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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Because of wow. / Readership Capture: The Obamas Continue to Push the Envelope

Readership Capture: The Obamas Continue to Push the Envelope

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This is very cool, at least for us snooty high-culture types. From TPM:

The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery on Friday announced the two artists commissioned to paint the gallery’s official portraits of former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama.

The former President, the Smithsonian said, selected Kehinde Wiley to paint his portrait. And Michelle Obama chose the painter Amy Sherald.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the pair are the first black artists hired by the gallery to paint portraits of the President and first lady. The publication noted that, far from being lesser-known names in the art world, as is often the case with presidential portrait painters, both Wiley and Sherald have “major followings.”…

Sherald and Wiley have those followings because they deserve them. I haven’t had the good fortune to see either of these artists’ work in person, but I have read enough about them to be excited by this choice. Barack and Michelle Obama are, of course, very smart people whose tastes extend well beyond the usual ‘safe’ sanitized portraitists. If you click over on the YouTube clips, there’s tons of other meaty visual material from both artists to help enlighten your weekend…

Reader Interactions

105Comments

  2. 2.

    Baud

    If you want to talk about pushing the envelope, Baud!’s portrait will be the first presidential nude.

  4. 4.

    rikyrah

    Simme (sp?) Knox did the official White House portrait of Bill Clinton, so they aren’t the first Black artists to do official White House portraits.
    Please oh please oh please 44…
    Wear the tan suit….

  6. 6.

    Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)

    Do the links in the post show for the rest of you? Something is borked inside my computer. It just won’t connect to some sites. My husband’s computer connects, so it’s not our provider. He’s run every scan and fix he can think of. I may have to switch permanently to my laptop.

  10. 10.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Both artists look like great choices. Can’t wait to see the portraits of Best POTUS Ever and Forever FLOTUS. (Also can’t wait to read their respective WH memoirs.)

    *****

    Changing topics radically: I have never seen The Princess Bride. It’s the current TCM/Fathom Events “Big Screen” selection, showing today with encore screenings Wednesday. I’m pondering going to it. Worth my time/money? (It’s cited frequently enough, here and elsewhere, that I do recognise it as a cultural touchstone.)

  15. 15.

    MomSense

    Part of what pisses off the racists so much is that the Obamas looked so good being POTUS and FLOTUS. All the money and spray tan in the world can’t compete. I love their choices for their portraits. Can’t wait to see them.

  21. 21.

    MomSense

    @schrodingers_cat:

    And poor Melania. I think they expected she would be the toast of the fashion world but she just looks tacky. High end fashion houses do not use models with over inflated, fake boobies. They do not look good in the clothes. Her fake boobies are of the kind favored for pron.

  24. 24.

    Amir Khalid

    I wonder whom Trump will pick to paint his portrait. I think there’s a guy who does right-wing art in America, but his name escapes me.

  25. 25.

    Another Scott

    @Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): It all seems to work here.

    PC? Mac? Tablet? Phone? What operating system? What browser?

    There are lots and lots of potential causes (malware, ad-blocker, other extensions, something corrupted). It’s hard to know without more information.

    You could try forcing a reload of the full page (Shift-Click on the refresh button). If you’re using an ad-blocker, you could try turning it off on the problematic page to see if it makes a difference. You could try “resetting” the browser (which should keep all your settings while reloading the program). Stuff like that. But the details depend on what you are using.

    Hope this helps a little. Good luck!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  28. 28.

    Steeplejack

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Yes, go see The Princess Bride on the big screen. It will be a fun, immersive experience not interrupted by commercials or household distractions.

  29. 29.

    Shalimar

    @Sasha: McNaughton would put all the cabinet secretaries and White House staff in the background, and put Steve Bannon in the center. Trump would not be happy.

  32. 32.

    Shalimar

    @SiubhanDuinne: When you see The Princess Bride, you will ask yourself why you haven’t seen it before now. One of a small number of movies that is must-see for everyone.

  35. 35.

    Corner Stone

    @SiubhanDuinne: Definite must see. If I catch it on the tube in time I always watch it through to the sex scene between Billy Crystal and Carol Kane. Talk about steamy, talk about risque!

  36. 36.

