National Portrait Gallery | Face to Face blog

Portrait of Michael J. Fox by Steve Pyke

                          © Steve Pyke

Every Thursday evening, the National Portrait Gallery presents “Face-to-Face,” a talk about a selected portrait on view in the gallery. As part of this regular series, Ann Shumard, who is the curator of photographs at NPG, discussed this portrait of Michael J. Fox by Steve Pyke. The portrait is on display on the museum’s first floor, in the exhibition "Portraiture Now: Feature Photography.” 

Interviewed by Esquire magazine for its popular “What I’ve Learned” column, actor and medical research advocate Michael J. Fox spoke candidly about living with Parkinson’s disease: “If I let it affect everything, it’s gonna own everything. I don’t deny it or pretend it’s not there, but if I don’t allow it to be bigger than it is, I can do everything else.” Published with the interview, Steve Pyke’s portrait mirrors the determination of the man whose Michael J. Fox Foundation has funded more than $137 million in Parkinson’s research.

Steve Pyke readily admits that his life in photography has been propelled largely by his fascination with the face. Born in England and now based in New York, Pyke first won notice for his distinctive close-up portrait style in the 1980s, with editorial work for the music press and magazines such as Britain’s popular “style bible,” The Face. In the intervening decades, Pyke’s photographs have reached a wide audience through their publication in major magazines around the world and their exhibition in museums and commercial galleries.

In 2004, Steve Pyke joined the New Yorker. “Working as a staff photographer at the New Yorker magazine gives me the immediacy of making portraits and seeing them appear in an editorial context,” Pyke explains, “and this has always surprised and stimulated me.” In tandem with his career in editorial photography, he has maintained a strong commitment to personally driven projects, including his portrait series documenting the world’s leading thinkers and philosophers.

A common thread running through both Pyke’s editorial and personal work is his abiding interest in what a face can tell us. “The way we live our lives is etched into the landscape of our faces,” Pyke observes. “We create the face with which we live.”

Listen to Ann Shumard’s Face-to-Face talk on Michael J. Fox (24:37)

To view more works by Steve Pyke and the other artists featured in “Portraiture Now: Feature Photography,” be sure to see the online exhibition.  And listen to Steve Pyke in this audio slideshow from the New Yorker.

The next Face-to-Face talk is this Thursday, February 5, when researcher Maya Foo speaks about the portrait of Bette Midler by Richard Amsel in the exhibition “Ballyhoo: Posters as Portraiture.” 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.

Michael J. Fox / Steve Pyke / Gelatin silver print, 2007 / Collection of the artist, courtesy Flowers Gallery, New York City / © Steve Pyke

John Updike: March 18, 1932 - January 27, 2009

John Updike was nothing if not prolific; he once said his goal was to publish a book a year. He came close, publishing more than sixty volumes of poetry, novels, short stories, and nonfiction. He examined the morals and manners of suburban America and chronicled the middle-class American postwar history in comic and heartbreaking fashion. Updike wrote five novels featuring his character Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom and another three featuring a Jewish novelist called Henry Bech. His 1960 New Yorker essay on baseball player Ted Williams’s retirement, “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu,” is regarded as one of the best pieces of sports journalism.

A native of Pennsylvania, Updike spent most of his adult years living in Massachusetts. His work earned him two National Book Awards and two Pulitzer Prizes; he also received the National Medal of Art and the National Medal for the Humanities. A longtime resident of Beverly Farms, Massachusetts, Updike died of lung cancer Tuesday at the age of seventy-six.  

This portrait of John Updike, by artist Alex Katz, was created for Time magazine and appeared on the cover of the October 18, 1982, edition. It is on display in the museum's “20th Century Americans” exhibition, on the third floor. Frederick Voss, former senior historian at the National Portrait Gallery, now retired, wrote an article about the portrait in the museum’s Profile magazine in the spring of 2003.  His article is reprinted below:

In 1982 novelist-poet-essayist John Updike (born 1932) turned fifty. Over the past quarter century, he had become one of America’s most prolific and widely read writers. Although critics were not always unanimous in praise of his art, only the most myopic would have denied him a prominent place among the literary chroniclers of America’s modern-day mores. Among those struck by the significance of his achievements thus far was Time magazine, whose editors decided that the moment was ripe for a cover story on Updike. As the magazine put it—commandeering the alliterative titles of two of his novels—“Rabbit is rich. Bech is back. Updike is ubiquitous.” More to the point, the magazine noted, he was beginning his sixth decade of life “indisputably at the top of his craft.”

