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The art of Kehinde Wiley

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    • The art of Kehinde Wiley
    • The art of Kehinde Wiley
    • The art of Kehinde Wiley
    • The art of Kehinde Wiley
    • The art of Kehinde Wiley
    • The art of Kehinde Wiley
    • The art of Kehinde Wiley
    • The art of Kehinde Wiley
    • The art of Kehinde Wiley
    • The art of Kehinde Wiley
    • The art of Kehinde Wiley
    • The art of Kehinde Wiley
    • The art of Kehinde Wiley
    • The art of Kehinde Wiley

    • "Shantavia Beale II"

      When artist Kehinde Wiley studied works hanging on the walls of the world's museums, he rarely saw a reflection of himself in those masterpieces. So the New York-based painter set out to create a new paradigm: Men and women of color in street dress painted in classical style, often echoing masterworks.

      "His work has a broad appeal, to high art culture mavens as well as to people who don't know anything about art but [who] are taken by his references to hip hop and to street culture," said Eugenie Tsai of the Brooklyn Museum, curator of a recent exhibit of Wiley's work. That show, "A New Republic," is at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, in Texas, through January 10, 2016.

      Pictured: "Shantavia Beale II" (2012) by Kehinde Wiley. Oil on canvas. Collection of Ana and Lenny Gravier.

      By CBSNews.com senior producer David Morgan

      Credit: © Kehinde Wiley; Courtesy Sean Kelly, New York. Photo: Jason Wyche

    • Kehinde Wiley

      Kehinde Wiley was raised in Los Angeles, where his mom sent him to art classes beginning at age 11. "I began to have kids around me say, 'Will you make drawings for me? Will you make a paining for me?'" he told CBS News' Rita Braver. "And it really clicked."

      He earned a Masters of Fine Arts from Yale and, in 2002 a prestigious Artist-in-Residence slot at the Studio Museum in Harlem. It was in Harlem that he found a mug shot on the street:

      "It crystallized something that I'd been thinking about for a very long time, which is that black men have been given very little in this world, and that I as an artist have the power and the potential and the will to do something about it."

      So he and a team of helpers began pounding the pavements of New York asking young black men if they'd like to be photographed and painted in classical style.

      Credit: CBS News

    • ​"St. Andrew"

      Pictured: Wiley's 2006 version of the frequently-painted martyr, St. Andrew.

      "I think one of the hallmarks of great art is a little bit of ambiguity, where things aren't spelled out for you," said curator Eugenie Tsai of the Brooklyn Museum. "There's room for interpretation on the part of the viewer."

      Credit: © Kehinde Wiley; Courtesy Sean Kelly, New York

    • "A New Republic"

      A view of the exhibition, "A New Republic."

      Credit: Jonathan Dorado; Courtesy Brooklyn Museum

    • "A New Republic"

      A black warrior takes the place of the French emperor in Wiley's revision of Jacques-Louis David's "Napoleon Bonaparte Crossing the Alps at Great St. Bernard Pass" (1801).

      Credit: Jonathan Dorado; Courtesy Brooklyn Museum

    • ​"Napoleon Leading the Army Over the Alps"

      "Napoleon Leading the Army Over the Alps" (2005) by Kehinde Wiley. Oil on canvas. Collection of Suzi and Andrew B. Cohen.

      "In small ways, I'm talking little jabs at the masculinity, the bravado," Wiley said.

      Credit: © Kehinde Wiley

    • Michael Jackson

      Kehinde Wiley cast the pop superstar in his 2010 painting, "Equestrian Portrait of King Philip II (Michael Jackson)."

      Credit: Jonathan Dorado; Courtesy Brooklyn Museum

    • ​"Femme piquée par un serpent"

      "Femme piquée par un serpent" (2008) by Kehinde Wiley. Oil on canvas. Private Collection.

      Auguste Clésinger's controversial 1847 sculpture "Woman Bitten by a Serpent" is recast with a young black man.

      Credit: © Kehinde Wiley; Courtesy Sean Kelly, New York

    • "A New Republic"

      A view of the exhibition, "A New Republic."

      Credit: Jonathan Dorado; Courtesy Brooklyn Museum

    • "Gossiping Women"

      "Gossiping Women (The World Stage, Haiti)" (2014) by Kehinde Wiley.

      Credit: CBS News

    • In the Studio

      Wiley has traveled the world photographing and painting young men and women - portraying them not in their street clothes but in designer gowns and fantastic hairdos.

      Credit: CBS News

    • ​"Judith and Holofernes"

      "Judith and Holofernes" (2012) by Kehinde Wiley. Oil on linen. North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh.

      Credit: © Kehinde Wiley; Courtesy Sean Kelly, New York. Photo: Jason Wyche

    • ​"The Two Sisters"

      "The Two Sisters" (2012) by Kehinde Wiley. Oil on linen. Collection of Pamela K. and William A. Royall, Jr.

      Credit: © Kehinde Wiley; Courtesy Sean Kelly, New York. Photo: Jason Wyche

    • "A New Republic"

      "I started making work that I assumed would be far too garish, far too decadent, far too black for the world to care about," Wiley said. "I, to this day, am thankful to whatever force there is out there that allows me to get away with painting the stories of people like me."


      For more info:

      Kehinde Wiley Studio

      "Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic" at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (through January 10, 2016)

      Exhibition Catalogue: "Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic," in hardcover and trade paperback (Brooklyn Museum)

      Credit: Jonathan Dorado; Courtesy Brooklyn Museum