    Another Scott

    @SiubhanDuinne: Yes. I thought we had convinced you of this a few weeks/months ago. :-)

    There are many almost Shakespearean lines in there. At least one semi-regular ‘nym (NOoC) takes their handle from a line in the film. After you see it, read the script, and see it again when you can.

    It’s a wonderful film.

    My $0.02. YMMV, especially after my hyping of it, but I think you’ll like it. :-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  43. 43.

    SiubhanDuinne

    The recommendations to see TPB are unanimous. Okay, I’ll go see it this afternoon. Thanks, all, for prodding me.

    (It’s quite shocking, the number of really really famous movies I’ve never seen, at least not in their entirety. OTOH, I’ve seen Casablanca probably 50 times, at a conservative estimate, and will see it next month at all four screenings.)

  45. 45.

    Laura

    The Crocker Art Museum here in Sacramento had a recent exhibition called High Fructose, Turn the Page -a 10 year retrospective of the High/Low art magazine high fructose. The exhibit was extremely challenging contemporary art in a variety of medium. It included a Kahinde Wiley portrait that was huge, luminously beautiful with grace lushness and power, but most of all, unapologetic blackness.
    Our POTUS’ portrait will be amazing, and uncle cracker is guaranteed to lose his shit.
    Works for me.

  48. 48.

    RandomMonster

    Trump announces he will sign an executive order closing the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.

  50. 50.

    Another Scott

    @Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): It’s a long shot, but you could try a different Domain Name Server (DNS) on the Internet settings (TCPIP v4). It’s the system that converts internet location dotted-names (www.balloon-juice.com) into the dotted-numbers that the system uses to talk to each other (192.168.0.xxx).

    An easy set of ones to remember are Google’s public nameservers – 8.8.4.4 and 8.8.8.8

    Sometimes simply changing to them and changing back fixes things, but they’re pretty good defaults.

    Another thing that might be going on is that IPv6 might be enabled and not configured properly. Lots and lots of weird things can happen in those circumstances. Unless you know how to configure it, it’s usually best to disable IPv6 on Winders.

    Hope this helps a little. Good luck!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  51. 51.

    Amir Khalid

    @Steeplejack:
    I see from McNaughton’s website (as a courtesy to my fellow jackals, no link) that he has already done a portrait of Trump, or at least a rough sketch for a portrait. Not a terribly good one: He captured Trump’s Constipated Scowl of Leadership perfectly, but the hair looks too real.

  56. 56.

    StringOnAStick

    If a president gets impeached AND removed from office, do they still get to have an official portrait in the national gallery? Does it have a huge asterisk beside it, with a list of all they were convicted of listed beneath it? In a font of, say 64 pts? Maybe 120 pts? Just asking…

  57. 57.

    StringOnAStick

    I posted this for @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes in the garden post, but in case he didn’t see it:

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Dude, I think you have an abscess in that tooth and you need to get some antibiotics now, not wait until Monday. If your DDS is like the guy I work for, call the emergency number, describe your symptoms and ask for a prescription to be sent to your pharmacist immediately. The pressure will keep building and the pain will increase dramatically, so do it now, not in the middle of the night when your pharmacy is not open!

    Your DDS won’t be able to do much to fix this tooth until the infection at the root tip is under control (infection makes the local anesthetic a whole lot less effective), so get the ball rolling now, don’t wait until Monday morning. Trust me on this…

  58. 58.

    satby

    @Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): The layers of action in the background of that movie still impress me. I had already seen it multiple times as a youngster before I realized that in the background in several scenes you see the other characters, like the young couple, living out their own stories independent of the main story. So many little details, and in a movie that was still being written as it was filmed.

  59. 59.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Baud:

    If you want to talk about pushing the envelope, Baud!’s portrait will be the first presidential nude.

    and featuring dogs playing poker.

  63. 63.

    Brachiator

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    (It’s quite shocking, the number of really really famous movies I’ve never seen, at least not in their entirety. OTOH, I’ve seen Casablanca probably 50 times, at a conservative estimate, and will see it next month at all four screenings.)

