Flourish: The Portraits of Kehinde Wiley at Museum Van Loon in Amsterdam

by Rossella BLUE Mocerino in collaboration with Sherry Fyman 

The Van Loon Museum in Amsterdam offers a glimpse into the opulent lifestyle of the wealthy Van Loon family. The collection includes family portraits, antique furniture, silver and porcelain objects, and all the other trappings of a well-to- do Dutch family, including the downstairs quarters for servants. The Van Loon family traces its roots back to the early 17th century. What might be missed by the casual viewer is the source of the family’s wealth. Willem van Loon was one of the founders of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), a corporation that came to dominate global trade. The VOC’s profits came from the expansion of Dutch colonialism and slavery. Jan van Loon was a director of the Dutch West India Company, which was deeply involved in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

So what are the portraits of Kehinde Wiley doing here?

Kehinde Wiley is mainly known for his powerful portraits of people of color, set in the traditional poses of Old Master paintings. His immensely noble figures are surrounded by floral motifs that suggest Wiley’s intent is to emphasize their beauty and worth and at the same time enwrap them in a protective and loving floral embrace. 

The models for the portraits shown at the Van Loon Museum are Surinamese. The artist went to Suriname to choose his models. In these portraits they are shown wearing the clothes they did when Wiley approached them in the street, but these portraits are anything but casual. The artist chose the people of Suriname as models to remind the viewer that the wealth they see in the Van Loom Museum came at the expense of a brutal and savage system that enslaved human beings. Wiley’s portraits use the visual language of power—monumental scale, heroic poses, and ornate details—to critique historical exclusions and reposition who is deemed worthy of being depicted in a majestic, authoritative manner. You won’t find any of Wiley’s portraits in the servants quarters but they are displayed upstairs alongside the portraits of the Van Loon family where they belong.

These new portraits by Kehinde Wiley are on exhibition at Museum Van Loon in Amsterdam until November 30, 2025. The show is titled Flourish:Kehinde Wiley x Museum Van Loon. Flourish is Kehinde Wiley’s first solo exhibition in the Netherlands.