Kehinde Wiley Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness Patch

Dye-sublimation with yellow merrowed borders and iron on backing.

This 3.25 x 4 in. shield shaped patch features Kehinde Wiley’s 2013 painting Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness, reimagined from Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio’s 1605 painting of the same name. Both the pose of Wiley’s model, as well as the background pattern (William Morris) were sourced from the artistic traditions of Jamaica's former colonizer. Jamaica's brutal history of colonization, slavery, and forced migrations positions it as a perfect subject matter for Wiley’s methodical, role-reversing portraiture oeuvre.