As is tradition, former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama now have portraits in the Smithsonian National Gallery in Washington, D.C.
The portraits were unveiled Monday and they are definitely, um, something to see.
Mrs. Obama’s portrait, which was presented first, was painted by Artist Amy Sherald.
Pres. Obama’s portrait, painted by Artist Kehinde Wiley, has the subject sitting in a chair, suspended amongst ivy.
Okay, I’m just going to say what sane people are thinking: These portraits seem more like jokes than portraits for the National Gallery.
It’s a rare day I am thankful for Twitter, but today is one of them.
They’re extremely unexceptional from a purely technical standpoint, without even getting into the stylistic choices
— Joe Gabriel Simonson (@SaysSimonson) February 12, 2018
Oh, let’s get into the style.
Nice trolling to immortalize Obama as the eternal manspreader. pic.twitter.com/AKjHzxi99V
— Holden (@Holden114) February 12, 2018
We should have known this was coming — pic.twitter.com/kZXdGOUzLo
— Karen Tumulty (@ktumulty) February 12, 2018
Or perhaps Obama is trying to send a subliminal message about how he feels being the predecessor to Donald Trump.
And at least one learned art critic I know of had nothing nice to say about the portraits.
Two horrible, poorly-executed paintings of two horrible, awful people. Seems appropriate. https://t.co/q90x9zUWYr
— William Newton ن (@wbdnewton) February 12, 2018
So, anyway, we’ll be looking at those for a while now.
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