Sleep Towel by Kehinde Wiley

This lightweight, limited edition towel features Kehinde Wiley’s 2008 painting Sleep, reimagined from Jean-Bernard Restout’s 1771 painting of the same name. With luminously painted skin, draped in funerary-like cloth with his feet crossed atop a wooden plank, Wiley personifies his model to reflect the theological narratives permeating throughout his oeuvre. In an attempt to differentiate his works from the singular figure studies of his time, Restout included wings and poppies to his subject, composing a larger narrative beyond the skill of the artist's hand. Although Wiley's rendition deliberately focuses on the physicality of his human subject alone, it simultaneously ushers in the weight of art history behind it, and it’s undeniable exclusion of Black bodies.

Proceeds from your purchase support the artist in residence program Black Rock Sénégal, founded by Wiley in 2019.