The Obama Portraits

by Taina Beatriz Caragol-Barreto, Richard J. Powell, Dorothy Moss

A richly illustrated celebration of the paintings of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama



From the moment of their unveiling at the National Portrait Gallery in early 2018, the portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama have become two of the most beloved artworks of our time. Kehinde Wiley's portrait of President Obama and Amy Sherald's portrait of the former first lady have inspired unprecedented responses from the public, and attendance at the museum has more than doubled as visitors travel from near and far to view these larger-than-life paintings. After witnessing a woman drop to her knees in prayer before the portrait of Barack Obama, one guard said, No other painting gets the same kind of reactions. Ever. The Obama Portraits is the first book about the making, meaning, and significance of these remarkable artworks.

Richly illustrated with images of the portraits, exclusive pictures of the Obamas with the artists during their sittings, and photos of the historic unveiling ceremony by former White House photographer Pete Souza, this book offers insight into what these paintings can tell us about the history of portraiture and American culture. The volume also features a transcript of the unveiling ceremony, which includes moving remarks by the Obamas and the artists. A reversible dust jacket allows readers to choose which portrait to display on the front cover.

An inspiring history of the creation and impact of the Obama portraits, this fascinating book speaks to the power of art--especially portraiture--to bring people together and promote cultural change.

Published in association with the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Art History, Essays, History, Politics, Biography

160 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2020

Reviews

[Lisa Vegan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have made one trip to my local museum to see the portraits and it was fun to be able to do so with no barriers. I appreciated that. Due to covid concerns and the lack of mandatory masking I skipped reading the writing on the walls and the longer film. I wanted to read this book before I went back to see the portraits again and to read everything written on the walls of that room and to see the full video. I’m glad that I did. I’ll appreciate the exhibit more when I return. The book is fascinating and entertaining and informative. There is so much to it. I felt as though I got to participate at the Unveiling and felt like a witness to history. The book has wonderful essays and great photos, and not just of the Obamas and the portrait artists. This is a fine book. It’s a beautiful book and its entire design is lovely and befitting the subject. I was surprised by how touched I was as I read it and I feel privileged to see the portraits in person. Someday I’d love to go to D.C. I could spend many days seeing all the museums I’d like to see and that includes the National Portrait Gallery.

Contents:

Foreword
by Kim Sajet

Unveiling the Unconventional: Kehinde Wiley’s Portrait of Barack Obama
by Taina Caragol

“Radical Empathy”: Amy Sherald’s Portrait of Michelle Obama
By Dorothy Moss

The Obama Portraits, In Art History and Beyond
By Richard J. Powell

The Obama Portraits and the National Portrait Gallery as a Site of Secular Pilgrimage
By Kim Sajet

The Presentation of the Obama Portraits: A Transcript of the Unveiling Ceremony

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Credits

[Andrew H · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting cultural commentary and record of the unveiling. This book places the double portraits within a detailed context. It offers many interesting insights into painting and portraiture. Obama set Wiley with a real problem: he did not wish to be elevated (into an emperor or king) and thus challenged Wiley's normal artistic processes of uplifting a sitter into a (Western) realm of high art. Consequently, Wiley had to create an iconic image that was grounded and true to Obama's politics. A truly thoughtful monograph.

[Stormy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This beautiful book documents the process of hiring artists for Barack and Michelle’s official portraits and the final results. Full color, full page, coffee table quality book. And it makes me nostalgic.

[Leanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like a lot of people, the unveiling of Kehinde Wiley's presidential portrait of Barack Obama really grabbed my attention! I fell in love with it the first time I saw it online and have longed to see it in person. So, I was thrilled to find out it was here in Los Angeles. 

Before the portraits, I had already been impressed with the Obama's dedication to contemporary art and their exciting aesthetic tastes--bringing into the White House works like Alma Thomas' Resurrection and Glenn Ligon's Black Like Me #2. 

