The Obama portraits are direct, vital, and above all, cool

https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/2/12/17003956/obama-portraits-official-barack-michelle-kehinde-wiley-amy-sherald

The Obama portraits are direct, vital, and above all, cool
How the new Obama paintings from Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald revitalize the stale power of the portrait.
By Constance Grady@constancegrady Feb 12, 2018, 5:00pm EST

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Paired together, the two portraits are immensely striking: Not only are they both unusually active for this kind of portrait, but they give off a palpable sense of intelligence, directness, and — perhaps more than anything else — cool. They’re portraits whose subjects care about aesthetics, who are thoughtful about the history of portraiture, and who have the personal charisma to carry the weight of that history on themselves.

Which is important, because history is going to weigh heavily on the portraits of the first black president and first lady, painted by the first black artists commissioned to make the official presidential portraits.

“I’m also thinking of all the young people, particularly girls and girls of color, who ... will see an image of someone who looks like them hanging on the wall of this great American institution,” Michelle Obama said as the portraits were unveiled. “I know the kind of impact that will have on their lives, because I was one of those girls.”

Or, as Kehinde Wiley put it years ago: “Andy Warhol said that we would all have our fifteen minutes. Fuck the fifteen minutes. I’m going to give you a painting, and I’ll make you live forever.”