To make Updike’s newsmaker portrait, Time turned to painter Alex Katz. Characterized by flattened perspective and a reduction of features to their basic contours, Katz’s often large, close-cropped likenesses represent a redefinition of portraiture that, while rooted in a traditional concern for accuracy, also echoes the modernist sensibilities of the Abstract Expressionists who influenced him in his early years. “If you don’t have a good likeness,” Katz once said, “you don’t have a good picture.” But that was valid only to a point. “You can wreck a painting very easily,” he noted, “if you get obsessive about likeness.”

This was not the first time that Updike would be appearing on a Time cover, and when he confronted his likeness in that much-coveted spot back in 1968, he had not been altogether jubilant over what he saw. At least that was the sense of an autobiographical poem written shortly thereafter, in which he mused:

From Time’s grim cover, my fretful face peers out. Ten thousand soggy mornings warped my lids and minced a crafty pulp of this my mouth.

“Warped lids” notwithstanding, Updike was willing to have another go at cover celebrity, and when Time asked him to sit for Katz, he was agreeable. The preliminary image for the portrait was done at the writer’s seaside home in Massachusetts. Updike posed for it in his study, seated near a window and looking, as the artist later recalled, “definitely sort of literary” in his tweed jacket and pink button-down shirt. In the interest of identifying the “gestures that belong” to his subjects, Katz likes to keep them animated as he draws. That meant maintaining a steady stream of conversation with Updike, which did not prove difficult, and Katz remembers the encounter as very relaxed and easy. Katz also found the light in Updike’s study ideal, and the lighting in the final likeness, he claims, was “the most accurate” element of the whole picture.

Updike saw Katz’s preliminary study for the portrait but did not say anything to the artist about whether he liked it or not. Nor, so far as Katz knows, did he ever comment on the final version after he saw it in published form. Two members of Updike’s admiring public, however, were not so reticent. “What a washed-out portrait of Updike on the cover!” one of them complained to Time. “Katz missed his subject’s warmth and vibrance.” But another reader claimed that Katz had captured in full the Updike that she had come to love, “never jaded, always new, alive, intelligent and marvelously controlled.”

Alas, if only I had the creative genius of, say, a John Updike, I would now use those antipodal responses as the springboard for a prize-winning novel or short story.

Listen to John Updike discuss the profession of writing, recorded in 2003. (1:15)

For further reading: To savor John Updike there is no substitute for his own fiction, poetry, and essays. Of special interest is his Just Looking: Essays on Art (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989). Books about Updike include Lawrence R. Broer, ed., Rabbit Tales: Poetry and Politics in John Updike’s Rabbit Novels (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1998); and William H. Pritchard, Updike: America’s Man of Letters (South Royalton, Vt.: Steerforth Press, 2000).

John Updike / Alex Katz, 1982 / Oil on canvas/ National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Time magazine

Portrait by Alec Soth: Adelyn, Ash Wednesday, New Orleans, Louisiana

© Alec Soth

Every Thursday evening, the National Portrait Gallery presents “Face-to-Face,” a talk about a selected portrait on view in the gallery. As part of this regular series, Brandon Fortune, who is a curator of painting and sculpture at NPG, discussed this portrait by Alec Soth. The photograph—titled Adelyn, Ash Wednesday, New Orleans, Louisiana—was taken by Soth in New Orleans, while he was working on his book Sleeping by the Mississippi (2004). The image is on display in the recently opened exhibition “Portraiture Now: Feature Photography.”

Adroitly navigating the disciplines of editorial photography and fine-art work, Alec Soth has emerged as a leading American artist. He is a member of the famed Magnum Photos group, and has shown his work in galleries and museums in the United States and in Europe.

Born and based in Minneapolis and educated in New York, Soth first attracted critical notice with his series Sleeping by the Mississippi (2004). Since then, he has published NIAGARA (2006), Fashion Magazine (2007), and Dog Days, Bogotá (2007). Unlike many contemporary photographers, Soth works with a large-format 8 x 10-inch camera, which, given the time involved in setting up for a photograph, creates an intense relationship between the artist and subject. Soth sees this as the crux of his work.

