Amy Sherald Paints the Souls of Black Folks

"She was learning to love moments, to love moments for themselves" (2017), by Amy Sherald.

HER PAINTING OF FORMER First Lady Michelle Obama was a defining moment in American history; 2018 has been a breakout year professionally for painter Amy Sherald. Based in Baltimore, Maryland, Sherald rose to international prominence for her commissioned portrait of former First Lady Michelle Obama on permanent display at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC. The portrait captured Mrs. Obama in a patterned flowing white gown designed by Michelle Smith for Milly, chin resting elegantly on her hand with her famous arms on bold display. Sherald features Mrs. Obama as a modern woman, regal yet easily identifiable. Her brown skin rendered en grisaille - a method of painting in gray monochrome that has become Sherald’s signature technique.

Mrs. Obama’s choice of Sherald along with her husband’s pick of artist Kehinde Wiley represented a first on many levels. America’s first black President and first black First Lady, choose the first black artists to paint official presidential portraits for the Smithsonian. It’s evident the Obama’s were making a parting statement to their legacy and shaping a future of inclusion of black artists and pictures of people of color in museums and art galleries.

Sherald’s portrait of Mrs. Obama knocked the dust off the relatively staid template of past presidential portraits and channeled a radical new approach to portraiture. Reactions were mixed- where some saw beauty and the need for unconventionality to properly celebrate the first black First Lady of the United States. Some mused the portraits bore no resemblance to Mrs. Obama, as undercurrents of racist remarks reverberated online and in the media.

Born in Columbus, Georgia in 1973, Sherald, earned a BA from Clark-Atlanta University in Atlanta and an MFA from Maryland Institute of College of Art in Baltimore in 2004. Before her Obama commission, Sherald had been steadily garnering accolades in the art world. Her career took a few detours following a diagnosis of congestive heart failure at the age of 30. Sherald headed back to her hometown of Columbus, Georgia, to care for her ailing father who passed in 2000 with Parkinson’s and her brother who succumbed to lung cancer in 2012. Sherald was the recipient of a heart transplant in 2012 at the age of 39.

After personal and family tragedy, Sherald got back to work and in 2016 she became the first woman to win the prestigious Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition for her painting titled, “Miss Everything (Unsuppressed Deliverance).” Inspired by the book ‘Alice in Wonderland’, the painting depicts a young woman in a polka-dot dress holding an oversized teacup with a poise and expression that belie her youth.

Early in her career, Sherald decided to paint exclusively African American subjects, as she saw the void in black figures in American art. Rendering black figures in absence of their skin color is Sherald’s approach to provide an alternative narrative on black identity and confront the viewer’s disposition of race and culture.

"Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama" (2018, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution).

"All things bright and beautiful (Pupa)", (2016).

"Mother and Child" (2016).

"The Bathers" (2015)

"What's precious inside of him does not care to be known by the mind in ways that diminish its presence (All American)" (2017).

Sherald’s paintings are life-sized and awe-inspiring. Monochrome skin tones are offset by the stylish and brightly colored fashions she adorns her subjects. The outfits are as memorable as the individual and add to the narrative of the composition. Kaleidoscopic colors, textures, props and eye-popping prints illuminate the canvas.

Being an artist of color comes with its perks and inherent burdens. As you are rarely given the chance to just be an artist that creates compelling work. There’s the burden of the weight of blacknessits beauty, its misconceptions and the absurd notion that blackness is monolithic. Sherald is among a varied set of African-American artists rising above the fray and shaping a modern vision of black life, culture and thought that’s quintessentially all-American.

Amy Sherald’s first solo art show is currently on view at the Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis until August 19, 2018, and will be traveling to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, AK, in September, followed by the Spelman College of Fine Art in Atlanta in January 2019.