The Obama Portraits: But Is It Art?

American Thinker ^ | February 17, 2018 | Tim Mostert

[Trumpet 1]

Obama sitting there reminds me of a Fi Zappa Krappa poster from the ‘70s showing Frank Zappa sitting on a camode. A camode is a double basin flush toilet for those who may not know the exact definition. Nuff said.

[gspurlock]

Those paintings are so sad. If they wanted a black artist, they should have contacted Barbara J. Mason. She is one of the finest living artists. I am very proud to have 3 of her florals, though two are quite small, they are all stunning:

https://www.dragonflystudiocreations.com/

Please take a look at her work. You will be charmed and delighted.

[red-dawg]

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

I’ve read that some of those are worth big money.

https://dangerousminds.net/comments/a_gallery_of_the_paintings_from_rod_serlings_night_gallery

[mairdie]

I did look. Absolutely amazing. You’re right. The difference in artistic ability is staggering. This woman has done her fundamental homework in basics of art and can do improvisation on top of reality. Really nice link. Thank you.

[Yardstick]

These jackass portraits were chosen as a big FU to middle America.

Any discussion beyond this is missing the point.

[Fred Hayek]

Mediocrity, to be expected from a Cultural Revolution. What else would you expect from the Fundamental Transformation (tm).

[Henry Cavendish]

That actually looks like the artist who painted Michelle’s portrait.

[gspurlock]

Check out silverpoint or metalpoint drawing. I have started painting and in my research came across a technique called the Flemish technique. It is a layered approach that I have begun dabbling with. In further researching that technique, I learned about silverpoint drawing.

Graphite did not exist during the Renaissance and the under drawings were literally drawn with very fine silver (or other metal) wires. This is what gives the brown cast to many Da Vinci and Michalangelo because the silver tarnishes eventually to brown, copper to green and gold does not tarnish at all.

http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/drawing/renaissance-drawings.htm

There is a bit of a resurgence in silver or metalpoint drawing in the U.K. and that is where I got most of my materials. I did find one source in the U.S. for goldpoint.

The interesting thing about metalpoint (I currently have silver, gold, brass, bronze,copper and nickel wires) is that it cannot be erased. You have to get it right the first time. I read one article that said students were required to master silverpoint drawing before being permitted to work with paint. That is an amazing skill level.

I continue to work with graphite and oils, but the metalpoint drawing is giving all of my work new discipline.

[mairdie]

THAT point. Which is a very good one, because I agree with you. But there are many other points, including the fact that portraiture can expose, as these blank faces don’t. Though the entire paintings, in some sense, do.

[gspurlock]

So glad you enjoyed her work. If you’re ever in the Dallas, TX area, I’m sure you would love going to her studio. It should be our #1 tourist attraction.

[mairdie]

One of the classes we had to take as art history majors at University of Chicago was a fine arts spread across all the old techniques, on the theory that you couldn’t criticize if you didn’t know exactly how the results were achieved. So we actually DID use silverpoint which, I agree, is very exciting. And the backwards layering of egg tempera from laying down the shadows first was fascinating. Cellini, by the way, has a wonderful section in his autobiography on the difference between city eggs and country eggs for egg tempera.

[mountainfolk]

This is the best description of the Obama portraits I have seen. Pop art that incorporates the character of the Obama couple. Self involved, self righteous individuals to the end.

[mairdie]

My family come from Sherman TX. It’s been decades since I’ve been there. But I was raised with the yellow rose and the confederate flag in which to catch fireflies.

[gspurlock]

Thanks for that added info. I’ve learned a little about the tempura paints and it is all fascinating. It’s on my agenda. Barbara Mason does a great deal of work in pastels and watercolor.

The amount of technology underpinning the actual art work is a bit staggering.

I’m so glad that you were introduced to silverpoint drawing in collete. Most of the formally educated artists that I’ve met have never heard of it. So,that sounds like a wonderful school. Do you have a website for your work? If so, please share with a newbie.

[mairdie]

Mother was fine arts at U of Chicago; I was physics for 3 1/2 years and art history for another 1 1/2 after Schrodinger Equations (sounds of prolonged screaming). We both studied at the Lorado Taft studio just off the midway. Grandmother actually studied with Taft at the Art Institute before she married grandfather. Mother raised me in museums, visiting his sculptures. I was poor - fuzzy, fast lines. Her lines were the precise, art-deco lines that made you mentally finish the images. She'd smooth the black Chicago dirt at the bottom of the stairs and draw. Some of my earliest memories. Mother's "Spring."



It was a marvelous school to study art. I cried when the French Impressionists were projected on the front of the auditorium. A very different crying than physics gave me.

[JayAr36]

Didn’t really mean to put down Pop Art but is how it came to me. LOL

[gspurlock]

Thank you! That picture is beautiful.

[mairdie]

So was mother!

[bluejean]

They trashed the National Gallery with the weird graffiti just because they could. Another American tradition crapped on by leftist thugs.