For this exhibition, we have chosen a selection of his portraits of women, drawn from past editorial work and fine arts projects, including three portraits from Fashion Magazine, which explored the world of Paris couture and countered those images with subjects from Soth’s Minnesota home. As he notes, “I’m trying to come to terms with how I honestly see and depict women. Are my pictures romanticized? Sexualized? Why do I see women in this way? For me, photography is as much about the way I respond to the subject as it is about the subject itself.”

Listen to Brandon Fortune's Face-to-Face talk on the portrait by Alec Soth (15:54)

To view more works by Alec Soth and the other artists featured in “Portraiture Now: Feature Photography,” be sure to see the online exhibition.

The next Face-to-Face talk is this Thursday, January 29, when Curator of Photographs Ann Shumard speaks about the portrait of Michael J. Fox by Steve Pyke in “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.

Adelyn, Ash Wednesday, New Orleans, Louisiana / Alec Soth / Chromogenic print, 2000 / Collection of the artist, courtesy Gagosian Gallery, New York City / © Alec Soth

New Exhibition: Presidents in Waiting

The vice presidency—a heartbeat away from what has been called the most powerful job in the world—has often been a subject of ridicule and dismissal rather than serious analysis. “Presidents in Waiting” takes a different viewpoint, emphasizing the importance of that office. It focuses on the fourteen vice presidents—almost one-third of our forty-three chief executives—who succeeded to the presidency, either upon the death of a sitting president, election in their own right, or (in one case), the resignation of a president.

“Presidents in Waiting” also offers interviews, conducted especially for this exhibition, in which the former vice presidents discuss their role and their relationship with the president. The exhibition is on view at National Portrait Gallery until January 3, 2010.

The framers of the Constitution believed that the vice presidency was significant enough to be occupied by a national figure—the runner-up in the presidential election. The Constitution, written before political parties emerged, specified that the candidate with the second-highest number of votes in the Electoral College would become vice president.

When political parties evolved during the 1790s, a change in procedure eventually became necessary because the candidate who came in second would belong to a different political party from that of the president-elect, as happened when Thomas Jefferson (above) became John Adams’s vice president in 1797. More complications during the election of 1800 resulted in the Twelfth Amendment being added to the Constitution in 1804, which had the electors voting separately for president and vice president.

A different public and private perception of the vice presidency quickly formed. The country’s first vice president, John Adams, called it “the most insignificant office”; Daniel Webster, who declined it, envisioned the office as a kind of premature burial; Franklin Roosevelt’s two-term vice president, John Nance Garner, said it was “not worth a warm bucket of spit”; and Lyndon Johnson noted that, notwithstanding the inherent pomp and ceremony, “in the end, it is nothing. I detested every minute of it.”

But a closer look at those who served or sought the office offers still another perspective. John Adams (right) was the second most popular man in the United States when he became vice president, and he took pride that his office was “beneath” only that of the president. Thomas Jefferson, whose fame was eclipsed only by Benjamin Franklin and George Washington, was the country’s second vice president. In 1824 and 1828, John C. Calhoun, who had been a powerful voice in Congress and James Monroe’s secretary of war, served as vice president under both John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. Martin Van Buren, who largely created the modern Democratic Party as a vehicle for Andrew Jackson’s election, correctly saw the office as his route to the presidency. With the exceptions of John Tyler and Andrew Johnson, other nineteenth-century vice presidents who succeeded to the presidency, Millard Fillmore and Chester Arthur, served out their terms with competence, if not distinction.

As the United States emerged as a world power in the twentieth century, more powerful and influential men sought the vice presidential office. In 1900 Theodore Roosevelt was elected vice president, and in 1912, the nation’s best-known reform governor, Hiram Johnson of California, sought the office on Roosevelt’s Progressive Party ticket. In 1920, Franklin Roosevelt entered national politics by running unsuccessfully as vice president. John Nance Garner, a powerful congressional leader and Speaker of the House, traded in his position to become FDR’s vice president for two terms.

