![]() His depiction of Hillary Clinton features the china she selected to celebrate the White House’s 200th anniversary as well as a copy of her book, “It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us.”Īs in the painting of his son, George H. Knox was proud of how Bill Clinton’s eyes lock on the viewer and appear to move with the viewer across the room, according to The New York Times. Simmie Knox painted both the president and first lady Hillary Clinton. Bush and former first lady Laura Bush during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, May 31, 2012, where the Bush's portraits were unveiled.īill Clinton was the first president to choose a Black artist for his White House portrait. President Barack Obama applauds former President George W. Stewart McLaurin, president of the White House Historical Association, said both portraits are "strikingly different" than any of the others hung before. “She was never supposed to live in this house and she definitely was not supposed to serve as first lady.” “A girl like me, she was never supposed to be up there next to Jacqueline Kennedy and Dolly Madison,” Michelle Obama said as she spoke Wednesday in a White House room where the walls are hung with the portraits of George and Martha Washington. Obama is depicted in a blue dress, seated on a sofa in the Red Room. When the White House reached out to him, it saved McCurdy the trouble of asking.įormer First Lady Michelle Obama chose artist Sharon Sprung, who describes her work as contemporary realism. McCurdy – who has also painted Nelson Mandela, Mohammed Ali, Jeff Bezos and Jane Goodall – had hoped one day to add Obama to that list. “What I want people to remember about Michelle and me is that presidents and first ladies are human beings, like everybody else,” Obama said. The connection the viewer makes with McCurdy’s portraits appealed to Obama, he said at the unveiling, “in part because presidents so often get airbrushed.” "We're telling as little about the sitter as possible so that the viewer can project onto them." "It will be different for every single one," he said in a podcast interview with the White House Historical Association, which oversees the portrait process. The less that's added to the painting, the more the viewer will bring their "emotional and historical package" to their viewing, McCurdy believes. Obama, dressed in a black suit with a gray tie, stands prominently at the center of the canvas. Robert McCurdy, the artist Obama chose for his portrait, is known for his photorealistic oil paintings with unusually sparse backgrounds in which the subject holds no props, makes no gestures and doesn't smile. ![]() His official portrait, unveiled at the White House Wednesday, will do the same. ![]() WASHINGTON – As the nation's first Black president, Barack Obama made history. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |