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Obama's official portrait unveiled.

Posted by Dobrien 7 years, 2 months ago to Culture
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As an Artist I find this choice to be more of a middle finger to reason and race relations than to recognize someone's talent.
The unveiling of former President Barack Obama’s official portrait on 12 February 2018 also introduced many Americans to artist Kehinde Wiley for the first time as well, as opening the door to late-breaking controversy over some of Wiley’s earlier work.

Wiley, who has described his own visual style as “bombastic, syrupy, and garish,” is celebrated in the contemporary art world for his large-scale portraits of black and brown men and women striking heroic poses modeled on those of aristocrats in classic European paintings.
Two celebrated paintings show a black woman holding a severed white woman's head
“It’s sort of a play on the ‘kill whitey’ thing,” Wiley said in a 2012 interview with New York Magazine.


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  • Posted by Herb7734 7 years, 2 months ago
    Obama, sitting in a fancy chair floating over a bed of kudzu somehow seems appropriate.
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  • Posted by mia767ca 7 years, 2 months ago
    maybe the next portrait will be from behind bars in an orange jumpsuit...
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  • Posted by IndianaGary 7 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Obama looks to me like he is taking a dump on the throne. Well, he crapped all over the country as POTUS so I guess the painting is appropriate.
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  • Posted by wiggys 7 years, 2 months ago
    is there a circus side show anywhere to display it?
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  • Posted by Eyecu2 7 years, 2 months ago
    If a White artist were to create something similar to what this ... I will call him a person for want of what I really think... he would be hounded for the rest of his life. For a person who once held our highest office to associate himself with trash such as this only proves yet again what a disgusting creature Obama really is.
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  • Posted by chad 7 years, 2 months ago
    How apropos that a racist con artist (not true artist) makes money on painting of a con artist to hang in the hall of con artists.
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  • Posted by giallopudding 7 years, 2 months ago
    Postmodernism, and it's rampant relativism, has done to the art world what it has done to politics and philosophy. We shouldn't be surprised, since we live in a world of trigger-fearing snowflakes who would rather nobody judge anybody on anything, than someone speak one word which could offend a delicate flower. The truth doesn't set these "socially conscious" idiots free...it scares the crap out of them. I gave up my paint brushes and oils when, in a moment of clarity, I realized that modern "art" has made itself irrelevant.
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  • Posted by $ puzzlelady 7 years, 2 months ago
    Everyone seems to have missed the joke that Obama is sitting in front of and on top of Bushes.
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  • Posted by $ blarman 7 years, 2 months ago
    The choice of portrait style and artist are perhaps the best reflection of Obama's true nature we've seen yet. What neither do is portray what an American President should be.
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    Posted by DrZarkov99 7 years, 2 months ago
    Both the paintings of Barack and Michelle are mediocre art at best, in the judgment of my wife (who is an excellent artist). I think she's being kind. The quality of these portraits is pure crap and an embarrassment when compared to the portraits of any former President and first lady, in the opinion of this retired rocket scientist.
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  • Posted by Stormi 7 years, 2 months ago
    Personally, I think he should have been wearing the little green lizard skin number with knee high matching boots he used to wear in Hawaii, as shown on the Manning Report. Sort of a dominatrix style. So much more him. Since the middle finger to the whites was the intent, why not really show his disrespect for the USA!
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  • Posted by Temlakos 7 years, 2 months ago
    The portrait itself is bad enough, apart from the controversy. What's with all those green leaves and flowers? His portrait will demean him, not enhance him.
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  • Posted by 7 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Driving, Diplomatic Dino Double Dating A Damsel Detecting Demons Dragons , and Deleting Discourse. Duly noted.
    Sorry for not finishing my above sentence ..in a rush. Should have concluded with ....have read about.
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  • Posted by $ allosaur 7 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Your second sentence leaves something out but I believe I know what you're trying to say.
    I was perhaps 16 on a double date when I saw special effects master Ray Harryhaussen's Jason And The Argonauts.
    At that point I had my mythology down so well that I knew Jason did not fight the Hydra to obtain the Golden Fleece. Just a regular ole' dragon.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow-dk...
    I knew killing the Hydra was one of the Labors Of Hercules. Hercules' hydra heads would grow back almost as fast as he cut them off. So he used a torch to cauterize the wounds. Once the hydra ran out of heads, that critter was toast.
    The lady watching Jason fight the hydra in the movie is a witch named Medea. At the end of the movie, Zeus tells Hera he has other adventures for Jason.
    Other adventures? Bah! All that's left for Jason is what happens in an ancient play called "Medea."
    Jason decides to take a second wife partly because he could legally do that.
    In response, Medea slaughters their children and flies off in a chariot drawn by dragons, leaving Jason to face life as a broken man. Some adventure that was!
    Driving from the theater, did I tell my date or the couple in the back seat any of that? Nope!
    Sixteen-year-old dino did not want to be thought of as being weird. Thought I may even be asked if I believed in the gods of Mount Olympus. Sheesh!
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  • Posted by 7 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    We may never know what is myth and what has a basis in fact. The stories were so important that a 14 year old in Dothen Alabama 5841 miles from Athens Greece and thousands of years later.
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