After World War II, the vice presidency underwent a further evolution. The development of the atomic bomb and the intercontinental missile brought an unprecedented urgency to issues of national security and the role of the vice president. In the mid-1950s, Sam Rayburn, the powerful Speaker of the House of Representatives, emphasized the importance of the president’s choice of a running-mate: “In these thermonuclear times you must select a man, one, that is the best for your country, two, that you trust so much that he would be the trustee for your wife and children when you die.”

Rising political stars of both parties sought the office, and in 1952 an ambitious young California senator, Richard Nixon, became Dwight Eisenhower’s vice president (above). Some presidential scholars point to Nixon as the first of the modern powerful and influential vice presidents. Although Nixon was not in the president’s inner circle, Eisenhower still delegated important tasks to him and kept him in the loop about national security issues.

Not all vice presidents who followed Nixon were given that much responsibility; however, the office attracted serious contenders, including Estes Kefauver, Lyndon Johnson (right), Edwin Muskie, Gerald Ford, Walter Mondale, Robert Dole, George H. W. Bush, Al Gore, and Dick Cheney. All were willing to give up powerful positions to be vice president, and—with the exception of Cheney—to increase their chances to eventually become president. Dan Quayle, senator from Indiana and George H. W. Bush’s vice president, later wrote, “almost every Senator wants it [the vice presidential office], even those who publicly express reluctance to be considered.” The vice presidency “remains the most likely route to the presidency, and the idea that ambitious politicians scorn the office is a myth.” They turn it down “only if they know it won’t be offered.”

 “Presidents in Waiting” moves our ideas about the vice presidency closer to those of the framers of the Constitution, takes note of the changes the office has undergone, and provides us with a better understanding of both the office and the individuals who have served in it.

The curators of the exhibition are Sidney Hart, senior historian, and James G. Barber, historian. The exhibition was made possible by Ford Motor Company Fund.  Be sure to see the online exhibition for more information, including video interviews with former vice presidents. 

Harry S. Truman with Franklin D. Roosevelt / George Tames, 1944 / Gelatin silver print / National Portrait gallery, Smithsonian Institution, gift of Frances o. Tames, © The New York Times/George Tames

Thomas Jefferson / Charles Wilson Peale, 1791 / Oil on canvas / Independence National Historical Park Collection, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

John Adams / Mather Brown, 1788 / Oil on canvas / The Boston Athenaeum, Massachusetts

Richard Nixon and Dwight D. Eisenhower / James Ormsbee Chapin, 1956 / Oil on Canvas / National Portrait gallery, Smithsonian Institution, gift of Time Magazine, © James Cox Gallery at Woodstock for the James Chapin Estate

Now on View: Portrait of Barack Obama by Shepard Fairey

            ©  Shepard Fairey/ObeyGiant.com

The portrait that came to symbolize the historic campaign of President-elect Barack Obama is now on display at the National Portrait Gallery. The piece, created by Los Angeles–based graphic designer and street artist Shepard Fairey, came to the museum through the generosity of Washington, D.C., art collectors Heather and Tony Podesta, in honor of Tony Podesta’s mother, the late Mary K. Podesta.  This large-scale mixed-media stenciled collage is on view in the “New Arrivals” exhibition, on the museum’s first floor. 

Fairey’s Barack Obama “Hope” poster became the iconic campaign image for the first African American president of the United States. Early in 2008, Fairey produced his first Obama portrait, with a stenciled face, visionary upward glance, and the caption “Progress.” In this second version, Fairey repeated the heroic pose and patriotic color scheme, substituting the slogan “Hope.”

The artist’s intention that the image be widely reproduced and “go viral” on the Internet exceeded his greatest expectations. The campaign sold 50,000 official posters; a San Francisco streetwear company produced T-shirts; grassroots organizations disseminated hundreds of thousands of stickers; and a free downloadable version generated countless repetitions. Although the reproductions rarely convey the elegant surface patterning seen in this original collage, they forged an unprecedented and powerful icon for Obama’s historic campaign.

Shepard Fairey’s work is represented by the Irvine Contemporary gallery in Washington, D.C.  His art is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.  In 2006, Gingko Press published a monograph on the artist’s career, “Obey: Supply and Demand.” A retrospective of Fairey’s work will open on February 6 at the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art.

