Page 17 - JUNE2019

KEHINDE WILEY
MASTER OF THE ARTS
Brooklyn-based Kehinde Wiley’s portrait of Barack Obama is as epic an artistic achievementastheelectionofthenation’sfirstBlackpresident. ByKoriTuitt
l The first Black president of the United States of America sits leaning slightly forward in an ornate wood chair, perhaps reminiscent of royalty but not exactly arro- gant, his arms crossed and resting on his lap. Barack Hussein Obama, the nation’s 44th president, peers straight ahead at the viewer while surrounded by bright green foliage and viv- id pink, yellow and blue flowers that soften his direct gaze.
The contrast, a man exuding power in a dark suit set against a backdrop of vibrant vegetation, is stark and the portrait itself, historic, when it was unveiled on Feb. 12 at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC—and for good reason.
The portrait, a magnum opus by Kehinde Wiley—an African American artist known for his use of floral themes in portraits, is at once a departure in aesthetic and tradition from those of other presidents, critics said, a visual kaleidoscope that sets Obama apart from his predecessors and makes indelible his position in the nation’s history.
Taína Caragol, curator of Latino art and history at the Nation- al Portrait Gallery, said the portraits of Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama, whose portrait by Amy Sherald was also un-
veiled in February, represent the historical triumph in the first black president of a country that enslaved its black residents for 250 years being elected twice.
“Beyond portraying someone’s likeness, they also think critically about the tradition of portraiture itself as a tool to affirm social status,” Caragol said. “Their work is a critique and a response to the longstanding invisibility of African Americans and people of color in that art form.”
The portraits are drawing admirers in droves. According to Caragol, a record-breaking 550,000 people visited the National Portrait Gallery in the two months since the portraits were unveiled.
Wiley said in an email from the Obama Foundation in Feb- ruary that the flowers in the portrait symbolize the souvenirs in the geography of President Obama’s fascinating, if nomadic life: the jasmine from Hawaii, the blue African lilies of Kenya and the chrysanthemums from Chicago are telling of the plac- es Obama to which Obama is inextricably linked.
“The particular honor of being the first African American painter to paint the first African American president has been, for me, beyond any individual recognition,”Wiley wrote.“It
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