National Portrait Gallery | Face to Face blog

Portrait Competition: Finalists and Shortlisted Artists Selected

The National Portrait Gallery has selected the artists whose work will be included in the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2009. The juried exhibition includes 49 works that will be on view from Oct. 23 through Aug. 22, 2010. Of these works, submitted by people from across the nation, seven were selected for the shortlist. Each of these seven will win cash awards, and the first prize will include an award of $25,000 and a commission from the museum to create a portrait of a living individual for the museum’s permanent collection. The prizes will be announced in a private event Oct. 22.

“The second Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition represents a significant milestone for the National Portrait Gallery,” said Martin Sullivan, director of the museum. “We opened the entries to all visual arts media and received a wonderful response.”

The competition received 3,300 entries in a variety of visual arts media, from digital animation and video to large-scale drawings, prints and photographs and a plethora of painted and sculpted portraits. It was open to artists working in the United States who had created portraits after Jan. 1,2007, in any visual art form. The exhibition of the finalists’ works includes paintings, sculpture, drawings, photographs and video.

External jurors for the competition were Wanda M. Corn, professor emerita in art history at Stanford University; Kerry James Marshall, artist; Brian O’Doherty, artist and critic; and Peter Schjeldahl, art critic for The New Yorker. Jurors from the National Portrait Gallery were Martin E. Sullivan, director; Carolyn K. Carr, deputy director and chief curator; and Brandon Brame Fortune, curator of painting and sculpture.

The Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition is a triennial event that invites figurative artists to submit entries in all media to be considered for prizes and display at the National Portrait Gallery. During the exhibition, museum and Web site visitors can vote for their favorite pieces as part of the “People’s Choice Award,” and winners of this part of the competition will be announced Jan. 24, 2010. The endowment from the late Virginia Outwin Boochever has enabled the museum to conduct a national portrait competition and exhibition that encourages artists to explore the art of portraiture.

Congratulations to the Portrait Competition finalists and shortlisted artists (*denotes artists on the shortlist):

Mequitta Ahuja, Houston
Jason Shaw Alexander, Los Angeles
Jen Bandini, Queens, N.Y.
Margaret Bowland, Brooklyn, N.Y.*
Benita Carr, Atlanta
Laura Chasman, Roslindale, Mass.
Mark Cummings, Newport Beach, Calif.
Yolanda del Amo, Brooklyn, N.Y.*
Armando Dominguez, Miami
Jenny Dubnau, Jackson Heights, N.Y.
Daniel Mark Duffy, Newtown, Conn.
David Eichenberg, Toledo, Ohio
Gaela Erwin, Louisville, Ky.*
Chambliss Giobbi, New York
David Gracie, Omaha, Neb.
Leor Grady, New York
Anne Harris, Riverside, Ill.
Patricia Horing, Larchmont, N.Y.
Anna Killian, Pensacola, Fla.
Erika Larsen, Hoboken, N.J.
David Dodge Lewis, Farmville, Va.
Lisa Lindvay, Chicago
Francesco Lombardo, Marshall, N.C.
Perin Mahler, Grand Rapids, Mich.
John Manion, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Bruce McKaig, Washington, D.C.
Pavel Melecky, Arlington, Texas
Sam Messer, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Paul Mindell, Norwalk, Conn.
Matthew Mitchell, Amherst, Mass.
Samantha Mitchell, New York
Austin Parkhill, Arvada, Colo.
Sonia Paulino, Los Angeles
Cliffton Peacock, Charleston, S.C.
Stanley Rayfield, Richmond, Va.*
Emil Robinson, Cincinnati*
Kate Sammons, Los Angeles
Philip Schirmer, Sargentville, Maine
Justin Shaw, Lincoln, Neb.
Satomi Shirai, Astoria, N.Y.
Michael A. Smith, Ottsville, Pa.
Ben Tolman, Washington, D.C.
Jim Torok, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Margaret Trezevant, Tampa, Fla.
Lien Truong, Eureka, Calif.
Clarissa Payne Uvegi, New York
Adam Vinson, Jenkintown, Pa.*
Dave Woody, Fort Collins, Colo.*
John Randall Younger, Charlottesville, Va.

The Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition jury at work on May 28, 2009

Now On View: Portrait of Eunice Kennedy Shriver by David Lenz

Eunice Kennedy Shriver is the creative force and organizer of Special Olympics, Inc., a nonprofit charitable organization that provides training and competition in Olympic sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. In a special ceremony this morning, National Portrait Gallery unveiled a portrait of Shriver by artist David Lenz, winner of the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2006. It is the first portrait commissioned by the museum of an individual who has not served as a president or first lady. The portrait is on display on the museum’s second floor rotunda. 

Eunice Kennedy Shriver, has been a leader in the worldwide struggle to improve and enhance the lives of individuals with intellectual disabilities for most of her life. In 1957 Shriver became director of the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation, which was created to deal with issues of mental retardation, and several years later she established a summer day camp at her home that became the basis for Special Olympics. In 1968 the Kennedy Foundation, working with the Chicago Park District, organized the First International Special Olympics Summer Games. Currently more than 1.3 million children and adults from more than 150 countries participate in the program. Shriver has received numerous awards and honors for her work, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Theodore Roosevelt Award of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

David Lenz was commissioned to paint this portrait as part of the first prize in the inaugural Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. Lenz ’s winning painting, Sam and the Perfect World, portrays his son, an active participant in Special Olympics events. For this commission, Lenz embraced the idea of making a portrait of Shriver that would also include five persons with intellectual disabilities who have been involved in Special Olympics and the Best Buddies program: (left to right) Airika Straka, Katie Meade, Andy Leonard, Loretta Claiborne, and Marty Sheets.

Listen to an interview with artist David Lenz (13:15)

Listen to the dedication ceremony, featuring remarks from Bobby Shriver and David Lenz (26:45)

Eunice Kennedy Shriver / David Lenz, 2009 / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; Commissioned as part of the First Prize, Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2006

Tony Bennett Portrait of Duke Ellington Dedicated, Displayed

In honor of the 110th birthday of Duke Ellington, the National Portrait Gallery today unveiled a portrait of the composer by his friend and fellow musician Tony Bennett. Bennett spoke briefly at the NPG’s McEvoy auditorium this morning, discussing art, music, and his friendship with Ellington. The Duke Ellington School of Performing Arts Jazz Ensemble accompanied the ceremony with a brief set, and they were acknowledged by both NPG Director Martin Sullivan and Bennett. Bennett’s watercolor of Ellington was then removed from the auditorium and taken to the NPG “New Arrivals” gallery, on the first floor, where it will be on public display through Labor Day.

“We are honored to accept this donation from Mr. Bennett to the National Portrait Gallery’s collection,” said Sullivan. “There was great affection between Bennett and Ellington, and both were outstanding contributors to America’s musical heritage.” 

The painting depicts Ellington with a bouquet of pink roses in the background. Bennett chose this motif to celebrate Ellington’s habit of sending the singer a dozen pink roses whenever Ellington composed a new song. In the first rank of American composers, Duke Ellington was “beyond category”: his more than 2,000 jazz compositions include “Satin Doll” and “Sophisticated Lady,” as well as Black, Brown and Beige and the later “Sacred Concerts.” Legendary performer Tony Bennett (born Anthony Benedetto), who has had a lifelong interest in painting, here portrays the man he celebrated as his mentor. “When I worked on his portrait, I was inspired by the look of divine serenity on his face,” Bennett noted, and he inscribed the painting, “God Is Love.” 

Bennett, a fifteen-time Grammy Award–winning singer, has a reputation as an accomplished visual artist. This donation marks the third painting he has donated to the Smithsonian. In 2006, Bennett’s painting of Central Park was donated to the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and in 2002 his portrait of Ella Fitzgerald was donated to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. 

