Kehinde Wiley

The unexpectedness of this art is cool because the artist places black males dressed in street clothing in places where one would expect to see people of power.  The backgrounds are colorful and give a historical European feel but the people in the foregrounds of the paintings are dressed in baggy jeans and sporty tops as if they are average people from urban settings that don't fit in with the powerful settings that they are placed into.  I researched images of "French Rococo" which is where Kehinde Wiley found some of his inspiration for the backgrounds and settings of his own art.  But as I researched Kehinde Wiley's renditions of these settings, there are mostly African American males in the foreground that sharply contrast the calm backgrounds that they are put into.