National Portrait Gallery | Face to Face blog

Portrait of Barack Obama by Martin Schoeller

                      © Martin Schoeller

Every Thursday evening, the National Portrait Gallery presents “Face-to-Face,” a talk about selected portraits on view in the gallery. As part of this regular series, Anne Goodyear, who is assistant curator of prints and drawings at NPG, discussed this portrait of Barack Obama by photographer Martin Schoeller.  The portrait is on display in the recently opened exhibition "Portraiture Now: Feature Photography."

Martin Schoeller photographed Barack Obama for a December 2004 feature on “Men of the Year,” in Gentleman’s Quarterly (GQ), where a variant of this photograph appeared.  Reflecting upon the success of his address at the 2004 Democratic convention, Obama, who would go on to win the presidential election in 2008, observed: “The reason you do this stuff is not to . . . get your face in a magazine . . . You do this stuff because you care about the epic struggle to make America what it can be.”

A native of Germany, Martin Schoeller, who now lives and works in New York, honed his skills by working with Annie Leibovitz.  He has exhibited his portraits internationally and has received numerous awards. Schoeller’s photographs have appeared in many prominent magazines, including the New Yorker, Gentleman’s Quarterly (GQ), Vanity Fair, and Rolling Stone.

Listen to Anne Goodyear’s Face-to-Face talk on Barack Obama (33:26)

To view more works by Martin Schoeller, and the other artists featured in "Portraiture Now: Feature Photography," be sure to see the online exhibition.  You can learn more about Schoeller’s portrait of Obama in this article from Voice of America. And listen to Martin Schoeller in this audio slideshow from the New Yorker.

The next Face-to-Face talk is this Thursday, January 8, when Anne Goodyear will discuss a portrait of Cindy Sherman, also by Martin Schoeller.  The talk runs from 6:00 to 6:30 p.m.  January 8 will also feature a special noon-time addition of Face-to-Face, when Warren Perry speaks about the portrait of Elvis Presley by Ralph Cowan.  Visitors meet the presenter in the museum’s F Street lobby and then walk to the appropriate gallery.

Photograph by Voice of America, taken by David Byrd.

Barack Obama/Martin Schoeller, 2004/Digital C-print/Collection of the artist, courtesy Hasted Hunt, New York City/© Martin Schoeller

Portraits of President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush Unveiled

Photo by Warren Perry

President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush unveiled portraits of themselves commissioned for the National Portrait Gallery in a private ceremony at the museum this morning.  The paintings will be on public view beginning today. This is the first time that the Portrait Gallery will present the official likenesses of a sitting president and first lady.

“It is always a great moment for the National Portrait Gallery to unveil the portraits of presidents and first ladies,” said Martin E. Sullivan, director of the museum. “I am thrilled that the museum is able to install these two works while President Bush is in the White House.”

Robert Anderson was selected by the White House to paint the president’s portrait. Anderson was a classmate of Bush’s at Yale University and received his training in fine arts at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. A professional portraitist based in Darien, Conn., Anderson has also painted a portrait of Bush for the Yale Club in New York. Bush’s portrait will be installed in the exhibition “America’s Presidents,” among those of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and George H.W. Bush. 

Aleksander Titovets was selected by the White House to paint Laura Bush’s portrait. Titovets is a native Russian painter who now lives in El Paso, Texas. Trained at the St. Petersburg State University College of Fine Arts, he specializes in figurative and landscape painting inspired by his native Russia as well as the landscape of the Southwest. Initially, the portrait of Laura Bush will be hung on the first floor in the north hall of the National Portrait Gallery.
 

Listen to an interview with Robert Anderson, the artist who painted President Bush's portrait (4:10)

Listen to an interview with Aleksander Titovets, the artist who painted first lady Laura Bush's portrait (6:43) 

Listen to a recording of the event. The speakers are Martin E. Sullivan, Director of the National Portrait Gallery; G. Wayne Clough, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution; Mrs. Laura Bush; and President George W. Bush. (19:15) 

