A statue modeled after a Confederate monument in Virginia was unveiled in Times Square Friday. It’s the same size and shape as the J.E.B. Stuart Monument in downtown Richmond, but astride the horse is a black man in a hoodie.
This is artist Kehinde Wiley’s first monumental public sculpture. He’s best known for painting the official portrait of President Barack Obama.
At the unveiling of the statue, called Rumors of War, Wiley says he was inspired when he visited Virginia and saw Monument Avenue.
“I’m a black man walking those streets. I’m looking up at those things that give me a sense of dread and fear” Wiley recalled. “What does that feel like, physically, to walk a public space and to have that - your state, your country, your nation - say ‘This is what we stand by?”
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Wiley says it made him feel angry “as hell” and this statue is his defiance.
“We say yes to something that looks like us. We say yes to inclusivity,” he told the crowd in Times Square. “We say yes to broader notions of what it means to be an American.”
Richmond’s Mayor Levar Stoney, and Director of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Alex Nyerges, both spoke at the unveiling.
The monument will be in New York City’s Time Square through November. In December it will be moved to Richmond. It will stand permanently outside the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts on Arthur Ashe Boulevard.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