I was also already a fan of Kende Wiley from his Memling Series, which are these beautifully created oils in conversation with one of my favorite Renaissance painters, Hans Memling, who was himself known to have painted portraits of ordinary people. Last year, the Memling Museum in Bruges, which is housed in the old 12th century Saint John's Hospital, put on an exhibition of works by contemporary artist inspired by Memling (Video), including the complete Memling Series by Wiley. He also has a large scale work kept in the Brooklyn Museum called Napoleon Leading His Army Over the Alps that I am dying to see. Napoleon, as is well known never crossed the Alps on a rearing stallion and instead followed behind the army on a mule several days later. Wiley, therefore, has taken a propagandist image by 19th century Jacques-Louis David, and turned it on its head.

He is such an exciting painter, whose craft is as off-scale brilliant as his vision, that I couldn't wait to see the Barrack Obama Portrait. Both Portraits have become objects of secular pilgrimage and are touring together, where they are drawing massive crowds. Michelle's was painted by Amy Sherald and I first saw this one in the twitter frenzy caused by a picture of a little girl standing in awe  at Michelle Obama’s portrait: The resulting media sensation had led the girl’s mother to hire a publicist to manage all the requests for interviews. Mrs. Obama, Parker told Ellen DeGeneres in front of a live national audience, was probably a “queen.” (Article in Atlantic). There was also this picture on Instagram of a hand-drawn picture by a guard at the National Portrait Gallery  describing how an elderly lady had gotten on her knees and prayed in front of the portrait in the company of other visitors: “No other painting gets the same kind of reactions. Ever.”

At LACMA, where the portraits will be until early January, you are allowed to get very close. And approaching Wiley's Portrait of Barack, there is the great man, sitting in a wooden chair like the Presidential Portrait of Abraham Lincoln, by sitting forward with much attention on his hands, which are unbelievably beautiful. The great man, attentive and poised. Barack's extraordinary presence bears down on viewers. He sits in a flowery world. There are African blue lilies representing his father in Kenya; white jasmine for his childhood in Hawaii; and chrysanthemums, which are the official flower of Chicago where Obama trained as a community organizer. This is a sacra conversazione with the natural world. 

The book is the perfect introduction with essays that help contextualize both pictures. Highly recommend the book!
The Phoenix Museum has a great book on the Memling pictures, https://www.robertsprojectsla.com/pub...
And the Huntington Museum has a book to be published any day on their commissioned painting by Wiley
https://www.huntington.org/events/keh...

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book's four short essays, and transcription of the presentation of the portraits, helped me to better understand portraiture in general, and how revolutionary the Obama portraits are in particular. They dive deep into the history of presidential portraiture, the backgrounds and trajectories of Kehinde Wiley's and Amy Sherald's careers, and their relationships with Barack and Michelle. The essay on the impact of these portraits at the National Portrait Gallery was particularly interesting — they are shining beacons, sites of "secular pilgrimage" for many. I can't wait to see them in person myself.

A great book for a refreshing break from the current chaos, that dives into art history, American history, and the special relationship they had with the public at large as the first Black First Family. A must read.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for the Black Art and Artists section in SPL Book Bingo. I would never have picked up this book otherwise, but I really loved it. Great information, accessibly delivered. Now I want to go to DC and visit the portrait museum. I knew these pictures were cool, but now I understand their significance on so many different levels. Recommended!

[Calondra M B · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an absolute joy to unfold the arduous process of creating a portrait of a sitting President and First Lady for the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery.
The Obamas used a trio of curators in the art world for suggestions of amazing artists to interview for the process in the Oval Office in the White House. Neither of which had ever had a portrait done of them or anyone in their family for that matter.

I’m 2018, Amy Sherald and Kehinde Wiley unveiled their masterpieces to the world. Each reflected upon an initiation to a white dominated sector of American History. The first African Americans to enter the gallery and astonish little black girls, boys, and people of color for generations to come.

There is significance in the dress worn by Michelle Obama designed by Michelle Smith, for her label Milly, which reflects her modernity and approachability. And, per Amy, it’s visual affinities to Gee’s Bend Quilts, Alabama. The quilts of Gee’s Bend a remote black community and descendants of former slaves are bold and reference the resourceful of African American experience. She uses a grayscale to paint skin tones as a way of challenging the concept of color as race. The gray skin color relates as well to W.E.B. DuBois double consciousness- social and racial discrimination. Michelle and Amy spent a great deal of time together and it was life changing.