Listen to an interview with artist Shepard Fairey (13:49)

Photo by Warren Perry
The portrait was unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery on January 17; it is now on view on the museum's first floor.

Barack Obama/Shepard Fairey, 2008 / Hand-finished collage, stencil and acrylic on paper / Gift of the Heather and Tony Podesta Collection in honor of Mary K. Podesta / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution / © Shepard Fairey/ObeyGiant.com

Self-Portrait by Ryan McGinley

© Ryan McGinley

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, Frank Goodyear, who is associate curator of photographs at NPG, discussed this self-portrait by photographer Ryan McGinley. The portrait, Untitled (Morrissey 1), has the English musician Morrissey in the background. The photograph is on display in the recently opened exhibition "Portraiture Now: Feature Photography."

Ryan McGinley’s contribution to “Feature Photography” includes a select group of photographs taken at several concerts headlined by Morrissey between 2004 and 2006. Capturing the varied expressions and moods of the fans in attendance, these portraits suggest the enthusiasm shared by many for this charismatic English musician. McGinley also has acknowledged his own admiration for Morrissey, especially in the way in which his music addresses pertinent issues for him and for many other young people.

In his artist statement, Ryan McGinley writes, “The idea behind this series was to capture the feeling from the perspective of a fan attending a Morrissey concert. The great thing about shooting him is that he’s so active. He knows about the drama and opera of performance. . . . All of my work is people performing or being active in front of the camera, so taking pictures of Morrissey made perfect sense.”

As in other series about youth culture that he has completed, McGinley is both an observer and a participant at these concerts. In crafting the final prints, he experiments with size, exposure, and tonality to fashion images that convey the exhilaration and beauty of a captivated audience. In 2007 the International Center of Photography awarded McGinley the prestigious Infinity Award for a young photographer. For the past decade, he has been a regular contributor to a variety of magazines, including Vice, Index, and the New York Times Magazine.

Listen to Frank Goodyear’s Face-to-Face talk on Ryan McGinley (17:31)

To view more works by Ryan McGinley and the other artists featured in "Portraiture Now: Feature Photography," be sure to see the online exhibition. McGinley's portrait of Michael Phelps has also been on display at NPG, and is part of the museum's collections. 

The next Face-to-Face talk is this Thursday, January 22, when Curator of Painting and Sculpture Brandon Fortune speaks about the portrait Adelyn, Ash Wednesday, New Orleans, Louisiana, by Alec Soth in the 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.

Untitled (Morrissey 1) / Ryan McGinley 2004–6 / Chromogenic print / Ann and Mel Schaffer Family Collection / © Ryan McGinley

Closing Exhibition: Four Indian Kings

The exhibition “Four Indian Kings” is closing soon at the National Portrait Gallery, so see it while you can—the final day is Sunday, January 25. The paintings for this special installation were lent by the Portrait Gallery of Canada, a program of the Library and Archives of Canada.

In 1710, a delegation of four Native American leaders—three Mohawk from the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) alliance and one Mohican from the Algonquin nations—traveled to the Court of Queen Anne in London. The delegation traveled to London with British military leaders seeking to court support against competing French and their allied Native interests in North America.

To commemorate the delegates’ visit, Queen Anne commissioned John Verelst, a Dutch portrait artist residing in London, to paint their official portraits. They are the earliest known surviving oil portraits from life of Native people of North America. So popular were the “Four Indian Kings” that printmaker John Simon created mezzotints after these paintings.

While the “Four Kings,” as they became known, were not the first Native visitors to Britain, their presence at Court and their interactions with Londoners, who treated them as celebrities, ignited the British imagination. Poems, ballads, and music were written about them.

The portraits of the “Four Indian Kings” function as a record of early cultural and political diplomacy between the Haudenosaunee and the British, demonstrating discourse, negotiation, and alliance. For more than a hundred years, the portraits were displayed at Court, where many visitors saw them. Subsequently, they were acquired by the Petre family in Essex, and in 1977 they were purchased by Canada with a special grant from the Canadian Government.

