White House Unveils Official Obama Portraits
Former President Barack Obama takes the Presidential Podium in the East Room of the White House after the unveiling of his official White House portrait on September 7th (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz).
Barack and Michelle Obama make their first joint return since 2017 to unveil their official portraits that will hang in the halls of the White House for centuries to come. This historic tradition holds great value in the White House dating back to 1965.
Article by Tessa Peloso, White House Reporter
WASHINGTON - Former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama returned to the White House on Wednesday for the unveiling of their official portraits. This is the former First Lady’s first appearance on Pennsylvania Avenue since 2017. The unveiling of portraits is a White House tradition that has returned after a 10 year hiatus.
Former cabinet members, friends, family, and staff from the Obama administration joined the portrait ceremony in the East Room of The White House. Notably, Marian Robinson, the mother of Michelle Obama also attended.
Portraits of presidents and first ladies began in 1965, and are now a valuable and beloved tradition in the White House. “The historic unveiling ceremonies began in 1978 exchanged between the president and their predecessor,” according to the White House Historical Association.
The depiction of the first Black president and first lady in American history make the Obamas’ portrait stand apart from other portraits of former presidents and first ladies in the White House. Robert McCurdy and Sharon Sprung, two artists who painted the former president and first lady respectively, created the portraits.
The Obamas’ previously sat for portraits in 2018 for the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. This time around, the Obamas chose Black artists Amy Sherald and Kehinde Wiley to paint their portraits based on their unique ability to captivate African-American portraiture.
“What I was always struck by whenever I saw [Wiley’s] portraits was the degree to which they challenged our conventional views of power and privilege and the way that he would take extraordinary care and precision and vision in recognizing the beauty and the grace and the dignity of people who are so often invisible in our lives and put them on a grand stage, on a grand scale, and force us to look and see them in ways that so often they were not,” said former President Obama at the 2018 portrait unveiling.
The painting was well executed by the artist and First Lady Michelle Obama was extremely pleased. “[Sherald] has handled it all with remarkable poise and grace, which I think tells you a lot about who she is,” stated former First Lady Michelle Obama in a 2018 Chicago Tribune article.
President Obama was overjoyed to be back in the White House and celebrating these portraits. He expressed his gratitude to the artist. “It was important to find the right people to paint them. I want to thank Sharon Sprung for capturing everything I love about Michelle. Her grace, her intelligence, and the fact that she’s fine,” joked President Obama.
President Obama made it clear that when the American people see the portraits, he wants them to see their flaws. “Presidents so often get airbrushed, even take on a mystical status,” stated former President Obama.
McCurdy used a photograph of the former President to create the portrait. The image depicts the former president in a black suit with a gray tie, painted against a white backdrop. "They have plain white backgrounds, nobody gestures, there are no props, because we're not here to tell the story of the person that's sitting for them. We're here to create an encounter between the viewer and the sitter," stated McCurdy in an interview with the White House Historical Association.
The portrait of the former First Lady shows her in a light blue gown, seated on the red sofa in the Red Room of the White House.
These portraits will hang on the walls within the White House for many years to come. The Obama portraits are the first portraits added to the White House Collection since 2012, when President Obama held a bipartisan unveiling for President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush.
President Obama’s portrait is now officially hanging in the Entrance Hall of the White House Grand Staircase. First Lady Michelle Obama’s is hanging one floor below on the ground floor’s Center Hallway.
After the ceremony, President Biden and Dr. Jill Biden hosted a private luncheon for the Obamas and Robinson. The conversations around the table were primarily focused on reminiscing about the memories they shared together.
Stewart D. McLaurin, president of the White House Historical Association, stated that they are “in the beginning stages” of creating portraits of former President Donald Trump and former First Lady Melania Trump.
Chief White House Correspondent Emily Barkann contributed reporting.