Kehinde Wiley

In this painting (right) I think Kehinde Wiley was inspired by the portrait of Napoleon on his white horse (left). His work shows a distinct contrast between the classical background and his subjects, which are dressed in street clothes and don't seem to fit into the surroundings. It is a very interesting juxtaposition between the formal style of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and modern pop-culture imagery. He puts black men back into a history from which they have typically been excluded from, which I think is his way of making a statement to society.