The Obama Portraits Prepare to Leave the National Portrait Gallery

Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery

By Marie Kottenstette

If you have paid a visit to the National Portrait Gallery any time over the past two years, you have most likely seen Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald’s portraits of former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama. Starting in May 2021, the portraits of both Obamas will be notably absent from the gallery.

The portraits are leaving the gallery for a year long national tour visiting locations across the United States. Starting at the Art Institute of Chicago, the works will then travel to four other museums: the Brooklyn Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. 

In May, the portraits will be removed from the gallery to undergo tour preparations before arriving at the Art Institute of Chicago on June 18, 2021. The portraits will eventually make their return to the National Portrait Gallery in May of 2022.

Along with the artwork itself, the National Portrait Gallery has worked to create a presentation to engage the communities which the portraits are visiting. According to the National Portrait Gallery website, this presentation includes audio-visual elements, teacher workshops led by gallery employees, and curatorial presentations.

Since their unveiling back in February of 2018, the portraits have drawn an unprecedented amount of visitors to the museum with a record-breaking 2.3 million visitors in 2018 alone. 

Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald are notable not only for their distinct and striking artistic styles, but also for being the first African American artists to paint presidential portraits. They were chosen by the Obamas from an array of artists, and each of their works have been well-received and highly praised.

Wiley’s portrait of former President Obama is notable for its unconventional style and vibrancy. The portrait shows Obama in a relaxed pose and is full of references to the former president’s personal life. For example, each of the flowers in the background of the painting hold special meaning for the president. Chrysanthe­mums are the official flower of Chicago, the jasmine in the painting references Obama’s Hawaiian roots, and the African blue lilies are a symbol of his late Kenyan father.

Sherald is a Baltimore based artist and the winner of the 2016 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. Sherald created the portrait with the consideration that women simply relate to the former First Lady “no matter what shape, size, race, or color. . . . We see our best selves in her.” The strikingly simple, soft pale blue background and color palate draws any viewer in to study the intricacies of Sherald’s image of the former First Lady.

There is still time before these portraits embark on their national journey, but many should make a concerted effort to witness them at the National Gallery before they depart in 2021.