Stained Glass Museum Reopens with New Artwork by Celebrated Artist Kehinde Wiley

Major Acquisition to The Stained Glass Museum By Contemporary Artist Kehinde Wiley (B.1977)

The Stained Glass Museum is thrilled to announce a new major acquisition by  American artist Kehinde Wiley. Wiley (b. 1977) is an established and celebrated visual artist, best known for his portraits that place black men and women in traditional settings of original historical, religious or mythological portraits.  Saint Adelaide (2014) is the first stained glass artwork by Kehinde Wiley to enter a public art collection in the world. 

Saint Adelaide is a striking larger-than-life stained glass portrait of a young black  man standing proud within a gothic frame, measuring over 2.5m high and 1m wide. The artwork is a major addition to the Stained Glass Museum’s collection of  contemporary stained glass, and has been purchased for the museum’s permanent  collection with the help of Art Fund and Arts Council England/V&A Purchase Grant  Fund and Arts Council England/SHARE Museums East Acquisitions Fund. 

Saint Adelaide is one of a series of Wiley’s freestanding stained glass panels  depicting contemporary portraits of young black residents of Brooklyn, NY, and one  of the first stained glass works to be made to Wiley’s designs. These contemporary stained glass panels mimic the form, pose, positioning and framing of carefully selected historic stained glass windows, placing contemporary portraits of black men  in the place of traditional saints.  

The title and subject for Saint Adelaide (2014) were inspired by a 19th century  stained glass window designed by the French painter Ingres for the Royal Chapel of Saint Ferdinand (or Notre-Dame de la Compassion) in Paris, and made by the Royal  manufactory at Sevres around 1843. In place of the Holy Roman Empress Adelaide  (931-999) is Brooklyn model Mark Shavers, who has appeared as a sitter in several  of Wiley’s works. Shavers is shown holding Adelaide’s recognizable attributes, a  sceptre and crown, against a decorative blue background underneath an ornamental  gothic frame and decorative border. 

Director and Curator of the Museum Jasmine Allen, commented, “Since I first saw Wiley’s stained glass portraits at an exhibition in Paris in 2016, I have wanted to  acquire a panel for the museum’s permanent collection. In a simple but powerful way  Wiley’s art addresses the representation of young black men in contemporary culture and challenges the conventions of western art. ‘Saint Adelaide’ is also the museum’s first acquisition by a known queer black artist. As cultural institutions in the UK are  rightly beginning to confront our colonial past and its legacy today, this acquisition  enables us to explore and question attitudes towards race, gender and religion in stained glass. I hope our visitors agree that it is a positive and powerful artwork.” 

Following the success of Wiley’s freestanding stained glass portraits made between  2014 and 2016, he recently completed his first site-specific stained glass artwork – a  stained glass ceiling commissioned for a railway station in New York, installed in January 2021. Only a handful of Wiley’s artworks can be seen in the UK, and The National Gallery, London, will host an exhibition of Wiley’s works in Autumn 2021. 

Saint Adelaide is now on permanent display in the main gallery of The Stained Glass Museum, located on an upper level of Ely Cathedral. The Stained Glass Museum reopens on Tuesday 18th May. Standard admission to the museum is £4.50 for adults,  children are free. Entry is free for National Art Pass holders.  

Funding Acknowledgments Saint Adelaide has been acquired with the support of Art Fund, the Arts Council  England/V&A Purchase Grant Fund, SHARE Museums East/Arts Council England Acquisitions Grant.

Press release from The Stained Glass Museum

Images: Kehinde Wiley, Saint Adelaide (2014), stained glass panel in aluminium frame, 251.3cm x 115.7cm, The Stained Glass Museum (ELYGM 2021:1) © Kehinde Wiley