Barack and Michelle Obama's official portraits expand beyond usual format

FULL STORY by David Smith: The GUARDIAN…..

QUOTE~~~

Barack Obama tried to negotiate less grey hair, he recalled, but Kehinde Wiley’s “artistic integrity” would not allow it. He tried to negotiate smaller ears but “struck out on that as well”. There was one area of concession, however: Wiley’s impulse to depict Obama on a throne, holding a sceptre or perhaps even riding a horse. “I had to explain that I’ve got enough political problems without you making me look like Napoleon!”

The result was a vivid official portrait that shows the 44th president sitting in a suit, without a tie, floating in vegetation and flowers. Obama was on hand to unveil it on Monday at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, where the America’s presidents section was previously an exclusive club for white people painted by white people.