Kehinde Wiley, like Barack has an American Mother and an absent African Father. His Mother made all the strides in South LA to help him succeed.
Jokingly, Barack stated he didn’t want the Napoleon horse or septors and only needed less grays and smaller ears. Clearly, it didn’t turn out that way.

“The painting depicts Obama sitting in a chair seemingly floating among foliage.[2] The foliage is described by the author as "chrysanthemums (the official flower of Chicago), jasmine (symbolic of Hawaii where the president spent most of his childhood) and African blue lilies (alluding to the president's late Kenyan father)."[3] Obama is wearing a 39mm White Gold Rolex Cellini watch which he has chosen to wear on multiple high profile occasions, including the inauguration of President Biden.[4] Reacting to the unveiling of his portrait Obama said: "How about that? That's pretty sharp".[5] The Washington Post described the painting as "not what you'd expect and that's why it's great".[2] The painting was sketched in the United States and completed in China by Wiley and his assistants.[6]”(wikipedia)

This was an enjoyable and informative resource guide for a great adventure. I was truly awestruck at seeing the portraits at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston during the Smithsonian Obama Tours.

[Caseycrank · Rating 3 out of 5]

You don’t read this one for the writing, so I’ll leave the words to my President:

“What I was always struck by, whenever I saw his portraits, was the degree to which they challenged our conventional views of power and privilege. And the way he would take extraordinary care, and precision, and vision in recognizing the beauty and the grace and the dignity of people who are so often invisible in our lives. And put them on a grand stage, on a grand scale. And force us to look and see them in ways that, so often, they were not....Kehinde lifted them up and gave them a platform and said they belonged at the center of American life.” -Barack Obama on Kehinde Wiley

[ColumbusReads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeously illustrated. Wonderful book cover to cover!

[Andrea Engle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four insightful essays and one transcript describe in depth the portraits of former President Obama and his wife Michelle (now a part of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery) and their impact on the nation … a useful adjunct to the growing Obama literature, such as his book, “A Promised Land” … well-illustrated …
by Barack Obama

[TK · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book (double bonus the cover is double sided so you could either have Michelle Obama or Barack Obama on the cover). If you like art and the Obamas then you will definitely like this book.

I appreciated learning more about the history of the Presidential Portraits, the meaning of the art and symbolism, and learning more about the artists and their art.

Some of the language used in the book (especially when it comes to art history) isn't that accessible if you're not very knowledgable, but there's a lot of it that anyone can understand. The last chapter I appreciated because it was the full transcript of the unveiling of the art. I read it once and then watched the YouTube video if it and read along.

[Eric Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

While not an art guru, I’ve learned to be more aware and appreciative, especially as my daughter has done such great work. This book chronicles the story behind the portraits by digging into the artists, the selection process, and the impact/inspiration the portraits have had on our nation.

I settled on a 4* rating due to a lull in the middle of the book, other than that it is a great and interesting read.

[Tony Mistretta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good write-up about the portraits of Barak and Michelle Obama, their artists and how they were chosen and influenced. This book helped me to appreciate the portraits and other similar works done by the same and other artists. I learned about the National Portrait Gallery in Washington and the great works of art that are displayed there.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very short read but provides just as much as I could’ve wanted to know about the Obama portraits and the artists behind them. The hook also provides a bit of backstory on how the National Portrait Gallery originated. The Obama portraitist Kehinde Wiley’s speech at the end is a tear-jerker. Great, short, contemporaneously significant read.

[J Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald are some of the finest artists of our time. Grateful to the Obamas for lifting their profiles. May Black artists finally rise and take their proper place in art history. Americans should be very proud.

[Cathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

To be honest, much of the discussion about art went over my head but I enjoyed reading the transcription of speeches from the unveiling ceremony. Also the photos are wonderful!

[Shannon]

KSKS

[Ronda Canary · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.4

[Kinsey Kutilek · Rating 5 out of 5]

i need to fly to DC immediately and go see the obama portraits

[Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Digitally purchased, the artwork was phenomenal. I was enthralled that in the process of the discussions of the portraits other great portraits were included. I cannot get to them live but this book did a great job of bringing them to me. And, since digitally purchased, it’s not a heavy art book.