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U.S. NEWS Thursday 8 sepTember 2022

Obamas return to White House: Official portraits unveiled

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — For-
mer President Barack
Obama and his wife Mi-
chelle returned to the White
House on Wednesday for
the unveiling of official por-
traits with a modern vibe:
him standing expression-
less against a white back-
ground and her seated on
a sofa in the Red Room
wearing a formal light blue
dress.
"Barack and Michelle, wel-
come home," President Joe
Biden said before he invited
the Obamas to the stage to
unveil the portraits. Some in
the audience gasped, oth-
ers applauded.
"It's great to be back,"
Obama said when it was
his turn to speak. He praised
Biden — his vice president
— as someone who be-
came a "true partner and a
true friend."
The artist whom Barack
Obama selected to Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama react after unveiling their official White House portraits
paint his portrait says the during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House, Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2022, in Washington.
"stripped down" style of his Associated Press
works helps create an "en- also done portraits of South cast, described feeling as on the State Floor of the Clinton's and George W.
counter" between the per- Africa's Nelson Mandela, though she was in a "com- White House. Getting the Bush's portraits currently
son in the painting and the Amazon's Jeff Bezos and edy sketch" when she met dress just right was the hang there.
person looking at it. the Dalai Lama, among with the Obamas in the hardest part, she said. Mrs. Obama's portrait likely
Robert McCurdy likes to others. Oval Office. "The color was so beautiful will be placed with her pre-
present his subjects without "They have plain white She kept sinking into the and I really wanted to get decessors along the hall-
any facial expression and backgrounds, nobody ges- couch she sat on while the strength of the color way on the Ground Floor
standing against a white tures, nobody — there are they sat on sturdier chairs. and the light," said Sprung, of the White House, joining
background, which is how no props because we're Then the president "flicked" who has done portraits of Barbara Bush, Hillary Clin-
America's 44th and first not here to tell the story away the printed talking the late Rep. Patsy Mink, ton and Laura Bush.
Black president will be seen of the person that's sitting points she had handed out D-Hawaii, and Jeannette Both McCurdy and Sprung
here for posterity, in a black for them," McCurdy said. to everyone in the room. Rankin of Montana, the first said it was hard to keep
suit and gray tie. "We're here to create an Then she just "went still" and woman elected to Con- their work on the portraits
Biden and first lady Jill encounter between the had to "gasp for air a little gress. secret. McCurdy said it
Biden invited Obama and viewer and the sitter." bit" when someone else in Recent tradition, no matter wouldn't have been a
the former first lady back to He compared the tech- the meeting asked her why political affiliation, has had problem "if it had not gone
their former home to unveil nique to a session with a she paints. Then she started the current president ge- on for so long." Sprung said
their official portraits. It was psychiatrist in which the to cry. nially hosting his immediate she had to turn the portrait
Mrs. Obama's first visit since patient and doctor tell "So who knows what put predecessor for the unveil- to the wall whenever some-
her husband's presidency each other as little as pos- the interview over the top, ing — as Bill Clinton did for one came into her studio in
ended in January 2017. sible about themselves "so but that's how it went," George H.W. Bush, George New York.
Obama himself visited in that you can project onto Sprung said. W. Bush did for Clinton and The White House Historical
April to help celebrate the them." She had planned on having Obama did for the younger Association, a nonprofit or-
anniversary of the major "And we're doing the same Mrs. Obama stand in the Bush. ganization that is funded
health care law he signed. thing with these paintings," portrait, "to give it a certain Donald Trump, who criti- through private donations
The former first lady chose McCurdy said. "We're tell- dignity," but said the former cized almost everything and sales of books and
artist Sharon Sprung for her ing as little about the sitter first lady "has so much dig- about Obama and de- an annual Christmas orna-
portrait. as possible so that the view- nity that I decided to do it viated from many presi- ment, helps manage the
The portraits do not look like er can project onto them." sitting just because ... it was dential traditions, held no portrait process and, since
any others in the collection McCurdy works from a too much looking up at her. ceremony for Obama. So the 1960s, has paid for most
to which they will be add- photograph of his subjects, I'm that much shorter than Biden, who was Obama's of those in the collection.
ed, in terms of style and selected from hundreds of her." vice president, scheduled Congress bought the first
substance. images. He spends a year Sprung worked on the por- one for his former boss. painting in the collection,
McCurdy told the White to 18 months on each por- trait for eight months, day Obama's portrait is des- of George Washington.
House Historical Associa- trait and said he knows he's and night, the most time tined for display in the Other portraits of early
tion for the latest edition of done "when it stops irritat- she's ever spent on a sin- Grand Foyer of the White presidents and first ladies
its "1600 Sessions" podcast ing me." gle painting. She worked House, the traditional show- often came to the White
that his style is "stripped Sprung, who also was in- entirely from photographs case for paintings of the House as gifts.q
down for a reason." He's terviewed for the pod- taken in various locations two most recent presidents.