In a letter to NPG Historian Amy Henderson, Mercedes Ellington stated, “Particularly heartwarming for me . . . is the superb tribute that you have succeeded in creating on this date for both my grandfather and for a special friend, Tony Bennett. Tony has been a dear and close friend of ours, not only during my grandfather’s lifetime, but ever since. A consummate artist, he is one of the few whom Duke Ellington regarded as ‘beyond category.’ Words fail to express how delighted we are that the friendship and mutual admiration between Duke Ellington and Tony Bennett should be enshrined and remembered by the installation of Tony’s portrait of the The Duke in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.”

Listen to the donation ceremony, featuring comments from Tony Bennett (18:02)

Duke Ellington, Tony Bennett, 1993 / Watercolor and graphite on paper / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Tony Bennett

Portrait Competition Update

It’s been three months since the jury met for the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2009 and chose just over 100 semifinalists. Now, we offer a preview of some of the artists who are advancing to the final round of judging.

Nine of the semifinalist artists from all over the country are participating in the Portrait of an Artist project, a multimedia diary that documents their artistic process. They are:

Mequitta Ahuja, Weston, Connecticut
Mary Borgman, St. Louis, Missouri
David James Eichenberg, Toledo, Ohio
Kenichi Hoshine, New York City
Sonia Paulino, New York City, Miami, and Los Angeles
Satomi Shirai, Tokyo, Japan, and New York City
Ben Tolman, Washington, DC
Dave Woody, Fort Collins, Colorado
Michael Vasquez, St. Petersburg and Miami, Florida

These photographers, draftsmen, and painters are posting a cornucopia of entries, pictures, and videos to Portrait of an Artist. Readers can click through their interests (everything from “hot springs” to “hot beverages”) and delve further into the minds of today’s portrait artists. Best of all, the artists will continuously update their own diaries throughout the year. Lucky us!

Models Chauncey and Merwin with artist Mary Borgman’s finished Portrait of Merwin Shaw.

View our past updates on the Portrait Competition here and here, and visit the competition's Web site for more information. The exhibition of finalist work will open at the National Portrait Gallery on October 23, 2009.   

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

Portrait Competition Update

The jury for the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2009 met at the National Portrait Gallery offices on October 24 to choose the semifinalist works. Portraits in nearly all visual arts media were carefully reviewed, and the jury members were struck by how much extraordinary work they were able to see, and how many artists they were discovering for the first time. 

At the end of a long day, a group of approximately 100 portraits were selected to be brought to Washington for final review next spring.  The jurors were Wanda Corn, professor emerita at Stanford University; Kerry James Marshall, artist, Chicago; Brian O’Doherty, artist, New York City; Peter Schjeldahl, art critic for the New Yorker; and three members of the NPG staff:  Director Martin Sullivan, Deputy Director and Chief Curator Carolyn Kinder Carr, and Curator of Painting and Sculpture Brandon Fortune.

See our last update, and visit the competition's Web site for more information. The exhibition of finalist work will open at the Portrait Gallery on October 23, 2009. 

The National Portrait Gallery Turns 40!

Forty years ago today, the National Portrait Gallery opened its doors to the public.

A national portrait gallery was an idea long in search of a building. At last in 1958 came the promise of a home in the majestic Old Patent Office (saved from being replaced by a parking facility) once it was vacated by the Civil Service Commission. Legislation formally brought the National Portrait Gallery into being in 1962 and after frustrating delays, it opened its doors to the public on October 7, 1968. “The Gallery will tell for centuries to come the story of American history,” the welcoming proclamation from the District of Columbia affirmed, “by displaying the likenesses of these men and women of all stations of life and of diverse origins.” You can learn more about the history of the Old Patent Office Building in NPG's online exhibition "Temple of Invention: History of a National Landmark." 

