Obama Portraits Coming to Boston’s MFA

These portraits of former president Barack Obama and Michelle Obama. You loved them or you didn’t. His by Kehinde Wiley, hers by Amy Sherald, the contemporary portrait painters chosen by each of the subjects. “It doesn’t look like her,” love/hate the dress or the greenery, he looks “so stern.” A “fresh take,” a “bold choice.” Et cetera.

Maybe you’ll want to take a good hard look for yourself? Whatever the range and volume of opinions, these works from the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery have been packing them in on their original five-city Obama Portraits Tour. So much so that while they were scheduled to go home to D.C. soon, they will not. Two more cities have just been added to the itinerary: San Francisco and Boston, the latter just a Dartmouth Coach ride away from the Upper Valley.

The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston will host the Obama portraits from September 3 to October 30, 2022. Tickets not yet on sale, free to MFA members.

Here’s a 35-second snippet of conversations with the artists Wiley and Sherald.

Photo, top: "Barack Obama" by Kehinde Wiley, oil on canvas, 2018 and "Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama" by Amy Sherald, oil on linen, 2018. Courtesy the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery
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And in case you are wondering . . . Susan B. Apel shuttered a lifelong career as a law professor to continue an interest (since kindergarten) in writing. Her freelance business, The Next Word, includes literary and feature writing; her work has appeared in a variety of lit mags and other publications including Art New England, The Woven Tale Press, The Arts Fuse, and Persimmon Tree. She connects with her neighbors through Artful, her blog about arts and culture in the Upper Valley. She’s in love with the written word.