Painting Power, Capturing Character: Smithsonian Unveils Official Obama Portraits
WASHINGTON, DC—There are many ways to define and depict power. When President Obama’s portrait was unveiled Monday, it was a reminder that leadership, command, and influence, can be inspiring and reassuring, powerful and black. Kehinde Wiley’s portrait of the former president artfully captures the man and the symbol. The image of the first African...
2018 David C. Driskell Prize is Going to Artist Amy Sherald
THIS MORNING, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta announced Amy Sherald is the recipient of the 2018 David C. Driskell Prize. Sherald is celebrated for her imaginative portraits of real people and in the past few years has received wide-spread recognition for her distinct work. Recently, she was commissioned to paint First Lady Michelle...
Culture Type: The Year in Black Art 2017
POLITICS PAST AND PRESENT coursed through the art world in 2017. Issues of censorship and debates around who has the right to depict black bodies came to the fore. The biggest news stories, from White House machinations, gun violence, and immigration to the fate of Confederate monuments, racial division, and sexual harassment and assault revelations,...
Portrait Artist Amy Sherald Discussed Her Practice at the National Gallery of Art: ‘I Paint American People. Black People Doing Stuff’
WASHINGTON, D.C. — There is an element of fantasy in Amy Sherald’s portraits. The Baltimore-based artist usually paints people she spots around the city—men, women, and youth who have a certain something that captures her attention and piques her curiosity. She’s depicted a woman with a baby on her hip, a young man who’s...
Major African American Contemporary Artists are Bringing Their Work to Washington, D.C.
A post shared by Hirshhorn (@hirshhorn) on Oct 14, 2017 at 11:16am PDT Theaster Gates presented “Plantation Lullabies,” a discussion and performance, at the Hirshhorn Museum Oct. 13. THE HIRSHHORN MUSEUM was infused with sacred, soulful music on Friday evening. The museum hosted the second installment of Theaster Gates‘s four-part series Processions. The collaborative...
Presidential Appointments: Obamas Select Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald to Paint Their Official Portraits for Smithsonian
TWO AFRICAN AMERICAN ARTISTS are painting official portraits of former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama for the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. The artists were selected by the Obamas. New York-based Kehinde Wiley is painting the president and Baltimore artist Amy Sherald will depict the first lady. The Portrait Gallery commissioned...
Black Radical Women: This Spring, Several Group Shows Bring Together Works by African American Female Artists
NEARLY 40 YEARS AGO, the College Art Association’s National Women’s Caucus for Art planned an exhibition featuring works by “Afro-American” women artists. Co-curated by Emily Martin and Tritobia Benjamin (1944-2014), an art historian and professor at Howard University, the show was to be presented at CAA’s 1979 annual conference in Washington, D.C. Forty-six artists—including...
Cover Stars: The 24 Best Art Magazine Covers of 2016
NOTHING BEATS LEAFING through the pages of a visually inspiring print publication, except perhaps that initial moment of spotting a compelling magazine cover on the newsstand or newly delivered to your mailbox. Over the past year, art magazines have selected winning cover images paying tribute to painter Kerry James Marshall, marking the historic opening...
Portrait of an Artist: Baltimore-based Amy Sherald Wins Smithsonian’s Outwin Boochever Competition
EXPLORING RACE, REPRESENTATION AND PERFORMANCE, there is a certain something about the portraits painted by Baltimore artist Amy Sherald. Painted in grayscale, the bodies of her subjects are absent of color. Everything else in the large-scale fantastical portraits of African Americans—their distinctive clothing and the background against which they are set—celebrates color. The Smithsonian...
