Posted on 05/22/2021 11:46:00 AM PDT by MarvinStinson
The National Portrait Gallery reopened with an addition to its famed exhibition of presidential portraits. Joining the likes of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, was Donald Trump, scowling from behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.
Trump looks “pallid and grim” in the photograph, said Paul Staiti, expert on presidential portraits who teaches at Mount Holyoke College.
Trump was impeached twice. His refusal to concede the election of Nov. 3, 2020, led a mob of his supporters to storm and vandalize the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
The Trump photograph is displayed across the room from a portrait of Rep. John Lewis, positioning Staiti says “invites heated conversation.” In 2017, Lewis said he did not believe Trump was the “legitimate” leader of the nation. When he died, Trump showed little sympathy. “He didn’t come to my inauguration,” he said of Lewis.
“Trump's neighbor to the right is, pointedly, Richard Nixon,” Staiti said. Trump’s critics frequently compared him to Nixon, a Republican who resigned from office amid the Watergate scandal.
Trump's photograph hangs on a freestanding partition, the opposite side of which belongs to Kehinde Wiley’s portrait of Barack Obama, whom Trump succeeded in the Oval Office, having disparaged his record relentlessly during the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump promulgated the discredited conspiracy theory that Obama was a Muslim born outside the United States.
Kelly, the Smithsonian spokesman, said ljuxtaposition of Lewis and Trump was not intentional. Still, some are bound to see symbolism in a president whose opponents said he excused or even gave license to white supremacy facing a civil rights legend on one side and the nation’s first Black president on the other.
Aa with the Trump presidency, the portrait is bound to attract controversy. “I deliberately averted my eyes,” one visitor over the weekend told the Guardian.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Joining the likes of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, was Donald Trump …That was actually a good start, although “the likes of” is ambiguous.
… scowling from behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. …Talk about subjective. And we were told that journalists are supposed to be objective.
“I deliberately averted my eyes,” one visitor over the weekend told the Guardian. …Uh-oh. The portrait has a hypnotic stare; once you look at it for a split second, you start chanting “MAGA, MAGA, MAGA” . . . right?
“pallid and grim”??
As opposed to a gargoyle grin?
“And, let’s face it, ANYTHING beats Obama’s portrait:”
Why does O have 6 fingers on his left hand?
The painted portrait is in the works. And President Trump has total control over it.
Well, at least the BUNNY is in the JUNGLE.
That still makes me LOL
My president looks like “the boss” and the left cant stand it..
Does Obama’s portrait look “pallid and grim”? Asking for a friend.
The photo is temporary until the oil portrait is complete. A second one of Trump and the First Lady will be done for the White House collection.
Thank you.
It’s great that BO got stuck with that masterpiece as his official portrait.
Like pulling Andre Dawson out of the Wrigley Field ivy.
With the step and repeat shrubbery!
Obama, peering out of the poison ivy.
These people are consumed with their hatred for Trump, no matter what the facts are.
looks to me like a man ready to take charge of the most important country in the world
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