Video from necn.com

Photos by Warren Perry, John McMahon, and Benjamin Bloom

George W. Bush / Robert Anderson , 2008/Oil on canvas/National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution/ Gift of American Fidelity Foundation, J. Thomas and Stefanie Atherton, William S. and Ann Atherton, Dr. Jon C. and Jane G. Axton, Dr. Lee and Sherry Beasley, Thomas A. Cellucci, A. James Clark, Richard H. Collins, Edward and Kaye Cook, Don and Alice Dahlgren, Mr. and Mrs. James L. Easton, Robert Edmund, Robert and Nancy Payne Ellis, Dr. Tom and Cheryl Hewett, Dr. Dodge and Lori Hill, Pete and Shelley Kourtis, Tom and Judy Love, David L. McCombs, Tom and Brenda McDaniel, Herman and LaDonna Meinders, The Norick Family, Kenneth and Gail Ochs, Robert and Sylvia Slater, Richard L. Thurston, Lew and Myra Ward, Dr. James and Susan Wendelken, Jim and Jill Williams

Laura Bush/ Aleksander Titovets, 2008/ Oil on canvas/National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution / Gift of Mr. and Mrs. J. O. Stewart

Birthday of Joseph Henry, First Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution

Joseph Henry was born 211 years ago today, on December 17, 1797. 

Joseph Henry, the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, was a remarkable man. His interests spanned the scientific and academic world, from anthropology to meteorology, and he believed that the quest for and imparting of knowledge were central to the mission of the Smithsonian.

This photograph of Henry was taken around 1860, by the Mathew Brady Studio and produced as a carte de visite—a sort of trading card and celebrity collectable. It is on display at the National Portrait Gallery, in the American Origins exhibition, on the museum’s first floor.

In Joseph Henry's words:

The worth and importance of the Institution is not to be estimated by what it accumulates within the walls of its building, but by what it sends forth to the world. Its great mission is to facilitate the use of implements of research, and to diffuse the knowledge which this use may develop.

Henry’s work in electromagnetism was part of the collective effort that made the telegraph possible; in Henry’s honor, the scientific community calls the unit of measure of electrical inductance the henry.

In 1879, William B. Taylor wrote the following, which was read into the proceedings of the Philosophical Society of Washington after Henry’s death:

In his own pursuits Truth was the supreme object of his regard—the sole interest and incentive of his investigations; and in its prosecution he brought to bear in equable combination qualities of a high order; quickness and correctness of perception, inventive ingenuity in experimentation, logical precision in deduction, perseverance in exploration, sagacity in interpretation.

Henry was Secretary of the Smithsonian from 1846 until his death in 1878. He was also a professor at the College of New Jersey (Princeton) for sixteen years and served as president of the National Academy of Sciences from 1868 to 1878. Henry is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, D.C., and a statue bearing his likeness stands in front of the Smithsonian Castle on the National Mall in Washington.

For more information on Henry, see the Joseph Henry Paper’s website, created by the Smithsonian Institution Archives. 

Photograph by David Bjorgen, from Wikipedia Commons. Used via Creative Commons. 

This statue of Joseph Henry stands in front of the Smithsonian Castle on the National Mall in Washington. 

Joseph Henry/Mathew Brady Studio, c. 1860/Modern albumen print from wet plate collodion negative/ National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

The Many Faces of Lincoln

Every Thursday evening, the National Portrait Gallery presents “Face-to-Face,” a talk about selected portraits on view in the gallery. As part of this regular series, NPG historian David Ward discussed a few photographs of Lincoln on display in the recently opened exhibition “One Life: Mask of Lincoln.” Ward, who curated the exhibition, spoke mainly about the following portraits:

“Tousled Hair” portrait by Alexander Hesler, c. 1857

This thumb-sized copy of Alexander Hesler’s 1857 “tousled hair” portrait of Lincoln was produced in 1860 so that it could be cut out, placed in a frame, and worn as a pin or locket during the campaign.

Such partisan political symbols had long been a staple of American elections, but the heated political climate of 1860—and the need for the Lincoln organization to mobilize all its supporters—led to a plethora of new and creative ways to energize a public immersed in the political culture of the time.

Portrait by Alexander Gardner, 1861

Lincoln was the first president after photography truly came of age. He embraced the new technology, sitting frequently, and he was interested in both technological issues and composition. Perhaps because of his early struggle to make himself into somebody of substance—to make himself visible—Lincoln was acutely aware of the power of image-making.

When he arrived in Washington, Lincoln quickly arranged to have himself photographed at Alexander Gardner’s studio. These photographs were the first widely disseminated pictures of the president with his newly grown beard.