Sa Ga Yeath Qua Pieth Tow, King of the Maquas, lifedates unknown

Verelst’s depiction of Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) symbolic skin markings, elaborately demonstrated by Mohawk Sa Ga Yeath Qua Pieth Tow (baptized Brant), is one of the best records of eighteenth-century Native tattooing in existence. The tattoos, visible on all four delegates, were first stenciled on the skin and then pricked into the flesh with trade needles or little bones until the blood flowed. While the precise significance of the markings remains unclear, Haudenosaunee men were tattooed to commemorate their achievements in battle.

The highly individualized depiction of these markings is an important aspect of the representation characteristic of this commemorative portrait. Sa Ga Yeath Qua Pieth Tow was the grandfather of venerated Mohawk leader Thayendanegea (Joseph Brant), a captain in the British military during the American Revolution.

Ho Nee Yeath Taw No Row, King of the Generethgarich Nations, lifedates unknown

Born in present-day upstate New York, Ho Nee Yeath Taw No Row (baptized John) was one of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) known as the "Four Indian Kings." The display of symbolic skin markings, distinctive clothing, and beautiful or unique items were all ways that Native diplomats demonstrated their values and status.

There is much discussion among ethnographers regarding the authenticity of the items represented in these paintings. For example, Ho Nee Yeath Taw No Row is depicted holding a bow that would be too small to have been used by an adult. The depiction of a wolf behind him represents his dodem, or clan affiliation. Dodem animals—wolf, bear, and turtle—included in each of the four portraits, mark the delegates’ connections to their community. Verelst likely spoke with each of the men, through their interpreter, to understand the importance of such symbols.

Etow Oh Koam, King of the River Nation (Mohican), lifedates unknown

Verelst depicted the four representatives of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) alliance in a style reserved for royalty. Each full-length figure is posed in a stance associated with those wielding power, their gaze directed at the viewer. Mahican Etow Oh Koam (baptized Nicholas) wears or holds items that refer to his status, such as the carved wooden ball-headed club which identifies him as a warrior.

The beautiful thunderbirds tattooed across the side of his face make reference to an important spiritual support for a warrior. In many Native cultures, thunderbirds are powerful sky spirits that can evoke the terrors and dangers of the natural world. The dramatically draped red cloaks, edged in gold, may have been offered by a London costumer at the Queen’s request. In this way, Verelst portrayed the ambassadors in a format familiar to European viewers that indicated their social position both in European and Haudenosaunee terms of reference.

Tee Yee Neen Ho Ga Row, Emperor of the Six Nations c. 1680-1755

Presented as "kings" to the Royal Court in London, the four Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) carried the authority of diplomats. Mohawk leader Theyanoguin (baptized Hendrick) was given the epithet "Emperor of the Six Nations." While the four "kings" were represented both in European and Haudenosaunee terms, he is the only one almost fully depicted in English dress. He wears black because the Court was in mourning for the recent death of the Queen’s consort. His dress consists of a sleeved waistcoat, linen shirt, breeches, stockings, and buckled shoes, helping viewers identify his status as "Emperor."

The wampum belt that he holds is a deeply significant item that serves to commemorate the meeting and to represent an alliance that cannot be broken unless the belt is returned. Theyanoguin subsequently became a significant military leader and ambassador after his return to North America.

Listen to Martin Sullivan, director of the National Portrait Gallery, discuss “Four Indian Kings” in a Face-to-Face portrait talk. (27:48)

The next Face-to-Face talk is this Thursday, January 15, when Associate Curator of Photographs Frank Goodyear speaks about photographer Ryan McGinley’s self-portrait in the 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.

All portraits by John Verelst (c. 1675–1734)/Oil on canvas, 1710/Library and Archives Canada/Acquired with a special grant from the Canadian Government, 1977

Portrait of Cindy Sherman 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 Cindy Sherman by photographer Martin Schoeller.  The portrait is on display in the recently opened exhibition "Portraiture Now: Feature Photography."

Cindy Sherman, who is well known for creating photographs of herself adopting a broad range of persona, has a face that is surprisingly unfamiliar to viewers. You can view a selection of Sherman’s work on the Metro Pictures gallery website, including photographs from the mid-1970s. Schoeller’s portrait of Sherman, originally published with a New Yorker profile by Calvin Tomkins, “Her Secret Identities,” unmasks the influential artist. 

