Details about the official White House portraits of former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama being unveiled on Wednesday are a tightly held secret, with artists and art movers signing confidentiality agreements to keep things under wraps before the big day. But the Obamas have often used art as a tool to express their tastes, so it should come as no surprise that their White House portraits are expected to do the same.
“There’s going to be a somewhat of an evolution in these portraits over time … and I think it’s actually going to be exciting,” Stewart McLaurin, the president of the White House Historical Association, told CNN said in a preview of the upcoming portraits. “I think this is going to be somewhat of a magical moment. I think it’s going to be an evolution of art.”
He continued, “We’re now in the heading towards the first third of the 21st century. And I think in the mind’s eye of most Americans, we see presidential portraits as these very traditional, 19th-century-looking-and-feeling portraits. But art and taste in art evolves and changes.”
While living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the Obamas opted to highlight several contemporary and modern artists.
A Robert Rauschenberg painting replaced a portrait of a Roosevelt in the family dining room. Mark Rothko and Josef Albers works were installed. And Michelle Obama brought in work from Alma Thomas — the first Black female artist in the White House Collection.
Since leaving the presidency, the Obamas have staked some of their post-White House careers in taste-making — producing podcasts and award-winning films, as well as curating playlists and book lists each year.
For their portraits unveiled in 2018 at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery (which are not to be confused with new official White House portraits being unveiled this week), the Obamas chose two Black artists with unique perspectives on African American portraiture.
Amy Sherald, who painted the first lady’s Smithsonian portrait, challenges conventions about race by depicting her figures’ skin in shades of gray. Kehinde Wiley, who painted the former President, reimagines Old Master paintings with Black subjects.
Traditionally, the two latest sets of presidential portraits are placed in the Cross Hall of the White House — though former President Trump chose to move portraits of former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton into a storage room after feuding with both families.
Biden moved the Bush and Clinton portraits back to the Cross Hall, but with a new Obama portrait, Clinton may have to be relocated soon.
Source: www.cnn.com