Kehinde WILEY, an American painter. Since nearly 20 years, media houses have been interested in his work. Wiley’s artistic talents allow him to communicate different emotions and to visually relay important information. In this paper, Wiley discusses his artistic principles. It also examines how they were utilized in the painting “Napoleon leading army above Alps”, which he painted in 2005.
Wiley applies the principle to emphasis in explaining the Napoleonic idea of an army. It was Jacques-Louis David’s tradition of marking the victory of Napoleon over the Australians. Through an act of theft, this large painting recreates notions of privilege and power. Kehinde examines how historical art and issues related to gender, race, culture have reflected biases. This book emphasizes how to remove biases through replacing Napoleon’s subject of white with one of the unknown black men.
It is evident that his symbolism follows the principle pattern. This symbolism aims at bringing attention to historical and authoritative representations. This royal blue coat in its original texture has a pattern similar to that of a camouflaging blouse worn by a young male. A similar position to that of the gold sword, but secured with a red belt. The pattern shows Willey’s subject wearing a modern and reflective outfit in this culture, which is known for flashy imagery. This young man is wearing a camouflaging jacket with timberland workboots. The pattern invokes both militaristic imagery and current violence in America. Wiley’s patterns revealing tattoos and depicting him wearing red wriIt is possible tobands point out that indeed the paintings represent an individual who lives in the 21St century. This background looks almost like French fabric, but it is decorative. It draws the eye to the artificial, exaggerated art and technique of image marking.