NELZ

A highlight of the Brooklyn Museum’s collection, Kehinde Wiley’s Napoleon Leading the Army Over the Alps was one of four paintings in his Rumors of War series and an early example of his equestrian portraits. In the early 2000s, Wiley quickly became known for replacing subjects in historical paintings with the figures of Black men, literally inserting people who looked like him into the art historical canon. Here, Wiley takes on the military commander Napoleon Bonaparte as painted by Jacques-Louis David. A Black man in contemporary dress assumes the perceived power of Napoleon sitting atop the then-consul’s “spirited steed,” wearing his cloak, and adding his own name—“WILLIAMS”—to the list of military leaders below. Wiley’s painting and his inspiration “met” for the first time late last year in Paris. See them side-by-side in Brooklyn through May 10, 2020.