Most Americans remember Kehinde Wiley’s presidential portrait of Barack Obama. The former president is seated on a chair that floats in a cascade of green leaves and flowers. He looks directly at the viewer. Wiley’s color palette—bold and daring—was unprecedented for such a commission. It turns out that even before that, in 2008, Wiley had decided he wanted to do portraits of African heads of state. He studied 17th-, 18th-, and 19th-century portraiture from Europe, called contacts, spoke to leaders, and then traveled to every continent to paint his subjects. The groundbreaking series is now on view in Dakar. —Elena Clavarino