First Michelle Obama Individual Portrait To Be Shown At Smithsonian (PHOTO)

By BRETT ZONGKER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Move over Martha Washington. Martha Stewart and Michelle Obama are getting space in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington for the first time.

A new exhibit, "Americans Now," opened Friday, featuring famous names from science, business, government and the arts.

President Barack Obama and the first lady are among those portrayed. It's the first time Michelle Obama's individual portrait has been shown at the gallery.

Familiar names in the collection also include actor Tom Hanks and music artists Willie Nelson and LL Cool J. Video portraits in the exhibit feature late-night comedians Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien and David Letterman, as well as actor George Clooney and NBA star LeBron James.

The portraits are on view through July 2011.

Portrait by Mickalene Thomas:

Comments

[JerryAguy]

08:51 AM on 09/19/2010

The picture really looks like it isn't her even, kind of featureless.

[DaBluAce]

11:06 PM on 08/24/2010

I like it!

[ValdaDeDieu]

01:22 PM on 08/24/2010

Once, more, for Facebook and Twitter: I LOVE IT...well done!

[ValdaDeDieu]

01:21 PM on 08/24/2010

I LOVE IT!

[ItHasToBeSaid]

11:35 AM on 08/24/2010

Nice artwork. Looks good.

[ScotianGirl]

10:49 PM on 08/23/2010

This is inspiring.

[PaddockGirl]

04:23 PM on 08/23/2010

Loves it.

[snykerdoodle]

02:15 PM on 08/23/2010

I can dig it. Its definately a nice piece of art.

[pgurlatl]

11:48 AM on 08/23/2010

I just don't understand why this portrait is more like a piece of avant garde art instead of life like. But then again, I am not surprised. And can you call it art if all you did was borrow one of the techniques that made Andy Warhol famous?

[Toni Stafford]

08:03 AM on 08/23/2010

I rather see a beautiful Full Color Correct Picture of her in the Smithsonian than this "Andy W" imaging .

[Teresa Eckerman-Pfeil]

07:44 AM on 08/23/2010

This seems to be a mid-20th century style to portray our 21 century first lady. Warhol invented this style to dehumanize the subject and produce his mass media/mass produced art as object works.
Michele hasn't marketed herself for profit. Why depersonalize her image?

[aquarius64]

06:58 AM on 08/23/2010

Love the photo.

[JTJMOMEDTEK]

06:33 AM on 08/23/2010

Not liking it. It's too trippy and psychodelic. Normally I like trippy and psychodelic but I thought this was gonna be a nice portrait of the first lady but instead she looks like black light poster that I might seeing hanging in my son's dorm.

[noladebby]

06:12 AM on 08/23/2010

Nice!

[gcswift2]

03:36 AM on 08/23/2010

Who the heck is that Foxy Brown?
Also????

Why is she white? I know someone will say its a "negative", but the opposite of Brown on the color wheel is Blue and then her hair would be white.

I find it a little disturbing that the first Black FLOTUS would have a portrait where she's in "White face".

Why would the artist not want to celebrate the beauty of the difference instead of making her seem like all the others.

[LeftLeanWing]

04:58 AM on 08/23/2010

I find it a little disturbing that the first Black FLOTUS would have a portrait where she's in "White face".

SHE IS NOT IN WHITE FACE !

don't go there.

[gcswift2]

05:27 AM on 08/23/2010

"SHE IS NOT IN WHITE FACE !"

Is her face WHITE?

This is an African American Woman who has a family history of slavery, and the way they decided to represent her is with a white face.

BTW, I'm not just making noise for noise sake. I just came from my family reunion where I was reminded that I represent the 5th generation in my family since the end of slavery in America. If a portrait is supposed to be more than a mere photo because the artist can draw upon the history of the subject whereas a photo is simply that moment in time.

With all that I just said in mind, I say this work fails to represent Michelle Obama