Last week an exhibition opened in Van Loon with brand new work by Wiley.

Wiley is not a little boy. He became famous with the series exhibited in New York in 2005 in the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York Rumors of Wars -Equestrian portraits, inspired by images of famous military leaders, such as the portrait of Napoleon from 1801 by Jacques-Louis David. Instead of Napoleon, Hannibal or Charlemagne, Wiley put black men in the saddle: proud and proud. Since then it has gone super fast. Wiley’s bright -colored portraits decorated with flowers can be found in large museums. Former President Obama asked him for a station portrait in 2018, and the artist is no longer the one who uses the brush in the studio exclusively. There are great Wiley studios in New York, Los Angeles, Dakar and Beijing. Wiley’s great merit is that he Black Awareness has given a radial and super aesthetic allure.

Is it a good idea to exhibit an artist as a museum against whom four men have now made accusations for rape and/or sexual violence, and one woman has started a lawsuit for assault? Museum van Loon, through director Gijs Schunselaar, says Van Wel.

Schunselaar invited Wiley in 2020 to make new works. That work is inspired by the eighteenth and nineteenth-century and best dull portraits hanging in the museum. The Van Loon-Portraits mainly radiate status: the family became scouring with colonial trade.

First Wiley came to Amsterdam, says Schunselaar. He took a folder full of prints from portraits back to New York. Then he and Wiley went a week for research into Suriname. Corona came in between, and then the accusations came in 2024.

‘Overwhelming aesthetics’

Schunselaar does not really want to talk about it on Wednesday during the presentation of the exhibition Flourish. Wiley shows in Van Loon life -sized portraits of especially beautiful, young black men he asked in Suriname – so just walking on the street, on the market – asked for him to pose. They are realistic and head -on against a background of – Wiley’s trademark – flowers. The models radiate self -awareness from and power. « I’m here – don’t touch me. »

Schunselaar would have liked to have left it with the ‘overwhelming aesthetics’ and ‘elegance’ of Wiley’s work that hangs between the fixed portrait collection in the ‘Bird Chamber’, the ‘Red Bedroom’, the ‘Schaapjeskamer’ and the other historic branch rooms in Museum of Loon. He would have liked to talk about the art. And now those annoying questions. Why?

Yes – why?

In the United States, the allegations to Wiley’s address were reacted to the allegations. Two museums that had exhibitions with the artist in the pipeline have these on hold set. One Museum – the Minneapolis Institute of Art – decided to cancel the exhibition with Wiley, because of « the unfortunate accusations, » said a spokesperson in June last year in the La Times. That was in 2024, when four men came out separately via social media with accusations of rape and assault.

One of them was the Black Lives Matter activist Derrick Ingram, who got a relationship with the artist. In this relationship – so tells Ingram Against the internet magazine Vulture – Wiley became increasingly dominant. The artist dictated Ingram which clothes he had to wear, when and what he could say at parties. He was also – as Ingram says – beaten once in a taxi by Wiley and eventually – raped – in 2021. That meant the end of the relationship that Wiley wanted to seal with an NDA – a non -openness declaration. Ingram refused.

Summons

In addition to the accusations of the men, there has been an official summons at the New York court since 28 February – not coincidentally. Artist OgeChi Chieke complains with her lawyers in this regard for an assault in 2007. The summons reads as a classic ‘grab ’em by the pussy‘-Action, which took place in the queue at a restaurant after the opening of an exhibition. Chic says By being so traumatized that she left the city of New York, stopped the art and moved to the other side of the country.

Wiley calls all accusations a ‘scam”. Opposite the international art magazine Art newspaper He says he never met chic in April this year. Also two of the four men who accused him of him in 2024, he says he does not know. According to Wiley, the accusations are inspired by jealousy and greed. He calls the summons of Chieke « flagrant money beating. » With Ingram he says he had no relationship, but only once sex. According to him, the sex was “consensual« In the past year, he emphasizes, was for him » a nightmare.  »

According to Wiley, the allegations are inspired by jealousy and greed

Museum van Loon does not want to postpone the exhibition with Wiley, because Schunselaar has a ‘Trial by Museums Not a good route « . » The rule of law is the best assessment framework we have, « said the director. And: « Someone is innocent until the contrary has been proven. »

The latter sounds nice, but it is too Wishfull Thinking. Because the corridor to court is just so difficult in sex offenses. Victims of sexual violence rarely see that perpetrators are tried. Lawyers, prosecutors, police and victims unanimously agree. Of the more than two thousand reports of rape that arrived at the police in 2021, none two hundred times punished. For victims of sexual crimes, National sex officer Judith van Schoonderwoerd in 2022 NRCit is « very difficult to get their rights. That is the harsh reality in which we live. »

Responsibility

What does Gijs Schunselaar want with this exhibition? Does he want to discuss that ‘hard reality’ about which Schoonderwoerd is talking about through this exhibition? Does he want to frame the discussions around #MeToo in art?

No. Because in no public expression – not in the room, not on the website – is referred to the sex offenses in which Wiley has ended up since 2024. And that lack of contextualization is bad for a public public institution.

The sexual violence center states on its website that 1 in 8 women and 1 in 25 men have ever been raped. Statistics Netherlands notes that in 2024 1.7 million people aged 16 and older in the Netherlands became victims of sexual violence.

They are unimaginable numbers, and for that reason they ask for responsibility. As a public museum institution, do you want to show a compromised artist like Kehinde Wiley? Then you should thoroughly inform your audience about the backgrounds of this exhibition and your motives.

It is all the more remarkable that Museum van Loon has been advocated since Schunselaar’s appointment in 2019: « Exhibitions that connect with (inter) national social conversations about the other sides of (-) beautiful heritage. » In the case of Museum van Loon, that means that critical exhibitions have been held about the infected past of the Dutch merchants and women in the eastern and western wingwests. But important (inter) national discussions about sex offenses, Cancel Culture And #metoo around famous living artists have not penetrated. Or – that is also possible – they are not considered important enough.

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