watsonshoneybee:

The official Obama portaits unveiled today. President Obama’s portrait was done by Kehinde Wiley, and Michelle Obama’s portrait was done by Amy Sherald, making the two artists the first African-American artists to be commissioned for portraits at the National Portrait Gallery. 

“What I was always struck by when I saw his portraits was the degree to which they challenged our ideas of power and privilege,” Obama said.

The juxtaposition of contemporary urban culture with centuries-old postures and wallpaper-like backgrounds make for bold paintings, of which Obama’s is Wiley’s most famous to date. 

For her portrait, Michelle Obama chose Baltimore-based artist Amy Sherald. Sherald is another African-American artist known for her unique style, and her portraits also tend to underscore themes of social justice. She often paints black skin tones in gray as a way to take away the assigned “color” of her subjects. Sherald’s work is less about realism in composition and more about shape and color; like Wiley, the choice of Sherald ushers in a new era of presidential portrait … The former first lady said she was thinking about the impact Sherald’s work will have on “girls and girls of color.”

“They will see an image of someone who looks like them hanging on the walls of this great American institution … And I know the kind of impact that will have on their lives because I was one of those girls,” she said.

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