Portrait by Alexander Gardner, November 8, 1863

On November 8, 1863, Lincoln had this portrait taken by Alexander Gardner. While waiting, he read a newspaper account of the speech that famed orator Edward Everett would make at the dedication of the cemetery at Gettysburg. Lincoln would also speak, but had yet to compose his remarks, promisingly only that they would be “short, short, short.”

“Cracked-plate” portrait by Alexander Gardner, 1865

One of the most haunting images in American history and art, this portrait was taken in February 1865. The picture of Lincoln—hollowed, careworn, and yet with a slight smile still after four years of war—is given added poignancy by the crack that appeared in the negative after it was developed.

Listen to David Ward’s Face-to-Face talk on Lincoln (26:18)

For more on Lincoln, be sure to see the online exhibition.  And read more about the exhibition, in this recent article from the New York Times. Also, hear more from David Ward, in this interview about "One Life: The Mask of Lincoln."

The next Face-to-Face portrait talk is this Thursday, December 18, when Assistant Curator of Prints and Drawings Anne Goodyear speaks about the portrait of President-elect Barack Obama by Martin Schoeller. This portrait is on display in NPG’s new exhibition “Portraiture Now: Feature Photography.” The talk runs from 6:00 to 6:30 p.m. Visitors meet the presenter in the museum’s F Street lobby and then walk to the appropriate gallery.

Abraham Lincoln/Unidentified artist, after Alexander Hesler,c. 1857 (printed c. 1860)/Albumen silver print/National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

Abraham Lincoln/Alexander Gardner, 1861/Albumen silver print/National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

Abraham Lincoln/Alexander Gardner, November 8, 1863/Albumen silver print/Collection of Keya Morgan, New York City

Abraham Lincoln/Alexander Gardner, 1865/Albumen silver print/National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

New Exhibition: Feature Photography

                                 © Jocelyn Lee

The exhibition "Portraiture Now: Feature Photography" recently opened at the National Portrait Gallery.  Come and see this new exhibition of works by six critically acclaimed photographers—Katy Grannan, Jocelyn Lee, Ryan McGinley, Steve Pyke, Martin Schoeller and Alec Soth. 

Often working on a specific commission or editorial assignment for publications such as the New Yorker, Esquire and the New York Times Magazine, these photographers compose portraits that cause us to pause and reflect.  The exhibition runs through September 27, 2009, and is on view on the museum’s first floor. 

NPG associate curator of photographs, Frank Goodyear, sat down with photographer Jocelyn Lee to discuss her work. Lee’s photographs for this exhibition were drawn from work that she has completed in Maine, a place where she has spent much time. A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Lee has served as a professor of photography at Princeton University since 2003.

JL: I think if I hadn’t found photography, I think the field I would have gone into would have been psychology.  I studied philosophy for the same reasons that I was studying photography.  It was a way of sort of thinking about basic issues of what it means to be alive.  It sounds pretentious, but that was essentially what drew me to both of those subjects.  Asking basic questions of how we find meaning in our lives. 

The portrait allows me to spend time with one other person, and to have a kind of intimate exchange that the rhythm of the regular world does not allow.  It’s a way to slow things down and really consider what it is to be a human being, living here on this earth, looking the way we do.  Aging, going through all of the life transitions that we go through—from adolescence, puberty, middle age, illness, love, death—all of those things.  It’s a way to study them slowly and collaboratively with other people.

FG: Do you talk with your subjects a lot about what you are striving to achieve in a particular picture?  To what extent do you deliberately kind of pre-visualize what you want to do?  Or is it more intuitive?

JL:  I would say that I do pre-visualize it—somewhat.  But again this goes back to the question about why I love photography.  If it was purely pre-visualized, then I could imagine these being drawings, or paintings, or collage, or something else.  But part of what is so magical to me about the medium of photography, is that I can never ultimately control the subject. And what they bring to the shoot, or the event, or the drama, or the narrative, is ultimately their own mystery.  And that, in the end, is what makes the picture strong. 

Some of my least successful pictures are those that have been so pre-visualized that I’m controlling all aspects of it. And my stronger pictures are the pictures where there’s this collaboration between my initial fantasy, sense of narrative, and the collaboration between the innate mystery of the person who is posing for me.

