Unveiling the unconventional : Kehinde Wiley's portrait of Barack Obama / Taína Caragol -- "Radical empathy" : Amy Sherald's portrait of Michelle Obama / Dorothy Moss -- The Obama portraits, in art history and beyond / Richard J. Powell -- The Obama portraits and the National Portrait Gallery as a site of secular pilgrimage / Kim Sajet -- The presentation of the Obama portraits : a transcript of the unveiling ceremony.
"Published to accompany the exhibition Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence at the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (March 1, 2019-January 5, 2020)"--Colophon.
A gorgeous publication that reveals the historical importance of first ladies through portraiture. Each first lady has brought her own priorities and flair to the position that has never been officially defined. They have served as hostesses, trendsetters, activists, and political players. First Ladies of the United States features 84 portraits of the nation's first ladies, as varied in style and representation as the individual women they depict. From watercolors and oil paintings to engravings and photographs, this book celebrates the legacy of first ladies throughout history. First ladies are some of the most scrutinized public figures in the country, praised or criticized on everything from their fashion to their level of political involvement. There's no better way to explore their visibility and lasting impact than with First Ladies of the United States, which places remarkable portraits alongside an insightful essay and lively entries that illuminate the history of the women who have shaped the White House.
This book presents little-known artworks from important Washington-area private collections. These portraits by major artists date from the mid-eighteenth century to the present and speak to the many compelling ways that paintings and sculpture capture human likenesses and personalities.
This richly illustrated book features an introduction by the National Portrait Gallery's chief curator and nearly 150 insightful entries on key self-portraits in the museum's collection. "Eye to I" provides readers with an overview of self-portraiture while revealing the intersections that exist between art, life, and self-representation. Drawing primarily from the museum's collection, "Eye to I" explores how American artists have portrayed themselves since 1900. The book shows that while each individual's approach to self-portraiture arises under unique circumstances, all of their representations raise important questions about self-perception and self-reflection. Sometimes artists choose to reveal intimate details of their inner lives. Other times they use the genre to obfuscate their true selves or invent alter egos. Today, with the proliferation of selfies and the contemporary focus on identity, it is time to reassess the significance of the self-portrait. Exhibition: National Portrait Gallery, Washington D.C., USA (02.11.2018-18.28.2019).
The New Art Museum Library addresses the issues facing today's art museum libraries through a series of scholarly essays written by top librarians in the field. In 2007, the publication, Art Museum Libraries and Librarianship, edited by Joan Benedetti, was the first to solely focus on the field of art museum librarianship. In the decade since then, many changes have occurred in the field--both technological and ideological--prompting the need for a follow-up publication. In addition to representing current thinking and practice, this new publication also addresses the need to clearly articulate and define the art museum library’s value within its institution. It documents the broad changes in the environment that art museum libraries now function within and to celebrate the many innovative initiatives that are flourishing in this new landscape. Librarians working in art museum face unique challenges as museums redefine what object-based, visitor-centric learning looks like in the 21st century. These unique challenges mean that art museum libraries are developing new strategies and initiatives so that they can continue to thrive in this environment. The unique nature of these initiatives mean that they will be useful to librarians working in a wide range of special libraries, as well as more broadly in academic and public libraries. The New Art Museum Library is uniquely positioned to present new strategies and initiatives including digital art history initiatives, the new norms in art museum library staffing, and the public programing priorities that are core to many art museum libraries today. This book is an endorsed project of ARLIS/NA.
A New York Times bestseller! A visit to Washington, DC’s National Portrait Gallery forever alters Parker Curry’s young life when she views First Lady Michelle Obama’s portrait. When Parker Curry came face-to-face with Amy Sherald’s transcendent portrait of First Lady Michelle Obama at the National Portrait Gallery, she didn’t just see the First Lady of the United States. She saw a queen—one with dynamic self-assurance, regality, beauty, and truth who captured this young girl’s imagination. When a nearby museum-goer snapped a photo of a mesmerized Parker, it became an internet sensation. Inspired by this visit, Parker, and her mother, Jessica Curry, tell the story of a young girl and her family, whose trip to a museum becomes an extraordinary moment, in a moving picture book. Parker Looks Up follows Parker, along with her baby sister and her mother, and her best friend Gia and Gia’s mother, as they walk the halls of a museum, seeing paintings of everyone and everything from George Washington Carver to Frida Kahlo, exotic flowers to graceful ballerinas. Then, Parker walks by Sherald’s portrait of Michelle Obama…and almost passes it. But she stops...and looks up! Parker saw the possibility and promise, the hopes and dreams of herself in this powerful painting of Michelle Obama. An everyday moment became an extraordinary one…that continues to resonate its power, inspiration, and indelible impact. Because, as Jessica Curry said, “anything is possible regardless of race, class, or gender.” **FOREWORD BY ARTIST AMY SHERALD**
Published on the occasion of an exhibition (April 24, 2020 through January 18, 2021) that celebrates a major gift of portraits to the National Portrait Gallery. The book traces the life of Ian M. Cumming who, with his wife Annette P. Cumming, commissioned portraits of several prominent artists, activists, scientists, businessmen, and other thought leaders.
An old genre is given a new look, as portraits and self-portraits of Marcel Duchamp invent and cover up as much as they reveal and portray. One of the most influential artists of the twentieth century, Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) was a master of self-invention who carefully regulated the image he projected through self-portraiture and through his collaboration with those who portrayed him. During his long career, Duchamp recast accepted modes for assembling and describing identity, indelibly altering the terrain of portraiture. This groundbreaking book (which accompanies a major exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery) demonstrates the ways in which Duchamp willfully manipulated the techniques of portraiture both to secure his reputation as an iconoclast and to establish himself as a major figure in the art world. Although scholars have explored Duchamp's use of aliases, little attention has been paid to how this work played into, and against, existing portrait conventions. Nor has any study yet compared these explicitly self-constructed projects with the large body of portraits of Duchamp by others. Inventing Marcel Duchamp showcases approximately one hundred never-before-assembled portraits and self-portraits of Duchamp. The (broadly defined) self-portraits and self-representations include the famous autobiographical suitcase Boîte-en-Valise and Self-Portrait in Profile, a torn silhouette that became very influential for future generations of artists. The portraits by other artists include works by Duchamp's contemporaries Man Ray, Alfred Stieglitz, Francis Picabia, Beatrice Wood, and Florine Stettheimer as well as portraits by more recent generations of artists, including Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Sturtevant, Yasumasa Morimura, David Hammons, and Douglas Gordon. Since the mid-twentieth century, as abstraction assumed a position of dominance in fine art, portraiture has been often derided as an art form; the images and essays in Inventing Marcel Duchamp counter this, and invite us to rethink the role of portraiture in modern and contemporary art.
