Posted on 04/27/2018 3:53:30 PM PDT by ethom
First impressions are important, and for many people, their introduction to artist Amy Sherald and her work came in February. That’s when she stood alongside First Lady Michelle Obama and helped unveil her official portrait at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.
Now the High Museum is honoring Sherald — who is a native of Columbus, Georgia — with this year’s David C. Driskell Prize, the first national award to honor and celebrate contributions to the field of art of the African Diaspora.
Sherald’s portrait of Obama features her seated in a stunning patterned dress, looking at once thoughtful and relaxed.
“As a portrait painter, you have the capacity to capture something that is not captured in photography, she tells City Lights host Lois Reitzes. “And in that moment, that’s what I saw. It was a piece of her or a type of energy that I hadn’t picked up in any of the photographs.”
The work also drew criticism due to Sherald’s use of grayscale for skin color.
“You grow up knowing that you’re black because other people look at you that way. Who would we be without all of the external directives?” she asks. Saying that her work is a means to explore “the crooks and the crannies of who you really are and how you really exist in the world.”
“I wanted these images to live in spaces where they can be commentary to black people. They can walk into a museum and rest their eyes on somebody that’s looking back and reflecting love to them,” Sherald said. “But viewers who are non-black can approach the image and maybe in a way internalize who these people are without dissecting them first based on their skin color.”
The portraits are supposed to be actual likenesses.....not caricatures.
Is it the museum or the curator that is high?
Is there such an art category as “fictional portraits”? I would understand such an award in this context.
Sheesh....I try to draw, sketch, paint people (NEWBY) and I actually think if I’d attempted Michelle, I could have done better! And, that’s not saying much.
it looks like it was done with pencil
It just does not look even close. Not even the same ballpark. I bet if you asked 1,000 people, without telling them, who that weird-looking chick painted nobody would know.
That weird-looking chick needs a new eyeglass prescription.
My fist take on seeing the painting was it looked like a tenth place effort in a teens draw Mo contest where there were only ten entries.
the reaction on Moochies face is priceless!
Maybe even 11th.
it looks like an asian woman crossed with Diana Ross
LOL. Yeah, she has that “Very nice! We’re gonna put that right on the fridge” look.
And the weird-looking one is going “Yay! I painted!”
The best I could ever do is stick people.
I’m no artist.
When affirmative action enters art, it’s really revealing
Liberals giving awards created by liberals to give to other liberals.
There was a young woman in some of my college classes that could draw people very beautifully.
Even the pencil sketches were eye catching.
like the Nobel prize for that idiot that got shoved onto us by the oligarchy....
at least the crooked evil little smile is right....
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