So when I look at the pictures now, as much as I’ve made them, the strongest pictures I feel are still a gift from the other person.  I still see them as something that, in part, has been given to me by the subject. 

FG: You teach at Princeton University—what are the lessons that you are trying to instill in young photographers?  What kind of advice are you constantly reasserting in their own careers?

JL: I love teaching photography because it’s the coming together of the world, and how the photographer feels about the world.  Very quickly, a student can begin to make meaningful photographs that comment on their perceptions of the world.  It’s very different from drawing, it’s very different from painting, it’s very different from sculpture.  The entry level skill is achieved pretty quickly. 

I think the biggest contribution that I can give to my students is to be honest with yourself, and be sincere.  What do you want to talk about? You’re given this incredible power so quickly. You have a camera, and you’ve got the entire world at your disposal.  What do you want to talk about?  In every gesture with the camera, you’re making a decision: what you point the camera at, how you frame that photograph.  You’re commenting on the world.  You’re editing the world.  And you’re giving it to us as a story.  So I think photography is really a powerful thing for students who have ideas, who are visual, and want to say something. 

Listen to the entire interview with Jocelyn Lee (26:20)

To view more of Jocelyn Lee's work, and photographs by the other artists featured in "Portraiture Now: Feature Photography," be sure to see the online exhibition. 

Untitled (Kara on Easter)/Jocelyn Lee, 1999/Chromogenic print/Collection of the artist/© Jocelyn Lee

Untitled (Inuit woman in hospital, Rankin Island)/Jocelyn Lee, 2002/Chromogenic print/Published in the New York Times Magazine, May 5, 2002/Collection of the artist/© Jocelyn Lee

FDR and the End of Prohibition

Today marks the 75th anniversary of the repeal of prohibition. As part of the National Portrait Gallery’s regular “Face-to-Face” portrait talks, NPG researcher Warren Perry discussed Roosevelt and his role in turning back Prohibition. This 1945 portrait of FDR, by artist Douglas Granville Chandor, can be viewed in the America’s Presidents exhibition, on the museum’s first floor. 

From Jean Edward Smith’s FDR:

FDR’s attitude toward Prohibition was . . . equivocal.  Never averse to bending an elbow himself, he nevertheless accumulated a perfect voting record in the Senate, according to the Anti-Saloon League.  In January 1913, he actually introduced a local option bill for the League and became the subject of a laudatory editorial (“An Advocate of Christian Patriotism”) in its national magazine. In this instance, Franklin appears to have been too clever by half. Prohibition was anathema in New York City, and his opponents never tired of tying him to it.  Down through 1932 the story persisted that whatever Roosevelt might say, there was a voting record to prove he was “dry” at heart.

By the time of the 1932 election, Prohibition had taken its toll on America. There was huge reluctance on the part of presidential candidate Franklin Roosevelt to deny that it had taken money away from federal coffers and placed it into the hands of unsavory characters like Al Capone. As Maureen Ogle records in her barley epic, Ambitious Brew, Roosevelt announced during his campaign that it was “time to correct the ‘stupendous blunder’ that was Prohibition.”

Prohibition was repealed seventy-five years ago today. People went back to work in various brewing and distilling industries, and after work, many of them went home and had a drink.

Listen to Warren Perry’s Face-to-Face talk on Roosevelt and the repeal of prohibition (18:18)

The next Face-to-Face portrait talk is this Thursday, December 11, when NPG historian David Ward speaks about the portrait of Abraham Lincoln by Alexander Hesler. The talk runs from 6:00 to 6:30 p.m. Visitors meet the presenter in the museum’s F Street lobby and then walk to the appropriate gallery.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt/Douglas Granville Chandor, 1945/Oil on canvas/National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

Sources and further reading:

Ogle, Maureen.  Ambitious Brew: The Story of American Beer.
    New York: Harcourt, 2006.

Smith, Jean Edward.  FDR.  New York: Random House, 2008.

Portrait of Sequoyah by Henry Inman

Every Thursday evening, the National Portrait Gallery presents “Face-to-Face,” a portrait talk about a selected portrait on view in the gallery. Francis Flavin, historian at the U.S. Department of the Interior, discussed this portrait of Sequoyah by artist Henry Inman. You can see this portrait in the “American Origins” exhibition on the first floor.

