[robel]

Art is a reflection of reality. So, yeah, they’re pretty accurate. Painful to look at, but accurate.

[Lou L]

That's the sad part about these paintings--we generally have an expectation that a Presidential portrait should be...presidential. one that reflects the importance of the office, the dignity that a statesman should have, even if a particular President sometimes fell short of our expectations. Even the portraits of President Carter, and Clinton--though of whom fell short of what many on these boards would consider "presidential," --you could not argue that their portraits capture the dignity of the office.

What shocks you about the Obama portraits is not the actual paintings, which reflect poorly on how the artist sees the Presidency, but the fact that the former President took his acknowledgement for posterity so lightly. He allowed himself to be made into a joke.

But what's even more shocking, is that reflects exactly what his Presidency was--an 8-year joke on the United States. It's actually a brutally honest painting.