Obama’s Official White House Portrait Will Not Be Unveiled While Trump Is in Office

Breaking with a tradition that goes back more than forty years,
President Trump will not welcome his predecessor, Barack Obama,
into the East Wing for the grand reveal of his White House
portrait. Amid an escalating war of
words between the current and former presidents, NBC
News reports that
neither wants to take part in the ritual. Portraits of Barack and
Michelle Obama will therefore likely not be installed until
Trump is out of office.

The White House displays portraits of every president since
George Washington. These official artworks are created through
a highly specific process: they are commissioned by the
White House Historical Association, a
privately funded heritage organization, with the artists being
selected personally by the former president and first lady. When
complete, the Association donates the paintings to the White House,
whose curator places them.

According to NBC, the artists for the Obama portraits were
selected in early 2017, though because of a confidentiality
agreement, the details remain unknown. Recent White House portraits
have been by John Howard Sanden, who painted both George W.
Bush and Laura Bush in 2012; Simmie Knox, who
painted Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton in 2001;
Herbert Adams, who painted George H.W. Bush in 1994; and
Chas Fagen, who painted Barbara Bush, also in
1994.

(The White House portraits are distinct from the official
portraits held at Washington, DC’s National Portrait
Gallery, where paintings of Barack and Michelle Obama by Kehinde
Wiley and Amy Sherald have proved a sensation since their unveiling
in 2018. These are even scheduled to go on a national
tour.)

The unveiling customarily happens towards the end of the first
term of a president’s successor, and brings the former president’s
staff, family, and friends back to the White House to mingle with
the current occupants. The Obamas, for instance, welcomed George
and Laura Bush in the East Wing for their reveal in 2012.

“George, I will always remember the gathering you hosted for all
the living former Presidents before I took office, your kind words
of encouragement,” Obama said at the time.
“Plus, you also left me a really good TV sports package.”

Bush had his own wishes for Obama at the 2012 ceremony. “I am
also pleased, Mr. President, that when you are wandering these
halls as you wrestle with tough decisions, you will now be able to
gaze at this portrait and ask, what would George do?”

In a virtual commencement address on Saturday, Obama seemed
to compare Trump to a
small child. Trump has recently accused the
ex-president of committing the “biggest political crime and scandal
in the history of the USA,” though he has been vague about what he
means.

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Unveiled While Trump Is in Office appeared first on artnet
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