Monthly Archives: May 2021

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The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery presents the Obama Portrait Tour

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The iconic Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama will travel to five cities across the United States from June 2021 to May 2022.

Left: Kehinde Wiley, “Barack Obama” (2018), oil on canvas, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, © 2018 Kehinde Wiley | Right: Amy Sherald, “Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama” (detail) (2018), oil on linen, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. The National Portrait Gallery is grateful to the generous donors who made these commissions possible and proudly acknowledges them at npg.si.edu/obamaportraitstour. Support for the national tour was generously provided by Bank of America.

From the moment they were unveiled at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, the official portraits of President Barack Obama and Mrs. Michelle Obama became iconic. The portrayal of President Obama by Kehinde Wiley and the portrayal of the former First Lady by Amy Sherald have generated unprecedented public reactions.

The Obama Portrait Tour, hosted by Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, will visit five cities across the United States from June 2021 to May 2022 and is expected to reach millions of people who would otherwise not have the opportunity to view these remarkable paintings. This special presentation will encourage conversations about the power of portraiture and its potential to engage communities.

Places to visit include:

  • the Art Institute of Chicago; Chicago – June 18, 2021 to August 15, 2021
  • Brooklyn Museum; Brooklyn, New York – August 27, 2021 to October 24, 2021
  • Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Los Angeles – November 7, 2021 to January 2, 2022
  • High Museum of Art; Atlanta – January 14, 2022 – March 13, 2022
  • the Houston Museum of Fine Arts; Houston – March 27, 2022 – May 30, 2022

Follow us on social media @smithsoniannpg, #ObamaPortraitsTour.

For more information on The Obama Portrait Tour, visit npg.si.edu.

Across “Historic Site”, an 8-foot-high plaque and Historical view, a year-long rotating exhibit in Pittsburgh, the Black Cube Fellows study how history is constructed, remembered and told.


Lawson’s images and the way she discussed her process seem to actively replicate the kind of big cock energetic power dynamics of white male performers who also claim mastery over their subject matter.


Jenkins’ new short, the centerpiece of a MoMI exhibition on The Underground Railroad, uses his signature techniques to confront the viewer.


From Romanticism to Ruin: Two Lost Works of Sullivan and Wright commemorates Chicago’s Garrick Theater and Buffalo’s Larkin Building, which were razed to build a parking lot and truck stop.


The new documentary Bob Ross: happy accidents, betrayal and greed draws the curtain to expose the realities of Bob Ross, Inc. but does it go far enough?


Tagged: Exhibition announcements, National portrait gallery, Smithsonian, Sponsored


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National Portrait Gallery’s ‘Every Eye is Upon Me’ Focuses on American First Ladies | Arts & Theater

Helen “Nellie” Louise Herron Taft sits in the garden of the White House with the mansion in the distance. She is known for the 3,020 Japanese cherry trees that she planted on the Capitol grounds and along the Tidal Basin in Washington, DC, after visiting Japan in 1900, rightly believing they would add great beauty to the national capital.

While there are various forms of portraiture, including the very personal form of a silhouette of Abigail Adams, there is only one sculpture: the bust portrait of “Harriet Lane Johnston” (1873) by William Henry Rinehart . Lane was the first lady of her unmarried uncle James Buchanan. This rare piece of work showcases her bare shoulders above a deep plunging neckline, a style she put in fashion when she changed her inaugural ball gown by lowering it by 2 inches.

The power and influence of the first ladies of the 20th century, such as Edith Wilson, Eleanor Roosevelt and Nancy Reagan, is well documented. Less is known about the first ladies. The final gallery begins with Martha Washington, who was to create the role. Dolley Madison is depicted in an oil painting from 1848, when she was 80, wearing her signature turban. She had first served as a hostess for Thomas Jefferson, then as first lady when her husband was president. She would be considered the country’s first lady for years with her own power base.

While modern first ladies are portrayed in media as diverse as magazine covers and campaign buttons, among the first ladies is a special miniature portrait. Elizabeth Monroe is represented in a creation by the Franco-Swiss artist Louis Sené, which allowed James Monroe to carry it in his pocket.


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