AphroChic Magazine: Issue No. 8

HOT TOPIC
will be part of a visual record that will last
long after his terms in office have faded
into antiquity. As such, it will be one of the
most lasting and personal statements on his
presidency. For a president with an eye on
history and a deep connection to contemporary
art and culture, Kehinde Wiley was a
clear choice.
Like Amy Sherald, Kehinde Wiley
is known for monumental works that
challenge mainstream notions of race,
culture and power. For Wiley, his habit of
“street casting” people met by chance on the
street to model for him speaks directly to his
method of reinterpreting famous works of
European portraiture to spotlight contemporary
Black people. But Barack Obama was
no chance meeting, and the difference was
apparent to Wiley from the start. “Generally
I’m painting the powerless,” Wiley says in
a video interview available in the exhibit,
noting by contrast that having the American
President as your model means working
with “arguably, the most powerful man in
the world.” But for President Obama, that
reversal was exactly the point. “I was always
struck by the degree to which [Wiley’s
portraits] challenged our conventional
views of power and privilege,” Obama
is quoted in the exhibit. The President
lauds the artist’s “extraordinary care and
precision and vision in recognizing the
beauty and the grace and the dignity of
people who are so often invisible…”
Over the course of a year through a
combination of photo shoots and in-person
sittings, Wiley and Sherald completed their
respective works, which were unveiled to
the world in 2018. Seen individually, they
are masterful works befitting the Obamas
stature as both political figures and cultural
icons. Taken together, it’s striking how very
different the two images are.
A Study in Distinction
The portrait of Barack Obama explodes
with color. From the billowing, floral
backdrop to the tone of the president’s
skin, everything in the image is vibrant and
lively. Far from the formal stances that most
presidents have adopted in their portraits,
Obama in this image is conscientiously
informal, with an unbuttoned shirt, no tie
and absent any of the background regalia
associated with his office. Rather than
standing imperiously or sitting regally, the
president is leaning forward as if engaged
in conversation. His gaze is direct, and in
that somewhat unsettling way that he often
does, Kehinde Wiley succeeds in creating
the lifelike impression that the man in this
painting is very interested in what you’re
about to say. In all, it’s a very colorful and
engaging look at a person whose position
typically sets them apart.
Amy Sherald’s portrait of Michele
Obama is an equally masterful work made
all the more striking by its deep contrasts
with Wiley’s portrait of Barack. Featuring
Sherald’s typically subdued color palette
and minimalist background, the image has
the calm and regal quality often associated
with classical portraiture. Contrasting
Wiley’s nearly photorealistic approach to
depicting features, the soft lines of Sherald’s
portrait feels more like an impression of the
First Lady — a feeling — than a direct translation
of her likeness. And where Barack in
his image is informal and engaging, Michelle
in hers is sophisticated and somewhat aloof,
with a look that could be as much appraising
as inviting, and leaving us to guess which it
might be.
Between the Lines
Presidential portraiture is always
symbolic by nature and often its content
is largely symbolic as well. In analyzing a
famed portrait of George Washington, the
exhibit lists seven symbolic inclusions in
elements ranging from Washington’s stance
to a small rainbow seen in the background.
For Barack Obama, the flowering backdrop
that surrounds him includes homages to
several important places in his life’s journey.
The African blue lilies are a tribute to his
Kenyan father while the jasmine refers to
Hawaii along with chrysanthemums, the
official flowers of Chicago.
For Michelle Obama, the colorfully
modern geometric print of her dress bears
a strong relationship to African American
quilt-making traditions such as those
which have survived in Gee’s Bend Alabama
since before the Civil War. Also interesting
is Sherald’s use of an empty backdrop
for this portrait. While a frequent element
in her work as a whole, it is also a common
motif for the portraits of past presidents.
John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Thomas
Jefferson and William Henry Harrison all
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