Marco Rubio's State Department is seeking legal guidance as part of an attempt to sell off a government-owned painting by Kehinde Wiley — the celebrated artist behind former President Barack Obama's official portrait — after Trump administration officials branded the work "woke."
According to a report from the Washington Post, State Department officials are exploring options to sell the painting, which was removed earlier this month from the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic.
The painting, titled "Young Artists After Siamesas 1960," features four models positioned in front of a floral backdrop and was part of the embassy's art collection.
Wiley gained prominence in 2018 as the artist who created the official portrait of Obama, which is displayed in the National Portrait Gallery and is not among the works being sold. The State Department's Art in Embassies website describes Wiley as a painter of "visually sumptuous" art that "reframes a genre historically reserved for elite, White subjects."
According to the Post, the State Department said Tuesday it is in discussions with "legal representatives to ascertain whether the art can be sold," adding that its stated goal is "to do so."
Ambassador Leah Campos shared a video of the painting's removal from the embassy and said she wanted to move away from "woke" ideologies, the report notes.
Erin Scavino, who was appointed executive director of Art in Embassies last year, described the work as "very woke" and "aesthetically terrifying" in an interview, and said her team had worked to get the painting taken down.
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the State Department is seeking to sell a portrait of former President Barack Obama. The painting the department is exploring selling is Kehinde Wiley's "Young Artists After Siamesas 1960"; Wiley is also the artist behind Obama's official portrait, which hangs in the National Portrait Gallery and is not involved. The headline and story have been updated.
