Interesting observation, @klbmom18. Can you give us some more details about why you had that reaction?
LeastComplicated, kudos for admitting to messing up. I respect people who are willing to re-evaluate their ideas.
One thing about these two portraits: they’re making us think much more than more standard portraits would do. Which I like, because I like to think about things.
Talk about timing. Just binge watched The Crown and had to read up on all the intrigue around the portrait of Winston Churchill that was commissioned for him. The show had his wife burn it, history seems indecisive.
So @doschicos you are not aware of the Beheaded White Women portraits painted by this artist? Or they are painted by another one with similar name? And you don’t consider them as hate-art? To me they remind ISIS murders. It is not allowed to put links here but you can easily find them by googling “Barack’s Portrait Artist Is Famous for Painting Decapitated White Women”
You do realize this is a biblical reference to the killing by Judith in the Old Testament, right? BTW, I did the googling you suggested and came up with a lot of highly suspect websites…
Exact thing I posted earlier as well. 
My DD does a lot of portrait style work… She looked at them & liked Obama’s but felt the background was poorly done. Michelle’s was not a good likeness, and she didn’t like the style at all.
She felt O’s was overly high lighted whereas Michelle’s was deliberately lacking highlights. Hmmmm. Wonder if that was intentional and what was the artist trying to convey w/ the disparity?
@Kentriko I see you are new to CC. Have you been reading the thread or just posting to it? I’m going to assume the latter. Go back to the beginning and read all the posts, please, and catch up.
Also, I don’t formulate my opinions of art based on Info Wars and its ilk.
“She felt O’s was overly high lighted whereas Michelle’s was deliberately lacking highlights. Hmmmm. Wonder if that was intentional and what was the artist trying to convey w/ the disparity?”
Have you and your daughter looked at the body of work from both artists? Because in doing so you’d notice each painting is very much in keeping with each artist’s style. 2 different artists mind you!! I’m sure the Obamas, ho chose the artists, weren’t surprised by the portrayals.
You can’t take a thing, fundamentally change it, and still call it the same thing.
While he may have been originally inspired by the Old Testament story, by changing the gender and making the races of the two people different, he created something completely different. It is no longer an Old Testament reference, he said himself “It’s sort of a play on the ‘kill whitey’ thing”.
I can only imagine the uproar if a white president had selected an artist who had made pictures of white people beheading black people and talked about ‘killing blackies’. Other way around… apparently no problem!
It’s pretty disturbing, and it’s fascinating to me that there is virtually no reference to this among the mainstream media.
Both portraits have me flummoxed. Especially Michelle’s. The dress seems to be the whole point of the painting given how much of the canvas it occupies. It’s as if it symbolizes something I’m not smart enough to figure out, because the woman depicted bares little resemblance to the Michelle Obama we saw over the course of her time as FLOTUS. The grey skin unnerves me. Honestly, I hate it. And what does it mean that the artist chose to flatten the image as if there’s no discernible light source, and disregard the mandate for at least some semblance of a likeness?
What’s ironic is the fact that the POTUS’s image is presented under very harsh and wholly unflattering lighting. It looks like him (sort of), but there’s almost an absence of facial expression, as if he’s not fully present. Perhaps it’s because I can’t see the portrait in person that it looks as if he’s withdrawn inward. I also don’t understand the symbolism of the ivy/foliage that threatens to swallow him whole. And it’s true that the left hand looks odd. I wanted to like these portraits, but if I’m to be honest, I simply do not. 
Which makes sense to me, because Obama is such a cerebral, cool man. I don’t get the foliage, though.
@notrichenough – I know you’re trying to bait us. But it won’t work – for several reasons, not the least of which is that you’re bordering on the political and we don’t want the thread closed. If you want to discuss this, you will have to find another online forum.
@“Cardinal Fang” – I like the paintings, but have to admit I’m still “working” on the foliage. Someone on Facebook wrote “Why is Obama coming out of the bushes like Spicey?” and that made me laugh.
Here is an interesting perspective on Obama’s portrait from an art professor at Mount Holyoke. He makes a case for how the artist is drawing on a Lincoln portrait to make a statement. Let’s not forget that Kehinde Wiley studied at Yale and is steeped in art history. Nothing he’s doing is by accident.
^^^ That’s one of the things I read earlier that made me rethink the painting.
@jollymama – Thanks for that article. Very illuminating. And I agree with “Let’s not forget that Kehinde Wiley studied at Yale and is steeped in art history.” The posters who claim their high schoolers could have painted these works are at best misguided 
@klbmom18 You are aware that political discussion is verboten?
I haven’t mentioned a single person by name or a political party by name or media outlet by name, so I don’t see how I am being political.
Is there any art that an artist could have done in the past that would make that artist an inappropriate choice to paint the presidential portrait? I’m curious if you would draw a line anywhere.
That’s a pretty abstract question… I will say that had Wiley painted beheadings exclusively, one could question him being an appropriate choice for a presidential portrait. But that’s not the case. The vast majority of his work is a vibrantly colorful, joyful, witty, original portrayal of African Americans in many settings, poses and contexts. And that makes him a logical choice for the portrait of the first African American president.
Any significance to the chair?
I don’t know anything about furniture. Is it from a particular period? Is that a piece that is in the White House somewhere? Borrowed from some other painting? Or is it just a chair?