It’s a simple question: who painted the Obamas’ official White House portraits?
We know what you’re thinking: Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald painted the wildly popular portraits of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. They went on display at the National Portrait Gallery in 2018, and are currently on a national tour.
But we’re talking about the official White House portraits. Since the Kennedy Administration, the White House Historical Association has commissioned them for the President’s House. Traditionally, they’re unveiled in a public East Room ceremony within a few years of the president leaving office, though the Trump Administration skipped that particular formality.
Another tradition: keeping the identity of the artist, or artists, of the White House portraits confidential until they’re unveiled. It’s been that way since the Lyndon Johnson Administration. Back then, LBJ cracked wise about Peter Hurd’s portrait of him, calling it “the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen.” Rather than display it in the White House, Johnson commissioned a second artist to paint him, and donated Hurd’s to the National Portrait Gallery.
Apart from trying to save the artist any embarrassment, there’s another explanation for the confidentiality of the artist’s identity, according to Stewart McLaurin, president of the White House Historical Association. “It’s also to avoid your colleagues asking them ‘when are things going to be done?’” he told me in an interview in 2021.
As for who was tapped to paint the Obama portraits, “I will tell you it is not the same artists as the National Portrait Gallery,” McLaurin said in 2021. That’s not surprising. In the three decades since the National Portrait Gallery first started commissioning “official” portraits for their collection, those artists have always been different from the people selected for the White House portraits.
The news last month that President Obama visited the White House for the first time in five years was a reminder that the portraits have not been unveiled. It is expected to happen, however; news agencies reported in June 2021 that Biden would restore the portrait unveiling tradition. Then came the Delta and Omicron COVID variants, and war in Ukraine: the White House has likely had more pressing issues than interior decorating.
Although the identities of the painters remains a secret, we can still speculate on them. The Obamas gave us some clues as to the style they might go for with their selections of Wiley and Sherald for their National Portrait Gallery paintings. Wiley was a former artist-in-residence at the Studio Museum of Harlem, where Obama art adviser Thelma Golden is the director. Sherald won first prize in the 2016 Outwin Boochever Portrait competition.
With these guideposts, below are one reporter’s ruminations on which artists would be interesting picks for the Obama White House portraits — and how those artists’ work would complement the collection. Once we made the list, DCist attempted to contact each artist. While most did not respond, several artists or their representatives said they had not been selected for the job. We have denoted their responses below.
Jordan Casteel, Studio Museum of Harlem residency, 2015
Casteel’s paintings are reminiscent of Alice Neel’s, whose paintings have been loaned to the White House and hung in the yellow oval room, Michael Smith, the Obamas’ White House interior designer, wrote in his book Designing History. Like Wiley, Casteel is best known for painting everyday people. As an added bonus, it appears she’s painted the ex-president at least once.
Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Studio Museum of Harlem Residency, 2011
Crosby would be an interesting pick because her work is richly layered, aided by the use of transfers. It’s a technique that was popular with Robert Rauschenberg, whose work was accessioned into the White House collection in 2013. But Stephanie Deumer, Crosby’s studio manager, said the artist “was not commissioned to paint either portrait of the Obamas,” however.
Sedrick Huckaby, 2016 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition
The choice of Huckaby might be unusual, as the artist’s style, with brush strokes of thick impasto, would be a step removed from other presidential portraits. But he has painted presidents in the past: in 2017 he painted a portrait of George W. Bush.
Titus Kaphar, Studio Museum of Harlem residency, 2006
Kaphar has experience painting past presidents. His charged painting, Behind the Myth of Benevolence, depicts a Black woman (as Sally Hemings) peeking out from behind a shroud draped over the canvas, with Rembrandt Peale’s portrait of Thomas Jefferson on it. As a plus, Peale’s portrait of Jefferson is in the White House collection. Interestingly, when contacted, Kaphar’s staff said he wasn’t able to answer questions for this story.
Simmie Knox
Knox is best known for painting the official White House portraits of Bill and Hillary Clinton. There is a tradition of presidents picking a predecessor’s portraitist — in some cases more than once. After the Hurd debacle, LBJ picked Elizabeth Shoumatoff, who had painted FDR. Ronald Reagan initially picked Aaron Shikler, who painted JFK. Because Reagan didn’t like the job Shikler did, he later picked Everett Raymond Kinstler, who painted Gerald Ford. Knox also has a local connection; like Alma Thomas, who painted Resurrection —also part of the White House collection — Knox was a teacher in the DC Public School system.
Dean Mitchell, Finalist, 2016 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition
Mitchell’s work would likely feel at home in the White House collection. While the formal structure of the artist’s subjects feels contemporary, the values within his work are a throwback to late 18th-century American paintings by Henry Ossawa Tanner, Thomas Eakins, or John Singer Sargent — all of whom have works in the White House collection.
Kerry James Marshall, Studio Museum of Harlem residency, 1985
Marshall calls attention to the absence of Black figures in much of Western art, composing his paintings with all the virtuosity of a High Renaissance master, and then deliberately painting the subjects of those compositions with the darkest of tonality. They’re unmistakably Black. Marshall is also in the Obamas’ orbit; the longtime Chicago-based artist was among the those invited to the White House in 2013 for a ceremony where gifts of artwork from the foundations of Robert Rauschenberg and Josef and Anni Albers were unveiled. Alas, however, a representative for Marshall at Jack Shainman Gallery says “there are no plans to commission him to paint the Obamas.”
Jennifer Packer, Studio Museum of Harlem residency, 2012
Packer’s approach to the canvas might find a familiar home in the White House, as the looseness of her brushwork recalls Aaron Shikler’s portraits of the Kennedys. But a representative at her gallery, Sikkema Jenkins & Co. says “to the best of [their] knowledge she is not the artist of either Obama’s White House portrait.”
Kadir Nelson
Nelson’s work already has a home in Washington, D.C. in the National Portrait Gallery’s collection. He would be an interesting pick for the Obama portraits because while his paintings are more illustrative, they have a quality reminiscent of Norman Rockwell or N.C. Wyeth — both of whom have work in the White House collection. President Obama has also been a past subject of his.
Mickalene Thomas, Studio Museum of Harlem Residency, 2002
Thomas seems a logical pick because prior to Barack Obama’s first inauguration, she created a portrait of Michelle Obama that was included in an exhibition at Danziger Projects in New York. Additionally, the Obamas’ interior designer, Michael Smith, noted in his book, Designing History, that he was interested in getting Thomas’ work on loan to the White House during their tenure. But as the artist’s representative told us in an email, “Mickalene was not commissioned to create any artwork of the Obamas.”
Correction: This post has been updated to reflect the correct spelling of the name of the White House Historical Association’s president. He is Stewart McLaurin.
