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Photos: Artist reimagines classic paintings with modern twist "What I choose to do is to take people who happen to look like me -- black and brown people all over the world, increasingly -- and to allow them to occupy that field of power."



Much of his work focuses on reinterpreting classic works of art, like Jacques-Louis David's famous portrait of Napoleon crossing the Alps (next slide) atop his favorite horse, Marengo. Hide Caption 2 of 11

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Photos: Artist reimagines classic paintings with modern twist "The world's a scary place. The role of an artist is to look at that world as it is and to imagine alternative possibilities, but also to heighten what actually is. What can I do as an artist that hasn't already been done before? Look closer." Hide Caption 4 of 11

Photos: Artist reimagines classic paintings with modern twist Here, Kehinde reinterprets a classical French painting of a couple (next slide), in this case with two men. Hide Caption 5 of 11

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Photos: Artist reimagines classic paintings with modern twist "My job is to walk through the streets, find someone who's minding their own business, trying to get to work, stopping them. The next thing you know, they're hanging on a great museum throughout the world." Hide Caption 7 of 11

Photos: Artist reimagines classic paintings with modern twist "What can I do to start a broader conversation about presence and imminence and the desire to be seen as respected and beautiful in this world?" Hide Caption 8 of 11

Photos: Artist reimagines classic paintings with modern twist "Well, what I'm doing is I'm looking at fashion as culture, fashion as serious business, where people will oftentimes dress themselves as a form of armor." Hide Caption 9 of 11

Photos: Artist reimagines classic paintings with modern twist "Fashion is armor insomuch as it says something about who we are in the world. It also protects us a bit. My work tries to concentrate on fashion as a conceptual color. It's yet another color in my palette, to tell a story." Hide Caption 10 of 11