    Years ago, a local TV station would show classic films with minimal commercial interruptions. Even though I was a big movie fan, for a long time I never saw Casablanca. And for the longest time I never saw the first half hour of It’s a Wonderful Life (all the scenes of George Bailey’s childhood). And now these two are among my favorite films.

    ETA. I add my vote to Princess Bride, not because of cultural significance, but because it is a fun and touching movie.

    Also, I once had a co-worker who avoided the film because he was convinced it was a girl’s movie even though I tried to explain to him that it would be perfect for his son. He simply could not get past the title.

  64. 64.

    debbie

    @MomSense:

    Michelle worked J Crew very nicely, thank you very much! Melania should have considered something similar instead of some overreaching young wannabe designer.

  69. 69.

    Brachiator

    @Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):

    Casablanca is the model I always name for delivering backstory.

    One amazing thing is that the flashback does not disrupt the tension or the flow of the main story, even though it takes up a chunk of the film’s total running time. Also creates an interesting contrast between a happier Rick and the older, more hardened character.

  70. 70.

    Suzanne

    Kehinde Wiley is one of my favorite contemporary painters. There’s a piece of his at the Phoenix Art Museum (I’m a member), and I am amazed by it every time I see it. I just got to see more of his work at the National Galleries in DC. This is a fabulous choice.

    Also FYI, the photos of BHO that are hanging in the Portrait Gallery until the official portrait is completed are by Chuck Close, who also painted Bill Clinton’s portrait. If you don’t know anything about Chuck Close, I so encourage you to check him out. He is disabled and for a while was painting these unbelievable giant canvases with his chin.

  71. 71.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Another Scott:

    Had (obviously) completely forgotten that exchange. It is (equally obviously) clear that This Is Meant To Be.

    Looking forward to the experience. (It’s the film’s 30th anniversary, which is why it’s in the rota right now. TCM likes anniversaries.)

  74. 74.

    Kathleen

    @satby: One of my favorite lines is delivered by the young woman from Romania (IIRC) who asked Rick if she could trust Captain Renault to keep his word : “The devil has the people by the throat”. I think of that often when pondering the stranglehold Rethuglicans appear to hold over this country.

  75. 75.

    The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion

    Completely OT, but I’ve got a question for the hive mind: does anybody know how legit the wal-mart Puerto Rico fund-raising is? If it’s real, I’d like to kick in, but it is Walmart, after all, so I’m suspicious.

  77. 77.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Another Scott:

    An easy set of ones to remember are Google’s public nameservers – 8.8.4.4 and 8.8.8.8

    Reminds me of nothing so much as the Metrical Index in the back of hymnals :-)

  78. 78.

    Kathleen

    @Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): Another aspect of this film, which I consider the most romantic movie I’ve ever seen, is that Rick never takes of his suit jacket and Ilsa is always in a dress! Sometimes externally imposed limitations force writers and artists to be much more creative and the result is so much better!

  79. 79.

    Suzanne

    @debbie: To top it off……I watched an interview with Chuck Close on The Colbert Report a few years back in which he said that he has FACE BLINDNESS.

    THE MAN WHO PAINTS TWELVE-FOOT-TALL HYPERREAL FACES WITH HIS CHIN HAS FACE BLINDNESS.

    Colbert was amazed out of his character.

  80. 80.

    Mnemosyne

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I’ll make it even more unanimous — Rob Reiner directed it before he got a swelled head, and it’s one of his best movies. The only caution is that Andre the Giant has a very thick and unusual accent, so you may have a hard time understanding his lines even though he gets ones that are just as great as everyone else’s.

    And Mandy Patinkin is totally different than any other role you’ve ever seen him in as the swashbuckling Inigo Montoya.

  81. 81.

    Suzanne

    However, back to Kehinde Wiley…… I think the bold color is first thing that most people observe about his work, with good reason, but the thing I love the most about his paintings is this wonderful sense of motion in the figures. So many posed portraits feel static. His do not. They feel alive and active.

    I have seen Sherald’s work once in person—can’t remember where—and while she didn’t blow my socks off, I am sure she will do a tremendous job, as well.

