For the first time in over two years, Michelle Obama’s history-making official First Lady portrait is coming to San Francisco as part of a new art exhibit.
Two years ago, the idea of a second Trump presidency sounded like a threat to our democracy set far into the future. San Francisco was reopening from a pandemic; we began shedding face masks and opening up our socially distanced circles to make way for new iterations of normal.
Among those welcomingly ordinary happenings included museum gallery debuts — including the de Young Museums’ “Obama Portraits,” which included the flora-backed Barack painting so gorgeously created by artist Kehinde Wiley and Michelle’s brushed ode produced by Amy Sherald. The exhibit ran for months, beginning in June, and became one of the museum’s most popular exhibits of 2022.
But for those who missed The Obama Portraits during its run, or are just keen to see one of the paintings again, you’ll have another chance to see Michelle’s towering portrait next month when it shows as part of SFMOMA’s “Amy Sherald: American Sublime.”
The exhibit will celebrate Sherald’s decades-spanning work, spotlighting her portrayals of modern African-American history. It will also be the first-ever museum exhibit dedicated to her various works; more than 40 pieces are expected to be included.
While the display will be organized into six different galleries, each around a hyper-specific theme, they all exist under Sherlad’s denominating ethos: “[Art has] got to be about humanity first, and then everything else has to follow.”
Attendees will have an intimate, up-close experience and a window into Sherald’s work that invites commentary and contemplation in tandem. Pieces like “Kingdom” and “outside now” exist as triumphant chronologies into Black Americana — a young Black girl stands tall and proud atop a playground slide; a Black woman lavishly dressed in a fashion reminiscent of the 60s and adorned with a time-specific, larger-than-life pearl necklace exudes opulence, class, and societal prowess — narratives Black Americans were largely excluded from during racial segregation.
The flouncy turquoise dress washes down Breona Taylor like a dreamscape, allowing for dignity and grace to come to our collective shores — things her murder at the hands of Louisville Metro Police officers tried to take away.
Then there’s Michelle’s “groundbreaking” portrait. The painting is the first commissioned portrait of an American First Lady created and painted by a Black woman — trading traditional, Colonial-era painting methods for more urban contemporary stylings, which made for unlike any others seen in official presidential portraits.
“Amy Sherald: American Sublime” will undoubtedly be one of this fall’s most popular and impactful art exhibits in San Francisco. And it could be years (or more) before Michelle’s iconic portrait comes back to the SF Bay Area for public viewing.
// For more information on “Amy Sherald: American Sublime,” which will run at SFMOMA from November 16th through March 9th, 2025 before traveling elsewhere in the United States, click here.
