US State Department Looks to Sell “Woke” Kehinde Wiley Painting

By Polly WatsonAugust 25, 2026

The US State Department has said it is contemplating selling a painting by Kehinde Wiley that it removed from the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic last week, after the director of the department’s Art in Embassies program called it “woke” and “aesthetically terrifying.” The canvas, titled Young Artists after Siamesas 1960, was commissioned in 2013 by the program under the […]

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