President Barack Hussein Obama & First Lady Michelle Obama: Portriats Unveiled at Smithsonian National Gallery

Posted on February 12, 2018 by rikyrah

How’s this for BLACK HISTORY MONTH?

ICYMI Because we can’t get enough of our POTUS & FLOTUS. I’m old school. While sound bytes of events have their place and meanings, I like to sit back and savor the whole enchilada.

The Obamas attend unveiling of their portraits-FULL AIRING

By Kehinde Wiley

Michelle Obama

By Amy Sherald

This entry was posted in African Americans, Arts, Barack Obama, Black History, First Lady Michelle Obama, FLOTUS, Michelle Obama, POTUS, President Obama and tagged , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

34 Responses to President Barack Hussein Obama & First Lady Michelle Obama: Portriats Unveiled at Smithsonian National Gallery

  2. Ametia says:
    February 14, 2018 at 12:19 pm

    Full Interview

    Reply
  5. Ametia says:
    February 13, 2018 at 10:56 am
    Reply
  6. rikyrah says:
    February 13, 2018 at 7:10 am

    While I understand those who complain about Forever FLOTUS’S portrait..
    I love it.
    Does it LOOK exactly like Forever FLOTUS?
    No.
    But, I think it captured her essence….as odd as that might sound.

    Reply
    • Ametia says:
      February 13, 2018 at 10:26 am

      I know what you mean, Rikyrah.

      To me, the portrait of FLOTUS captures her perfectly. Look into those eyes.

      I keep looking at the images of PBO starring at her portrait., and get the sense he sees his wife, his lover, the mother of his children, and more. He’s looking way beyond, He’s looking at SOUL.

      Anyone who appreciates art, a variety of art, will go beyond what they think a person or object SHOULD look like.

      Reply
      • eliihass says:
        February 14, 2018 at 6:34 am

        Of course it’s her. Some version of her..

        We all have different faces depending on angle, hair, make-up, expression etc..

        And more importantly, based on whose perspective we are being seen from …who’s capturing us – photographer or painter ..I’ve often said that photographers like artists who like you, take their time not only to capture you at your best, but do the hard work of getting to understand your best angles.. And present you well.. sometimes in ways that others never noticed …or see you..

        This is tempered … a pensive side of her – posed and captured by an artist who works entirely in minimalist/grayscale style.. Perhaps the bridge of the nose is a tad off.. slightly higher and the nose not quite as slim as our historic FLOTUS’, but depending on what angle the artist captured her from, who knows, this might just how the artist saw it..

        In her time as First Lady, photographs of her were not carefully guarded, controlled or properly curated as is done for other First Ladies .. whose were/are carefully edited and photoshopped – some often to the point of ridiculousness.. With only the seemingly ‘perfect’ images, approved and released to the public by the White House press office…

        So with nobody guarding her image, everything was put out there …and it was easy for malicious folk to take the very worst images taken from unflattering angles – and run with those – saturate the internet with the same unflattering images – even sometimes further negatively edited… while the really beautiful captures of her were barely ever used…

        Even some black news sites chose to use some of these same unflattering photographs in rotation, for some odd reason.. when there were a ton of really beautiful options..

        The danger in the ‘outcry’ from the portrait unveiling …by some well-meaning folk who’d never heard of the artist and had no idea the artist had a particular style – is that so many malicious and spiteful others, insidiously and not so insidiously, slipped right in with all the noise to sow their own negative seeds, hate-filled insults, dehumanizing and denigration..

        It opened the door for the alt-right and other envious, malicious and spiteful folk to dive right in …insulting, attacking and denigrating – with some of them picking up and running with how it looked more like some random black actress – that was supposed to be ‘prettier’…they assumed that would in some way hurt Mrs Obama’s feelings.. 🙄🙄

        Even some so-called ‘progressives’ got their digs in…Not at the painting, but at the historic FLOTUS..

        You know the sort of ‘progressives’ and ‘open-minded liberal’ types who prefer their ‘black’ people ‘mixed-race’… And are decidedly uncomfortable with an unabashedly proud and unaffected black woman like our historic FLOTUS who’s never sought their validation, bent to their whims – or slipped into trying to impress them or the ‘please like and approve of me’ affectation mode, or morphed into their preferred white-washed version of what a fully black person has to do and be to be more ‘comfortable’ to interact with, and be acceptable to them… their preferred sign of ceding and surrender to their smug sense of ‘supremacy’..

        Sam Stein, Mika, Scarborough, Chris Cilizza – who’ve consistently run interference on behalf of, and played save the poor damsel for the buffoon’s 3rd wife and daughter-wife …Folks who pretended that an ‘official portrait’ photo-shopped to death …so much so that there was no resemblance to, or nary a visible image even left to see, was in fact not just completely normal, but pure perfection..

        Folks who turned a blind eye to tacky nudes and lies about college degrees …folks who spend their time screaming ‘misogyny’ and disapprovingly tsk-tsking at ‘slut-shaming’ – and defending and begging off any slight criticsm of buffoon’s complicit plastic 3rd wife and daughter-wife …and casting them instead as ‘beautiful’ and helpless ‘trapped victim’ to be saved and protected… even as the complicits milk the sympathy and laugh at the idiots they didn’t even have to lift a finger to fool..

        Suddenly these same folks have no qualms about ‘misogyny’ …unleashing their deep-seated resentment and insults on the historic First Lady..

        Chris Cilizza – Ivanka-protector, took to Twitter to post that the portrait was beautiful, and so looked nothing like the historic First Lady..

        He went on to post a photo of Brad Pitt …mockingly writing that that was how he Cilizza saw himself portrayed in a portrait..

        Sam Stein and the rest gleefully echoed the same crap about the portrait being too ‘beautiful’ to be her, sentiments…

        Which is rather amusing, because the portrait did not in fact take any positive artistic liberties – there were no positive embellishments or exaggerations whatsoever …nor did it in my opinion, capture her at her most physically beautiful.. It was more a calm, pensive portrait that with a bland grayscale, captured mostly a certain essence of her …

        But in the minds of those who’ll never see a fully black woman as beautiful, any mildly decent portrayal, is too much, and nothing short of unacceptable…

        The irony: The living, breathing historic FLOTUS …standing next to this minimalist portrait of herself that some deemed ‘too beautiful’ to be her, actually in reality, completely outshone the portrait in real time..

        Reply
    • Ametia says:
      February 14, 2018 at 10:51 am

      That’s my lady, always breaking it down like a fraction.

      The haters gonna hate. NO ONE CARES.

      Reply
  7. vitaminlover says:
    February 12, 2018 at 7:13 pm

    They are both so humble. I love them

    Reply
  9. rikyrah says:
    February 12, 2018 at 5:49 pm

    So, since these weren’t the WH portraits, we still have the chance to get 44 in the tan suit :)

    Reply
  19. yahtzeebutterfly says:
    February 12, 2018 at 4:51 pm

    Fabulous!

    Reply

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