US State Department Takes Down “Woke” Kehinde Wiley Painting

By Rhea NayyarAugust 25, 2026

“Young Artists After Siamesa 1960” (2015) was removed from the US Embassy in the Dominican Republic and could be sold.

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

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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