And the two iconic paintings came to San Francisco just in time for Juneteenth two years ago.
I vividly remember when Barack and Michelle Obama’s officially painted portraits — Barack so gorgeously painted by artist Kehinde Wiley, and Michelle’s brushed ode a work produced by Amy Sherald — were unveiled to the public at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. back in 2018. The verdant backdrop of neon-green leaves and bright pastels juxtaposed an otherwise stern-faced Barack Obama in the foreground, a poignant metaphor for how he balanced his precious benevolence with lawmaking. Michelle Obama’s painting shows her in a floor-length gown that seems to go on for miles; like a spring rainbow over Telegraph Hill; her naked arms stand as a nod to her “defiant and bold” choice to be the only First Lady to have her arms uncovered in their official White House portrait photograph.
The two pieces of artwork drew equal parts praise and criticism; celebration and backlash. But no matter what you might think of the paintings themselves, SF locals had a chance to see them IRL at the de Young Museum when the “The Obama Portraits Tour” event added new touring dates, which included stops in San Francisco and Boston in the summer of 2022.
As part of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery-organized event, “The Obama Portraits Tour” saw the two aforementioned paintings on display at the de Young Museum from June 18th through August 14th, 2022.
The pair of “groundbreaking” portraits — Michelle’s painting is the first created and painted by a Black woman, no less — trade traditional, Colonial-era painting methods for more urban contemporary stylings, which made for two bodies of work unlike any others seen in official presidential portraits.
“Kehinde Wiley’s portrait of former President Barack Obama and Amy Sherald’s portrait of former First Lady Michelle Obama are groundbreaking American portraits that speak to the sense of hope and possibility that the Obamas inspire,” remarked Tom Campbell, Director, and CEO of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco in a press release for the exhibit. It’s been noted before that two artists also worked independently from each other; both Wiley and Sheerald, too, consulted with their subjects and used a collection of photographs of them as working tools as they went about planning their individual compositions.
The result? Two near-life-sized expressions of glowing creativity that speak to Michelle and Barack’s cultural and political impact on humankind, all while pedestalling a certain universality to their presence that has become synonymous with any mention of their names.
We were all very thrilled and very excited to see the pair of society-significant portraits … and the SF Bay Area stop of the “Obama Portraits” remains a warm spot in our collective memory.
