While her husband made some jokes about his gray hair, big ears and clothes in his portrait, Mrs. 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 was always about doing what was right,” he said. The portrait of Obama, America’s 44th and first black president, doesn’t look like any of his predecessors, nor does Michelle Obama look like any of the women who have held the role before her. 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. The former first lady, her lips pursed, sits on a sofa 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 of those in the East Room audience had started families in the intervening years and feigned disappointment “that I didn’t hear anyone name a child Barack or Michelle.” 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 said, referring to a widely publicized appearance as president in the unflattering suit. Obama went on to say 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 okay.” Michelle Obama, when it was her turn, opened with a laugh, saying she had her husband to thank for “such snarky remarks.” To which he replied, by way of explanation, “I will not run again.” Then the former first lady got serious, connecting the unveiling of the portraits and America’s promise for people from backgrounds like her own, a daughter of working-class parents from Chicago’s South Side. “For me, this day is not just about what has happened,” he said. “It’s also about what could have happened, because a girl like me, she should never have been up there with Jacqueline Kennedy and Dolley Madison. She should never have lived in this house, and she certainly shouldn’t have served as first lady.” Mrs Obama said the portraits were a “reminder that there is a place for everyone in this country”. 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. Mrs 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 that never mentioned Trump, but pointed out as he continues to challenge his 2020 re-election loss, he added: “You see people, they are making their voices heard with their vote. We are inaugurating to ensure a peaceful transition of power … and once our time is up, we move on.” McCurdy, meanwhile, said his “stripped down” portrait style 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 on them,” McCurdy told the White House Historical Association during an interview on “1600 Sessions ” ” podcast. “We’re here to create an encounter between the viewer and the sitter,” he said. “We talk as little as possible about the director so the viewer can project onto them.” He works from a photograph of his subject, selected from around 100 images, and spends at least a year on each portrait. Subjects have no say in how the table looks. McCurdy said he knows it’s over “when he stops pissing me off.” Obama’s portrait was displayed in the Grand Foyer, the traditional showcase for paintings of the two most recent presidents. His portrait replaced that of Bill Clinton near the staircase to the residence, the White House tweeted Wednesday night. George W. Bush’s portrait hangs on the wall across from Obama’s in the foyer. Mrs Obama’s portrait hung one floor down on the ground floor, joining predecessors Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush, according to the tweet. Two Trump representatives did not respond to emailed requests for comment on whether artists have begun work on White House portraits of Trump and former first lady Melania Trump. 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.