  82. 82.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion:

    I never shop at Wal-Mart because Wal-Mart, but in all fairness they are right at the top when it comes to disaster relief on the US mainland (donating needed supplies from inventory, using stores and warehouses as everything from staging areas to shelters, using their fleet of trucks and drivers to deliver stuff, etc.) I was at a presentation years ago by Wal-Mart’s executive in charge of emergency/disaster response, and was blown away. What they do — backed by careful strategic planning — made me question and change a lot of my assumptions about the company. They’re still Wal-Mart, and I’ll still never set foot in one of their stores, but on disaster relief they are pretty solid.

  83. 83.

    debbie

    @Suzanne:

    Find a biography if you can. His entire life is amazing. Dyslexia, ADHD, considered a failure in his earliest years. His whole grid system was based on his inability to distinguish faces in their entirety and to deal with his lack of attention span. His spinal cancer changed how he could work, but it also enabled him to adjust his grid system from hyperrealism to total objectivity. Each little bit of the grid is an abstract piece of art on its own as well as an exercise in color science, but when you stand back at a distance, it’s almost hyperrealistic.

    I’m rattling on, but he really is a role model of overcoming, adapting, and achieving.

  84. 84.

    Suzanne

    @debbie: I have “Chuck Close: Life”, which I highly recommend. He’s just an amazing person and his work is astonishing to me every time I see it, and I thought so even before I knew about his personal challenges.

  86. 86.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Well, I’m already committed. There was that same sense when I saw The Godfather for the first time a few months ago — that little spurt of recognition — but hearing the lines in context made all the difference. And so will it be, I assume, with The Princess Bride. Getting excited now about seeing it.

  88. 88.

    Brachiator

    @Mnemosyne:

    I’ll make it even more unanimous — Rob Reiner directed it before he got a swelled head, and it’s one of his best movies.

    Wasn’t he a Meathead? At least, Archie Bunker thought so.

  90. 90.

    m.j.

    This is completely off thread, but here goes…
    I was reading over at the Guardian. They were asking the Clinton Foundation whether or not they should return monies contributed by Harvey Weinstein. I would hope the answer would be, “Hell, no.” In fact, I think they should make an offer to the press to follow the money. When they see where it goes and the good it does the Clinton Foundation can turn around and ask if the media would still like them to return those funds.

    It’s a stupid question to have been asked in the first place. What’s the purpose?

  92. 92.

    H.E.Wolf

    @SiubhanDuinne:
    Also, the swordfight scenes are first-rate. The fight director was Bob Anderson, whose career spanned more than 50 years and included “The Master of Ballantrae”, the original three “Star Wars” films, and “Lord of the Rings”.

  94. 94.

    Corner Stone

    @H.E.Wolf:

    Also, the swordfight scenes are first-rate.

    I had to think for a couple minutes where in the movie the swordfish scenes were. I thought maybe you were thinking of when they were escaping by boat down the river, and were being chased by those dangerous fish things.

  95. 95.

    chopper

    trump is gonna demand that his be that gif of him hitting Hillary in the head with a golf ball.

  96. 96.

    SWMBO

    @SiubhanDuinne: Yes it is worth it. The Fathom event theater that we tried to go to received a corrupted file and they refunded our money. We’re trying for the 7pm showing. I sent a feedback email to Fathom, telling them that this was the THIRD event in the last six months over different theaters that this had happened to. WTF? Anyway, the movie is itself a lovely thing. We’re still going to try to see it in the theater (even though we have a DVD, BluRay,and VHS copy.) Yes it’s still worth it.

  97. 97.

    Another Scott

    @SWMBO: TPB is one of my all-time favorite movies.

    But, at least at home, the dialog from many of the characters seems excessively muddled and hard for me to (easily) understand. My (mumble) year old ears may be part of the problem, but it doesn’t seem as much of an issue with other movies on our TV (with Yamaha sound bar).

    I see that Criterion made a laserdisc version years ago. Maybe they’ll do a BlueRay version with cleaned up dialog sometime soon.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  103. 103.

    The Golux

    “I want my father back, you son of a bitch.”

    One of the best come-uppances of all time. Right there with Warden Norton getting his due in “Shawshank Redemption”.

  105. 105.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Corner Stone:
    Very belated reply to thank you for the laugh. :) No doubt you were remembering the Shrieking Eels, by whom Buttercup does not get eaten.

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