When former first lady Michelle Obama’s official portrait was unveiled on Feb. 12, 2018, at the National Portrait Gallery, the crowd present and all who looked on virtually were witnessing major history for Black women artists.
The painter Amy Sherald, who was commissioned alongside painter Kehinde Wiley to paint the official portraits of the former first lady and former President Barack Obama, respectively, was the first Black woman to ever be commissioned by the institution. Wiley was the first Black man.
“As soon as I got that phone call, I realized I was going to be the first,” Sherald told Time magazine. “Then I had to forget about it because it’s just a lot to carry around, like having to make this painting basically for the world.”
She continued, “Having the opportunity to leave behind that kind of legacy is something that I never thought I would be able to do.”
Sherald, known for her often whimsical, intimate, and elegant portraits of Black people with the enduring motif of their skin rendered in grayscale against colored backgrounds, also opened up to the publication about how representation in the field of visual arts deeply matters.
“Not seeing yourself can lead you to not loving yourself,” she said.
Sherald is among a growing group of Black artists presently making serious inroads in the field of art. Some of her peers include Ethiopian-American contemporary painter Julie Mehretu, fiber quilt artist Bisa Butler, the viral self-described “artpreneur” Uzo Njoku, and artist A.M. Darke who has singlehandedly spearheaded diversity in digital art and video games.
While Black women have been underrepresented in the visual arts for generations, they have still been breaking the mold of the traditional white male artist throughout the field.
As Women’s History Month nears its close, we would be remiss if we did not pay tribute to some of art history’s most celebrated Black women…
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