Posted on 02/13/2018 1:28:12 PM PST by COUNTrecount
While the official portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama unveiled Monday were applauded by the art world—for their intense visual impact as much as the choice of Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald, artists who are both critical darlings and the first African-Americans to paint presidential portraits commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery—there was plenty for the Twitterati to snark about. The wall of greenery behind President Obama was an obvious opening for jokes about his history with marijuana and Sean Spicer hiding in the White House bushes. Criticism of Michelle Obama’s portrait centered around two points. The face didn’t look much like her; some suggested it more closely resembles Kerry Washington, who plays a high-powered White House operative on Scandal. And the face—whoever it belonged to—was overshadowed by the striking, floor-length dress.
But there’s a reason for both of those criticisms: The dress is what says the most in this portrait, far more than the indistinct face.
First, the criticism about the lack of resemblance to the former first lady comes as no surprise to those of us familiar with the work of Sherald, a Baltimore-based artist. While she is best known for her stylized portraits of African-American women, they aren’t really portraits they depict anonymous subjects, under evocative titles contrasting grayscale skin tones against colorful clothing and a monochrome background. The neutral palette challenges racial stereotypes, while the flat plane evokes American folk art, At the unveiling, Sherald described the composition as “the act of Michelle Obama being her authentic self”—suggesting that she was aiming for something more than a mere superficial resemblance.
Secondly, there’s a reason why Obama’s face is the least interesting element here: The dress is as much a window into the former first lady’s identity as her face, and possibly a more accurate one.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
The big dress hides any notion of a jock strap or bulging man parts.
The good news is that the Obamas will be stuck with these terrible paintings forever, a fitting legacy.
ROFL!!!!!
The current First Lady is the only one who could pull it off!
arms look like elephant trunks. I always thought she should cover her arms.
Because he turned at the last second?
My bad - the cigarette is in the doctored pic, not the original.
They’re just following what used to be known as the “fashion world” before Michelle Obama became a FLOTUS.
It looks like a quilt or as LBJ said 50 plus years ago:
It’s like grandma’s nightshirt; it covers everything!” Such was President Lyndon Johnson’s reaction to the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which now gave him a free hand in Vietnam to take “all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression.” Yet even with such sweeping presidential powers, historian Paul Johnson notes, “LBJ proved as indecisive over Vietnam as Kennedy was,” and a pattern of duplicity emerged whereby Johnson would tell the American public that the U.S. did not want a wider war while at the same time continuing to increase U.S. troop commitments.
She could. Dolley Madison could probably have pulled it off in her youth as well. Pat Nixon and Nancy Reagan were too old, when they were First Lady, to get away with such shenanigans ... but could certainly have done so in their youth.
Good point, maybe they can go into Hussein’s digital community organizer non library.
I will NEVER be able to un-see that.
Why does Michelle have a tiny head?.....To house her tiny mind and emphasize her big mouth?
She has Millions of Hungry school children hiding under that dress
“Why does Michelle have a tiny head?”
It’s the right size for her tiny brain.
First time I’ve seen her with her sloppy mouth shut.
The real issue behind this hideous sham is that the artist specialized in pictures of white women having their heads cut off.
Imagine if the color tables were reversed. Sickening.
That’s the one I was afraid to post!
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