While her husband made some jokes about his gray hair, big ears and clothes in his portrait, Michelle Obama, a descendant of slaves, said the occasion for her was more about America’s promise for people like her. “Barack and Michelle, welcome home,” President Joe Biden said as the crowd cheered. Biden, who was Obama’s vice president, praised his former boss’s leadership on health care, the economy and immigration and said nothing could have better prepared him to become president than serving with Obama for these eight years. “It’s always been about doing what’s right,” Biden said. Former US President Barack Obama laughs as he attends the unveiling ceremony for official portraits of himself and his wife at the White House on Wednesday. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images) The portrait of Barack Obama, America’s 44th and first black president, looks nothing like the portraits of any of his predecessors, nor does Michelle Obama look like any of the women who have held the role before her. Barack Obama stands expressionless against a white background, wearing a black suit and gray tie in Robert McCurdy’s portrait that looks more like a large photograph than an oil on canvas portrait. Michelle Obama, her lips pursed, sits on a couch in the Red Room in a strapless, light blue dress. She chose artist Sharon Sprung for her portrait. Dozens of former members of the Obama administration were on hand for the big reveal. Obama noted that some in the East Room audience had started families in the intervening years, and pretended to be disappointed “that I haven’t heard anyone name a child Barack or Michelle.” Barack Obama stands expressionless against a white background, wearing a black suit and gray tie in Robert McCurdy’s portrait that looks more like a large photograph than an oil on canvas portrait. Michelle Obama, her lips pursed, sits on a couch in the Red Room in a strapless, light blue dress. She chose artist Sharon Sprung for her portrait. (White House Historical Association/Getty Images) He thanked McCurdy for his work, joking that the artist, who is known for his paintings of public figures from Nelson Mandela to the Dalai Lama, ignored his pleas for less gray hair and smaller ears. “Also, he banned me from wearing a tan suit, by the way,” Obama quipped, referring to a widely publicized appearance he made as president in an unflattering suit. He went on to say that his wife was “the best thing about living in the White House” and thanked Sprung for “capturing everything I love about Michelle, her grace, her intelligence — and the fact that she’s fine.” Michelle Obama hugs Jill Biden, wife of US President Joe Biden, as Barack Obama looks on during the unveiling ceremony. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images) When it was her turn to speak, Michelle Obama opened with a laugh, saying she had her husband to thank for “such pithy remarks.” To which he replied: “I’m not running again.” Then she got serious, connecting the revelation of the portraits with America’s promise for people with backgrounds like hers, the daughter of working-class parents from Chicago’s South Side. “For me this day is not just about what happened,” he said. “It’s also about what could have happened, because a girl like me, should never have been up there with Jacqueline Kennedy and Dolley Madison. She shouldn’t have lived in this house and she shouldn’t have served as first lady.” Michelle Obama said the unveiling of the portraits was a “reminder that there is a place for everyone in this country.” Obama and Biden arrive at the unveiling ceremony on Wednesday. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images) Tradition has it that the sitting president invites his immediate predecessor back to the White House to unveil his portrait, but Donald Trump broke with that custom and did not host Obama. So Biden planned a ceremony for his former boss. Michelle Obama said the tradition matters “not only to those of us who hold these positions, but to everyone who participates in and watches over our democracy.” In remarks he never mentioned Trump but pointed out as he continues to challenge his 2020 election loss, he said: “You see the people, they are making their voices heard with their vote, we are holding an inauguration to ensure a peaceful transition of power… and once our time is up, we move on.”
Portrait artist in his “nude” style.
McCurdy, meanwhile, said his “stripped down” style of portraiture helps create an “encounter” between the person in the painting and the person looking at it. “They have a plain white background, nobody’s gesturing, nobody — there’s no props because we’re not here to tell the story of the person sitting for them,” McCurdy told the White House Historical Association during an interview on the 1600 podcast Sessions. . “We’re here to create an encounter between the viewer and the sitter,” he said. “We talk as little as possible about the sitter so the viewer can project onto him.” He works from a photograph of his subject, selected from hundreds of images, and spends at least a year on each portrait. He said he knows it’s over “when he stops pissing me off.”
No word yet on the Trump portraits
The portrait of Barack Obama is intended to be displayed in the Grand Foyer of the White House, the traditional showcase for paintings of the two most recent presidents. Portraits of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush currently hang there. Michelle Obama’s portrait will likely be placed with those of her predecessors along the hallway on the ground floor of the White House, joining Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush. Two Trump representatives did not respond to emailed requests for comment on whether artists have begun work on the White House portraits of Trump and his wife, Melania. However, work is underway on a separate pair of Trump portraits destined for the collection held by the National Portrait Gallery, a Smithsonian museum. The White House Historical Association, a nonprofit organization founded in 1961 by first lady Jacqueline Kennedy and funded by private donations and sales of books and an annual Christmas ornament, helps manage the White House portrait process. Since the 1960s, the association has paid for most of the portraits in the collection. Congress purchased the first painting in the collection, by George Washington. Other portraits of first presidents and first ladies often came to the White House as gifts.
