The artworks I chose to compare and contrast are Mugshot Study and Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps, by Kehinde Wiley. I will be focusing on the style, the symbolism and the cultural context of these artworks. Kehinde Wiley is representing the urban culture of black and brown men throughout the world. Wiley uses photographs as his inspiration for his oil portrait paintings. The black and brown men are the subject of the painting in where he portrays them in heroic ways.
The first painting is called Mugshot Study, 2006, a 36x24in oil painting. The painting is strictly naturalistic which works well of the size of the painting because is realistic. The title of the painting tells a lot about the artist symbolism and use of cultural context