Sequoyah, the son of a Cherokee chief's daughter and a fur trader from Virginia, was a warrior and hunter and, some say, a silversmith. For twelve years he worked to devise a method of writing for the Cherokee language. His syllabary of eighty-five symbols, representing vowel and consonant sounds, was approved by the Cherokee chiefs in 1821, and the simple utilitarian system made possible a rapid spread of literacy throughout the Cherokee nation. Medicine men set down ceremonies for healing, divination, war, and traditional ball games; missionaries translated hymns and the New Testament into the native language; and in 1828 the Cherokee Phoenix, a weekly bilingual newspaper, began publication at New Echota, Georgia.

The original portrait of Sequoyah, painted by Charles Bird King, was destroyed by the fire that swept through the Smithsonian Castle building in January 1865.

Listen to Francis Flavin’s Face-to-Face talk on Sequoyah (23:17)

The next Face-to-Face portrait talk is tonight (Thursday, December 4), when NPG researcher Warren Perry speaks about Franklin D. Roosevelt and the seventy-fifth anniversary of prohibition’s repeal. The talk runs from 6:00 to 6:30 p.m. Visitors meet the presenter in the museum’s F Street lobby and then walk to the appropriate gallery.

Sequoyah/Henry Inman, c. 1830/Oil on canvas/National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

Student Responses: Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix

This column is part of an occasional series in which Washington-area university students discuss works on display in the National Portrait Gallery.

This blog post is written by Jamielyn Smith, a graphic design student at George Mason University. She writes about this 1970 poster of Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix. The poster is on display in the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition “Ballyhoo! Posters as Portraiture,” on the museum’s second floor.

Smith’s article is reprinted here, with her permission—it was originally published in Writing for Designers, the class blog of GMU’s graphic design course AVT 395-4. Writing for Designers covers many topics in graphic design, and includes more student-written articles about the “Ballyhoo!” exhibition.

You might think that a poster featuring Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, two of the most recognizable 1960s rock icons, would include the flamboyant colors and embellishments associated with their music. There is, however, absolutely nothing psychedelic about the L&S Productions poster entitled Winner? Created in 1970, the year Hendrix and Joplin both died of overdoses at the age of twenty-seven, Winner? presents a critical look at the drug-filled lifestyles led by these rock legends. As part of the National Portrait Gallery’s “Ballyhoo! Posters as Portraiture” exhibition, this piece displays its message with a fairly basic graphic palette of three colors, three photographs, and one word repeated twice.

Located on the back wall of the show room, Winner? stands out due to its simple, effective design. Contained within a red and yellow elliptical pill shape are photographs of Joplin and Hendrix. Both musicians are performing, their eyes closed and faces half covered. A sharply focused photograph of Joplin fills the red, top half of the composition, with the word “Winner?” centered underneath her image. An upside-down, softly focused photo of Hendrix appears underneath, on the yellow, bottom half of the pill—the word “Winner?” is also upside down and placed with his image.

The orientation of the photographs allows the poster to be flipped, while maintaining its imagery and purpose. The clever presentation symbolizes how easy it is to go from the top to the bottom. The careers of Hendrix and Joplin were at an all-time high in 1970, but everything ended in an instant because of their addictions. Along with the passing of Jim Morrison, their deaths helped bring the potential downside of drug use to the public’s attention. Furthermore, the elliptical shape means that the pill could continue to flip, representing the continuous cycle of drug abuse.

The restricted color palette and simplicity set this piece apart from the other posters in the exhibition, particularly the ones that also depict musicians and iconography from the 1960s. Posters from this era are usually colorful and saturated with surreal imagery, optical illusions, and kaleidoscopic swirling patterns. This complete lack of white space makes the viewer feel overwhelmed with imagery. They also feature hard to read, warped, organic typography. Therefore, it is especially shocking to see the king and queen of stoner rock in such an austere context.

Although this poster was created almost forty years ago, the message it communicates is still relevant today. The poster’s clean design references the 1960s in a subtle way that makes it appealing to contemporary viewers. Likewise, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix continue to inspire modern audiences with their music. There is no question that Winner? is timeless.

 

Winner?/Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin/L & S Productions, 1970/Color photolithographic halftone poster/National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution/© 1970 L & S Productions