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 Cindy Sherman (25:08)

To view more works by Martin Schoeller, and the other artists featured in "Portraiture Now: Feature Photography," be sure to see the online exhibition.  And listen to Martin Schoeller in this audio slideshow from the New Yorker.

The next Face-to-Face talk is this Thursday, January 15, when Associate Curator of Photographs Frank Goodyear speaks about photographer Ryan McGinley’s self-portrait in the 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.

Cindy Sherman/Martin Schoeller, 2000/Digital C-print/Collection of the artist, courtesy Hasted Hunt, New York City/© Martin Schoeller

Elvis Presley, Born 74 Years Ago Today

Q. What National Park Service memorial is most closely associated with Elvis Presley?
A. The U.S.S. Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

On this day in 1935, Elvis Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi. Many stories about the King of Rock and Roll have taken on monumental and mythical status. Most everyone who has heard of Elvis has also heard the story about the King shooting the television set, the late-night exploits of the Memphis Mafia at Graceland, or Elvis flying from Memphis to Denver to pick up a fried peanut butter and banana sandwich. Most everyone also has seen the photos of Elvis and President Nixon, as well; that sequence of images has its own location on the “When Nixon Met Elvis” website by the National Archives.

Elvis was the prototype for ensuing generations of rock stars. His madnesses were many and his desire to apologize was minimal; after all, he was traveling in uncharted waters. Elvis established the pattern, and fast cars, beautiful women, and fistfuls of narcotics would quickly become part of the rock and roll milieu.

Wild behavior aside, one aspect of Elvis’s personality—though out of control at times—continues to endear him to millions worldwide: he was a charitable man. For every story about the King blowing apart a television set, there are dozens of stories of Elvis helping a friend in need or buying a car for a total stranger.

In Fortunate Son: The Life of Elvis Presley, biographer Charles Ponce de Leon writes, “Always one to share his wealth, Elvis . . . became impetuously generous toward his family, friends, and business acquaintances—sometimes even perfect strangers. He bought them custom-made rings, necklaces, bracelets, and pendants. His jewelry purchases became so frequent and extravagant that his favorite Memphis jewelers were happy to fly to Las Vegas or wherever he was to take an order or make a special delivery.”

One of Elvis’s acts of benevolence will continue to benefit millions forever.  In March 1961, Elvis gave a concert in Hawaii for the benefit of the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial fund. The association had struggled for years to fund the completion of the memorial at Pearl Harbor, but the end was not in sight. United States Park Service records indicate that Elvis’s charity performance at Bloch Arena in Hawaii yielded almost $55,000 toward funding the monument; the entire memorial cost approximately $516,000, meaning that the concert produced more than 10 percent of the money needed for the project.

Interestingly, without Elvis, there is no way of knowing when the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial would have opened to the public. His 1961 benefit performance was the final fiscal push needed to open the doors to the memorial.

Listen to Warren Perry’s Face-to-Face talk on Elvis Presley (25:28)

The next Face-to-Face talk is tonight (Thursday, January 8), when Anne Goodyear, Assistant Curator of Prints and Drawings, will discuss a portrait of Cindy Sherman by photographer Martin Schoeller. This portrait is on view in the 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.

Elvis Aron Presley/Ralph Wolfe Cowan,1976-1988/National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of R.W. Cowan   

For more on Elvis, visit the previous blog post "Isaac And Elvis: The Memphis Music Legacy." For further reading see Fortunate Son: The Life of Elvis Presley by Charles Ponce de Leon, the “When Nixon Met Elvis” website by the National Archives, and the National Park Service Arizona Memorial, FAQ's page.

NPG Acquires Shepard Fairey’s Portrait of Barack Obama

Update: The portrait is now on view on the museum's first floor

               ©  Shepard Fairey/ObeyGiant.com

The portrait that came to symbolize the historic campaign of President-elect Barack Obama will make its permanent home only a few blocks from the White House at the National Portrait Gallery. The piece, created by Los Angeles artist Shepard Fairey, came to the museum through the generosity of Washington, D.C., art collectors Heather and Tony Podesta, in honor of Tony Podesta’s mother, the late Mary K. Podesta.

“This work is an emblem of a significant election, as well as a new presidency,” said Martin E.Sullivan, director of the National Portrait Gallery. “Shepard Fairey’s instantly recognizable image was integral to the Obama campaign. We are deeply grateful to the Podestas for their generosity.”

