The Obama’s official White House portraits are here
Plus: This font is perfect for wedding invitations and baby announcements, and it’s part of a massive lawsuit
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The Obama’s official White House portraits are here
At long last, Jenny Holzer takes on “Q drops” and Trump tweets
This font is perfect for wedding invitations and baby announcements, and it’s part of a massive lawsuit
The Obama’s official White House portraits are here
Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama unveiled their official White House portraits today, and they’re both a departure from portraits of their recent predecessors.
Artist Robert McCurdy, who paints photorealistic paintings, painted the former president, and Sharon Sprung painted the former FLOTUS.
Barack said Sprung’s painting captured everything he loved about Michelle, “Her grace, her intelligence, and the fact that she’s fine. She is. Her portrait is stunning.”
Of his own portrait, Barack said, “What I love about Robert’s work is he paints people exactly as they are, for better or worse.”
“He captures every wrinkle on your face, every crease in your shirt,” Obama said. “You’ll note that he refused to hide any of my grey hairs, refused my request to make my ears smaller.”
Recent official presidential portraits have typically shown the sitter in the White House, but McCurdy painted the 44th president against a white backdrop, as he has for portraits of people including Nelson Mandela, Jeff Bezos, and the Dalai Lama.
Here’s the most recent presidential portraits, for reference:
Former first lady portraits have been more adventurous with color, like Nancy Reagan’s dramatic red dress moment. Sprung’s portrait of Michelle is rich in bright colors, with a pink backdrop, red sofa, and a light blue dress that’s giving Britney Spears in “Slumber Party” and reminds me of the blue in Amy Sherald’s portrait of Michelle and the cover of “Becoming.”
Here’s the most recent first lady portraits, for reference:
Sprung said in a video released by the Obama Foundation “they wanted a modern sense.”
“I don’t want it look like it was done in 1913 or whatever,” Sprung said. “I want it to look this time and place.”
The White House Historical Association began collecting portraits of U.S. presidents and first ladies beginning in 1965 when it acquired a portrait of Eleanor Roosevelt. Today, POTUSes and FLOTUSes usually pick out their artists before leaving the White House, according to the association.
The tradition of inviting the former president back for the unveiling started in 1978 when Jimmy Carter welcomed Gerald and Betty Ford back to the White House. Though Carter declined an unveiling for himself after leaving office, the tradition persisted until former President Donald Trump made it through his four years in office without inviting back Obama.
At long last, Jenny Holzer takes on “Q drops” and Trump tweets
Jenny Holzer is giving her take on QAnon.
The artist — whose work explores the written word — designed an electronic sign that lights up with posts from Q, the anonymous leader of the conspiracy theory, plus @realdonaldtrump tweets.
Titled “WTF” (2022), the work lights up erratically with the posts as a nod to the erratic nature of so-called “Q drops” and Trump’s late Twitter feed, according to Hauser & Wirth. The room will be lined with metal fragments stamped with Trump tweets, inspired by ancient Roman lead tablets.
“Together, the battering-ram-like electronics and quasi-archaeological tablets compose a time capsule of the recent past and present, recording the hyperbolic, enraged rhetoric characterizing today’s political and media landscape,” the gallery said in a statement.
Holzer is also set to show new paintings made on large-scale images of the Mueller Report, FBI records related to the Patriot Act, and other heavily redacted government documents.
Holzer’s exhibition Demented Words opens Friday at Hauser & Wirth New York and runs through Oct. 29.
This font is perfect for wedding invitations and baby announcements, and it’s part of a massive lawsuit
Blooming Elegant has been one of the most popular typefaces on Zazzle for years, but its designer says the on-demand printing and apparel company has been using it fraudulently, so she sued.