Black Napoleon

Artist Kehinde Wiley's paintings mix the vastly different aesthetics of formal European portraiture and urban hip-hop, resulting in the type of colorful mash-up images you might see on the cover of say, an Outkast record. Spoofing such classic images as David's "Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps" and GÃ©ricault's...

By Noah W. Bailey

April 17, 2008

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Artist Kehinde Wiley's paintings mix the vastly different aesthetics of formal European portraiture and urban hip-hop, resulting in the type of colorful mash-up images you might see on the cover of say, an Outkast record. Spoofing such classic images as David's "Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps" and GÃ©ricault's "Officer of the Hussars"—or as we like to call them, paintings of old, fancy pants dead dudes—Wiley's works show young black men from the inner city clad in baggy pants (paging Dwaine Caraway) astride mighty steeds, with swords, arrows and batons standing in for guns, switchblades and brass knuckles. Presented in ornate gold frames, they'll surely stand out on the walls of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, 3200 Darnell St., where the paintings hang through May 25. See Focus: Kehinde Wiley from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays. Call 817-738-9215 or visit themodern.org.
Sundays, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; Tuesdays-Saturdays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Starts: April 20. Continues through May 25, 2008

Noah W. Bailey

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