Why Barack and Michelle Obama's new presidential portraits matter

In her new official portrait, Michelle Obama looks directly at viewers with a powerful gaze. There's a gravity and seriousness to her expression, and an enigmatic vibe that seems reminiscent of a very famous work to one Detroit art expert.

"I'm surprised more people haven't drawn more comparisons to Leonardo da Vinci's 'Mona Lisa,' " says Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit executive director Elysia Borowy-Reeder. "That's a very 'Mona Lisa' smile."

That's the thing about the presidential portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama. It's hard to think of any past presidential portraits that have been greeted with such excitement for their bold vision and innovative style.

It's even harder to imagine one that actually is interesting to discuss. Until now.

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America's first African-American First Couple, who unveiled their official portraits Feb. 12 at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C., selected two acclaimed African-American artists to capture their likenesses.

Since that debut, the former president's portrait by Kehinde Wiley and the former first lady's portrait by Amy Sherald have faced the scrutiny of art critics, political pundits and pop culture aficionados.

The reviews from the art world have been largely positive. As Holland Cotter of the New York Times wrote, "Mr. Wiley depicts Mr. Obama not as a self-assured, standard-issue bureaucrat, but as an alert and troubled thinker. Ms. Sherald’s image of Mrs. Obama overemphasizes an element of couturial spectacle, but also projects a rock-solid cool."

Not surprisingly in 2018, the paintings also have inspired some pretty funny memes, ranging from one with an image of Homer Simpson disappearing into the foliage of Wiley's portrait to another that replaces Obama with the well-known photo of a shorts-clad Chris Christie sitting in a beach chair.

And there has been some coverage that reeks of clickbait (or, depending on which site it came from, trolling). The Wrap website ran an inflammatory headline – "Obama Portrait Artist Kehinde Wiley Once Painted Black Women Decapitating White Women" – with a story that explained how Wiley is known for putting African-American men and women into works that play off classic Western art images.

The paintings referenced by the headline are related to the Biblical story of Judith beheading Holofernes – a theme also tackled by 17th Century artist Caravaggio.

Wiley's portrait of Obama shows him sitting somberly with his arms crossed, wearing a suit without a tie, and surrounded by lush green foliage and flowers. The background symbolizes his political roots in Chicago with chrysanthemums, his childhood in Hawaii with jasmine, and his late father's Kenyan heritage with African blue lilies.

Michelle Obama's portrait by Sherald, an artist from Baltimore who often addresses themes of social injustice, is strikingly geometric. In it, the former first lady sits against a vibrant blue backdrop with her famously toned arms exposed and her stylish gown forming the base of a triangle shape that dominates the canvas.

The gown symbolizes Michelle Obama's keen fashion sense, but it carries a bigger message, too. As the Washington Post reported, the dress from Michelle Smith’s spring 2017 Milly collection was inspired, according to Smith, by a “desire for equality, equality in human rights, racial equality, LGBTQ equality"

Both paintings represent a conscious break from the stuffy norms of portraits of presidents, which date back to George Washington and can be described as traditional likenesses of old white guys in the dark suits and ties of their era.

Ditto for the first ladies, whose official portraits became obligatory in the 20th Century and who mostly are pictured wearing staid formal outfits and sitting or standing in front of realistic backgrounds.

The Obamas, in contrast, opted for artists who were expected to do something groundbreaking.

"Being a curator and admiring the work of Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald, I feel especially proud and happy that Michelle and Barack Obama chose these African-American artists to do their portraits and to break with convention," says Valerie Mercer, the Detroit Institute of Arts' curator of African American Art. "Why would they want some of those ... boring, official portraits?"

Mercer says the paintings send a very deliberate message. "They are making a statement as being very contemporary people ... You choose artists like these for their distinct visions."

Both paintings offer interpretations of the Obamas that conform to their public images. As Mercer notes, Wiley's Obama is "a thinker. He's serious. He's intelligent. He looks like he's ready to problem solve, but that's how most people see him."

Sherald's Michelle Obama is attractive, contemplative, confident and stylish, not to mention an inspiring role model for young African-American women and girls.

What ties the portraits together is the mood of their gaze. "Both of them look like they're thinking about big issues," says Mercer.

The former president's portrait has spurred interest in one of Wiley's best-known paintings, 2007's "Officer of the Hussars," which is a popular work at the DIA. A nod to an 1812 painting by French painter Theodore Gericault, it shows a young black man wearing a sleeveless white T-shirt and jeans while seated on a horse and gripping a sword.

"When we bought that painting, it just blew everyone away," says Mercer. "There was a little crowd in front of it immediately."

Mercer remembers that the painting evoked an emotional connection from the start. "As soon as we put it up, even the staff, I never saw a response like that. I was getting hugs from a lot of the black men who work at the museum. It made them feel really proud ... seeing a black man in this heroic composition."

MOCAD's Borowy-Reeder thinks the Wiley and Sherald portraits are a stunning tribute to the game-changing first couple as both political and cultural icons.

"The Obamas are probably the most stylish, sophisticated couple since the Kennedys. They're powerful individuals in their respective roles," says Borowy-Reeder.

MOCAD is no stranger to Barack Obama's effect on art. In 2015, it displayed thousands of portraits of the former president by New York artist Rob Pruitt.

As former Free Press art critic Mark Stryker wrote of the exhibit, "As a whole, the paintings create not only a kind of cumulative portrait of Obama that documents his presidency but also capture the relentless march of time and the convoluted and complex mix of gravitas, banality and celebrity that defines American politics. From another vantage point, the photographic base of the paintings raises questions about currency and ownership of images in our digital age."

Borowy-Reeder thinks the new presidential portraits will be embraced by most people, whether they are art buffs or not.

"I think they're going to see them as strong images. They look very contemporary and we're living in contemporary, complex times," says Borowy-Reeder. "I think they're extremely relevant because they do pull the past forward."

Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture writer Julie Hinds: 313-222-6427 or jhinds@freepress.com.