Fairey’s large-scale, mixed-media stenciled collage was the central portrait image for the Obama campaign and was previously distributed as a limited-edition print and as a free download. The collage will be on view at the Portrait Gallery by Inauguration Day. It will be installed on the first floor of the museum in the “New Arrivals” exhibition.

Fairey’s work is represented by the Irvine Contemporary gallery in Washington, D.C. Fairey’s works are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. In 2006, Gingko Press published a monograph on the artist’s career, “Obey: Supply and Demand.” A retrospective of Fairey’s work will open Feb. 6 at the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art.

Listen to NPG Deputy Director Carolyn Carr discuss the portrait (8:30)

Barack Obama/Shepard Fairey, 2008 / Hand-finished collage, stencil and acrylic on paper / Gift of the Heather and Tony Podesta Collection in honor of Mary K. Podesta / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution /
© Shepard Fairey/ObeyGiant.com

January 6, 1759: George and Martha Washington Tie the Knot

Two hundred and fifty years ago today, George Washington, a land owner and an officer in the Virginia militia, and Martha Dandridge Custis (right), a widow with two children, were wed at White House, the Custis home in New Kent County, Virginia, that Martha inherited upon the death of her first husband, Daniel Parke Custis. It was not a coincidence that the date chosen for the wedding was Epiphany; Twelfth Night was traditionally a night for celebrations, and the Washington-Custis wedding was purposefully tied to this date.

In her biography Martha Washington: First Lady of Liberty, Helen Bryan writes:

The wedding was probably a very robust affair. Most social occasions in the tidewater were. Martha would have known what to expect and would have made meticulous preparations in advance to feed and accommodate a houseful of guests who would be cooped up together in the house for an indeterminate number of days. Plantation weddings went on for a long time, and once guests had made the trip over bad, frozen, or snow-covered roads or up the icy Pamunkey River to White House, they would have had no inclination to go home quickly. Advance preparations must have involved making up endless sleeping pallets; preparing bedding; stocking up with firewood, extra soap, and candles; and an orgy of roasting, smoking, and baking; not to mention provisioning with cordials, brewing of beer, and ordering plenty of wine, Madeira, port, rum, brandy, and whiskey. Colonials were a notoriously hard-drinking lot. And in keeping with the custom of the time, Martha probably decorated White House with pine boughs, holly, mistletoe, and ivy.

Although George Washington entered the relationship as a property owner and a man of excellent reputation, Martha’s inheritance of property and slaves from Daniel Parke Custis’s estate would have been an attractive corollary to the establishment of this marriage. Washington was ambitious with respect to property, and he had great plans for his holdings at Mount Vernon; marrying a wealthy widow roughly his own age—Martha was born in 1731, some eight months before George’s birthday in 1732—would greatly increase his social and financial positions. As colonial law forbade Martha to own property after marriage, George immediately became responsible for the property Martha shared with her two children, John Parke Custis and Martha Parke Custis. On May 1, 1759, George wrote to Robert Cary and Company, London merchants:

Gentlemen, the enclosed is the minister’s certificate of my marriage with Mrs. Martha Custis, properly as I am told, authenticated. You will therefore for the future please to address all your letters which relate to the affairs of the late Daniel Parke Custis, Esquire, to me, as by marriage I am entitled to a third part of that estate, and invested likewise with the care of the other two thirds by a decree of our general court which I obtained in order to strengthen the power I before had in consequence of my wife’s administration.

George and Martha would share forty years together; however, George spent a substantial portion of that time fighting to build and to administer a new nation. He died in December of 1799, and she passed away in May of 1802. Although plans were conceived within the young government to bury Washington beneath the United States Capitol, George and Martha Washington are fittingly interred together at Mount Vernon.

George Washington and Family/David Edwin, 1798, Copy after: Edward Savage/Stipple engraving on paper/National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

Martha Dandridge Custis Washington/Rembrandt Peale, c. 1853/Oil on canvas/National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of an anonymous donor

George Washington (Lansdowne portrait)/Gilbert Stuart, 1796/Oil on canvas/National Portrait Gallery; acquired as a gift to the nation through the generosity of the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation