A portrait of former President Donald Trump was installed in the National Portrait Gallery and is featured in the “America’s Presidents” exhibition at the Smithsonian, replacing a portrait of former President Barack Obama.
The gallery, which closed due to the coronavirus pandemic and will reopen on May 14, features a portrait of President Trump upon entry. This portrait replaced Kehinde Wiley’s portrait of President Barack Obama, which is slated to go on a year-long tour with Amy Sherald’s painting of former first lady Michelle Obama beginning in June.
“There’s always a sense of transition when we install a new presidential portrait,” Dorothy Moss, the gallery’s curator of painting and sculpture, said. “We are a museum that reflects art history and biography, and we are able to celebrate the presidents with portraits that are historical documents.”
The portrait of Trump, which will be featured while Trump’s official portrait is completed, is a photograph by Pari Dukovic taken for Time magazine on June 17, 2019, just before Trump announced his reelection bid.
“I like the composition of the photograph,” said Leslie Ureña, curator of photographs. “It is an angle we don’t often see. You get a little bit of the other side and what’s behind the desk.”
The plague featured alongside the protract of President Trump recognizes the 45th president for low unemployment records, a stronghold on immigration, and the appointment of “a record number of federal judges, including three Supreme Court Justices.”
While no details of President Trump’s official portrait have been released, it has been made clear that efforts to complete his and former first lady Melania Trump’s portraits are underway.
For more information on the portrait gallery’s reopening, click here.
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