 “After a long, hazardous pilgrimage,“ wrote Charles Nagel, the Gallery’s first director, in the initial  catalog, “we have finally come to our premier exhibition.”  Entitled "This New Man A Discourse in Portraits," the exhibition's theme was intended to be an inquiry into the nature of the American national character. The one hundred and sixty eight paintings, sculptures, and photographs were arranged, not chronologically, but in “thought-provoking juxtapositions” which sometimes  “made for strange bedfellows.”

Only thirty-five of the portraits were from the Gallery’s own small collection—the remainder were on loan from individuals and institutions throughout the country and abroad. Explained Nagel, “We’re trying to give an idea of what we’re aiming at, not of what we have.” (A fair number of the borrowed  portraits would find their way,  by gift or purchase, into the Gallery’s permanent collection. )   

In addition to “This New Man” the Gallery assembled an impressive array portraits of all past presidents of the United States—no easy task since the collection included likenesses of only 23 of the 39 men who had held the office. The prize, hung to greet guests as they ascended the stairway to the second floor, was the Gilbert Stuart Lansdowne portrait of George Washington lent by Lord Primrose. The loan request had initially been turned down, but the portrait was secured after Smithsonian Secretary Dillon Ripley asked Lord Mountbatten (with whom he had worked in South East Asia during the World War II) to intervene. (The Donald W. Reynolds Foundation made it possible for the Gallery to purchase the Lansdowne in 2001.)

Not on view was the Peter Hurd portrait of the current president, Lyndon Baines Johnson, who had denounced it as “the ugliest thing he had ever seen.” Johnson, miffed because the portrait rejected by the White House, had been accepted by the Portrait Gallery as a gift from the artist, had declined an invitation to speak at the opening ceremonies and declared that he wished no likeness of himself to be on view during his term in office.  The special alcove intended for the portrait of the incumbent president was filled instead by his immediate predecessor, John F. Kennedy.

“'This New Man' brings together some truly superb examples of the art of portraiture,” wrote the New York Times art critic, Hilton Kramer, “along with some of the most deplorable pictorial junk ever put on public display.”  The “truly appalling thing,” noted another scribe, was the diorama based on John Trumbull’s “The Signing of the Declaration of Independence” which looked like “handmade Barbie dolls.” (As one of his first acts, the Gallery’s second director, Marvin Sadik, took the Gallery’s one and only diorama off view.)  

That the Portrait Gallery received mixed reviews at its opening, is attributable in part to a misunderstanding of what this new breed of museum was about–it was not a gallery of art as such–although the role of the artist is part of the Gallery’s mission—but rather a place of history where the significance of the sitter—for good or for evil–takes precedence over artistic merit. That the Portrait Gallery, which Charles Nagel and many others thought had been founded one hundred years too late, has been able, over the past forty years, to acquire a collection of images worthy in both history and art, is downright amazing. 

National Portrait Gallery, 1968 aerial view.

The National Portrait Gallery is part of the Donald W. Reynolds Center, along with the Smithsonian American Art Museum. (2007 photo by Ken Rahaim, Smithsonian Institution)

Portrait Competition Update

Hello! We are Maggie and Meredith, the two Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2009 interns, and your personal correspondents to everything portrait competition.  We are officially halfway through the call for entries, and we have answered over 400 emails and phone calls, making us all portrait competition, all of the time!

So far we have received more than 1,700 entries, and the breadth of submitted media has been absolutely amazing. Artists from all over the country have submitted not just works  in traditional media such as painting and sculpture, but also new and intriguing forms of artwork, proving that portraiture as a subject is constantly changing and evolving.

Works submitted thus far include a sculpture of a family created through drops of acrylic paint on acrylic plastic rods and a photograph of a man with tribal tattoos covering his face. Other equally inventive works include a woodblock print on canvas of a homeless man and a trompe l’oeil self-portrait painted onto a functioning chair. We have received entries from every artistic medium and school imaginable, from hyperrealistic paintings to anthropomorphic drawings.

The Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2009 continues to be an incredibly exciting project to work on, and we have loved communicating with all of you.  With less than a month to go in the call for entries period, we have learned one important lesson—we do not envy the panel that has to judge this competition!

The deadline for submitting your portrait to the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition is Thursday, July 31, 2008.  Visit the Web site to learn more and submit your work. 

Second Portrait Competition Launches

The online entry form for the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2009 sprang to life on Monday, June 2. Hundreds of American artists have been e-mailing us this spring, asking questions about acceptable subjects, sizes, media—you name it! One of the many fascinating aspects of this competition—the second in the series—is for viewers to be exposed to the tremendous variety of portraiture created today. We hope to receive works of all kinds: art crafted with traditional media and using traditional formats; works made using traditional media in unusual ways; and also those made with time-based media and mind-stretching combinations of materials and images. Our goal is to find works of art that answer the question “What is today’s portrait?”

 

Check back soon. We will keep you posted on the numbers of entries received and the approaches that today’s artists are using to explore the dynamic art of twenty-first-century portraiture, reinvented now, just as it has been by artists from Goya to Chuck Close.

 

     Don’t forget, the entry form shuts down on July 31, 2008.

 

 

Stephen on the Move

After almost three months on view at the National Portrait Gallery, Stephen Colbert’s portrait was taken down last week. The stately triple-likeness, located in between the 2nd floor bathrooms and within view of the “America’s Presidents” exhibition, brought in thousands of visitors, including—dare we say—many folks who otherwise would not have visited the Portrait Gallery. 

But don’t despair—he didn’t go very far. Colbert’s portrait is now on view in the “Treasures of American History”  exhibition, at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. It will be on display until April 13. 

If you missed out on the joke, here’s a recap: on episodes of The Colbert Report aired in mid-January, host Stephen Colbert attempts to donate his portrait to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, but the museum’s director suggests that Colbert should speak to the National Portrait Gallery. After much "discussion," the director of the National Portrait Gallery finds an appropriate place to hang Colbert’s portrait, in between the bathrooms and above the water fountain.

• See photos of Stephen Colbert’s portrait on the National Portrait Gallery’s Flickr group
• View the episodes on the Comedy Central Web site

Digital image on canvas, 2005 / On loan from The Colbert Report

Martin Sullivan Named Director of the National Portrait Gallery

Martin E. Sullivan has been named director of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, effective April 28.

Sullivan is the chief executive officer of the Historic St. Mary’s City Commission in Maryland, a position he has held since 1999. He oversees museum research, interpretation and site preservation of Maryland’s first capital (1634-1695), a National Historic Landmark. Sullivan also coordinates master planning, facility development and academic programs in public history and museum studies with St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

Kogod Courtyard Designed by Norman Foster

     

The Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard, a signature element of the renovated Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture, opened to the public Sunday, Nov. 18. The building houses the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.  For more views of the Kogod Courtyard, see this slideshow.

The enclosed courtyard with its elegant glass canopy designed by world-renowned architects Foster + Partners provides a distinctive, contemporary accent to the museums’ Greek Revival building

Foster + Partners was assisted by internationally acclaimed landscape designer Kathryn Gustafson of Seattle-based Gustafson Guthrie Nichol Ltd. in the creation of the courtyard’s interior design, with a variety of trees and plantings, as well as a unique water feature. The courtyard is named for major donors Robert and Arlene Kogod, Washington philanthropists and art collectors.

Foster + Partners worked with the Smithsonian to create an innovative enclosure for the 28,000-square-foot space at the center of the building that was sensitive to the historic structure and yet added a modern element to the building. The light-filled Kogod Courtyard will become a major gathering place in the nation’s capital. It will be a welcoming space downtown, as well as a public venue for the museums’ performances, lectures and special events. Free public wireless Internet access (Wi-Fi) will be available in the courtyard. The Courtyard Café will offer casual dining during public museum hours (11:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.).