Forty-fourth president, 2009–2017
Kehinde Wiley (born 1977)
Oil on canvas, 2018
Barack Obama by Kehinde Wiley, 2018, oil on canvas, seven feet high by almost five feet wide.
This portrait of Barack Obama has two distinct but overlapping areas. The forty-fourth president, who is just over life-size, is seated in the center of the composition. Artist Kehinde Wiley has painted his face and hands in photo-realistic detail. By contrast, the intensely colored leaves and flowers in the background appear flat, like patterned wallpaper. Yet some of the leaves extend over the chair and sitter, linking the president to this lush backdrop.
Obama sits on a polished mahogany chair with carved arms and legs, and an inlaid back. It is positioned on a diagonal toward our right, while he turns his head to face us. The President knits his brow as he meets our gaze. A bright, lemon-yellow light streams in from the right. It illuminates his face and highlights the thick vein at his temple. Casting an almost metallic sheen on the President’s caramel complexion, the light also accentuates the lines around his eyes and mouth. Obama’s closely cropped, graying black hair and prominent ears almost blend into the elaborate background.
The president’s pose is informal. He leans forward, with his forearms crossed over his thighs. His elongated hands stand out against a sleek, tailored black suit. On the ring finger of the top hand, he wears a notched gold wedding band. Part of a white watch face rimmed in silver and with a dark band is visible at his wrist. Obama does not wear a tie and his white button-down shirt is undone at the top.
On the right, the leaves from the background extend over his arm. They also appear to grow over his black shoes and ankles, as well as the feet of the chair, making it difficult to tell how Obama is situated in space. For the most part, the plants look like a flat backdrop. However, at the points where the background overlaps with the sitter in the foreground, the leaves and flowers appear as three-dimensional objects in space. This shift between the appearance of two and three-dimensions is unexpected, especially given the hyper-realism of the president’s face and hands. The overall effect is that Obama appears to be grounded and floating at once.
Wiley has organized the leaves on loose horizontal bands. A limited range of greens describes the layers of foliage. For instance, the top layer of leaves are pale mint and bright lime, with sage green accents. There are a few clusters of smaller, buttery yellow and apple green leaves as well. The underlying foliage is rendered in dusty olive and brown. Solid areas of black fill the remaining negative space.
Colorful flowers add further interest to this elaborate setting. For example, on the right, near Obama’s knee, there is a red chrysanthemum with a golden center, which is offset by another one on the left, past his shoulder. Two yellow chrysanthemums are almost hidden under the leaves, one on the left side of the seat of his chair and another at the top of the canvas, just right of center. White jasmine flowers are sprinkled throughout. Near each of his feet and at the top left of center, there are clusters of small purple lilies.
The portrait label reads as follows:
Barack Obama born 1961
Forty-fourth president, 2009–2017
Barack Obama made history in 2009 by becoming the first African American president. The former Illinois state senator’s election signaled a feeling of hope for the future even as the U.S. was undergoing its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. While working to improve the economy, Obama enacted the Affordable Care Act, extending health benefits to millions of previously uninsured Americans. Overseas, he oversaw the drawdown of American troops in the Middle East—a force reduction that was controversially replaced with an expansion of drone and aviation strikes. Though his mission to kill al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden was successful, his pledge to close the Guantanamo prison went unrealized.
Artist Kehinde Wiley is known for his vibrant, large-scale paintings of African Americans posing as famous figures from the history of Western art. This portrait does not include an underlying art historical reference, but some of the flowers in the background carry special meaning for Obama. The chrysanthemums, for example, reference the official flower of Chicago. The jasmine evokes Hawaii, where he spent the majority of his childhood, and the African blue lilies stand in for his late Kenyan father.
Kehinde Wiley (born 1977)
Oil on canvas, 2018
Gift of Gift of Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg; Judith Kern and Kent Whealy; Tommie L. Pegues and Donald A. Capoccia; Clarence, DeLoise, and Brenda Gaines; The Stoneridge Fund of Amy and Marc Meadows; Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker; Catherine and Michael Podell; Mark and Cindy Aron; Lyndon J. Barrois and Janine Sherman Barrois; The Honorable John and Louise Bryson; Paul and Rose Carter; Bob and Jane Clark; Lisa R. Davis; Shirley Ross Davis and Family; Alan and Lois Fern; Conrad and Constance Hipkins; Sharon and John Hoffman; Daniel and Kimberly Johnson; John Legend and Chrissy Teigen; Eileen Harris Norton; Helen Hilton Raiser; Philip and Elizabeth Ryan; Roselyne Chroman Swig; Josef Vascovitz and Lisa Goodman; Michele J. Hooper and Lemuel Seabrook III; The Skylark Foundation; Cleveland and Harriette Chambliss; Anna Chavez and Eugene Eidenberg; Carla Diggs & Stephen M. Smith; Danny First; Peggy Woodford Forbes and Harry Bremond; Stephen Friedman Gallery; Sean and Mary Kelly, Sean Kelly Gallery; Jamie Lunder; Joff Masukawa and Noëlle Kennedy Masukawa; Derek McGinty and Cheryl Cooper; Robert and Jan Newman; The Raymond L. Ocampo Jr. and Sandra O. Ocampo Family Trust; Julie and Bennett Roberts; Paul Sack; Gertrude Dixon Sherman; Michael and Mary Silver; Dr. Joy Simmons; Andrea Lavin Solow and Alan P. Solow; John Sykes; Galerie Templon; Henry L. Thaggert III
