Posted on 04/15/2014 5:26:20 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Critics have blasted George W. Bushs portraits as amateur, very literal-minded and like a freshman art student attempting alla prima, but it is not clear how much of this opinion free-for-all draws on in-person experience of the artworks at the Bush Presidential Library in Dallas and how much is based on mediocre photos and rampant ignorance.
Certainly, some of the former presidents freshman efforts are not notable, but more are remarkable, and a few outstanding. Bushs portrait of Vladimir Putin is stunning, fierce and deeply revealing. It exposes its subjects realities, as successful portraits do.
Other paintings show person and personality while rendering sufficient visual information about who these leaders are.
Bushs portrait of French Prime Minister Nicolas Sarkozy renders deeply expressive concerns and dismay. His painting of former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf crowds the frame with expansive power. And Bushs Silvio Berlusconi gushes with slick charm.
The simmering portrait of Jiang Zemin, President of the Peoples Republic of China, shows cool calculation. Its nearly neutral forms dont tell us much, but the tiny storm of expressionist brushwork in his complicated face fairly explodes.
Despite the paintings merit, the show is not about art. It is a complicated slice of history marketing Bushs presidency and his theory of Personal Diplomacy, and the portraits have but a small part.
Stirring music blares, and interviews play as visitors recycle through the dark space. I kept hearing Bush calling himself an old dog learning new tricks. And it all kept repeating.
The elaborate presentation is not an art exhibition, and it does few favors for Bushs art, cluttering the space with what the center calls artifacts, photographs, and personal reflections to help illustrate the stories of relationships formed on the world stage. The paintings are hung high over that.
Thus the viewer must observe the art over big glass cabinets heaped with exquisite gifts from countries whose leaders are portrayed. The smallish paintings themselves are surrounded by a busy hodgepodge of photos of the leaders laughing and talking.
The display makes enjoying the oils on canvas into a tiresome challenge, and it makes it harder for photographers to do justice to them. Taking photographs of art hung on dark walls too easily renders the works overexposed and washed out, blotting out Bushs careful colors, brushstrokes and tonalities in images. I had assumed Bushs own presidential center in his current hometown would treat his fine art debut with grace.
This is too bad, because the paintings are full of careful subtleties and expressionistic riffs. Without dates on the art, we cannot follow the arc of the artists still-short trajectory. George W. Bush has only been painting since 2012 first dogs, now people. But hes been attentive and is learning fast.
Like most contemporary artists, Bush uses photography extensively in his work, but he has professional sources, many of whose images have since filtered to the Internet.
Bushs portrait of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is probably his most egregious less-than-remarkable piece. The photo the painting was based on is just to its right, and in both we see what photographers call a between-expressions expression.
Olmerts face is between smiling and whatever comes next, and Bush is still laughing. But the painter must have liked that photo. Olmerts painted eyes and forehead are vivid and real, and his ears are among Bushs best, but the mouth and chin look clownish.
Bushs portraits usually employ plain color backgrounds with soft streaks that vaguely outline the heads of the heads of state. The background in the portrait of Rawanda President Paul Kagame is a little more fanciful, though it renders Kagame smaller and less important by tucking him into the bottom corner of a nondescript sky.
A more unusual Bush background serves his portrait of the late Václav Havel, the first President of the Czech Republic. In place of the usual fog of neutral space, we see a wall of books behind the successful playwright, author, essayist, poet, dissident and politician.
Thats not the only departure. Havel has a big smile and dresses informally. He is not looking at the camera/painter because he is having too good a time. We may have issues with whatever is growing on his neck, but his face wins us back with its broad smile and filigree wrinkles.
The paintings of father and son Presidents 41 and 43 are the first we see. They are Bush 43s self-portrait and what he calls a loving study of his father. The elders forehead and cheeks may puff and sag, but the image affects with sweet poignancy.
The artist takes more liberties with his own image, which may be his most recent. The style is very different, with looser, more obvious brushwork, bolder outlines and more vibrant hues, especially in the planes of neck and face. This slightly askance portrait seems more contemporary and informal jaunty yet serious.
The artist is learning his craft.
J R Compton has been writing about Dallas art and artists for 50 years, about birds for the last six, and his online How to Photograph Art may be definitive.
See post 56.
I just like the fact that Bush is willing to take his artwork public despite knowing its far from polished, and knowing that hell be derided for it by the usual suspects. Hes like Reagan in that he has a very centered kind of humility about him.
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I agree with you wholeheartedly. And it does take courage. One must make oneself vulnerable at very intimate levels to show one’s work at all, and for a former President to the world... He is very brave indeed.
I imagine it isn’t easy to go onward and upward from POTUS in one’s curriculum vitae, but the man is on his way to doing so.
Agree. To me his portraits are Modigliani-ish.
Thought the same. It amazes me that Lucien Freud is so lionized. His hideous portrait of Queen Elizabeth looks like he fed paint to a dog and made the dog vomit on the canvas.
Elizabeth II by Lucien Freud
LOL! But if that’s Obama, that must be Boehner standing next to him!
Heh, yeah. I don’t think Lucien was into the subject, except for the tiara which is beautifully rendered. The hair is terrible two dimensional pattern work. His best work is done with sitting models (understandably), and I doubt Her Majesty did so for him.
I truly hope that W commits himself to this, and turns his back on politics. He wants to be an honest and candid man. Art offers unparalleled opportunity for that. His joy in this is obvious. I hope he pursues it.
I am a long time meditator. I recently took a class where we had an instructor come in and teach us painting. I was amazed at how quickly painting put me into the same non-mental state as my meditation sessions.
Now I understand why painters paint.
That is a very interesting observation. It confirms some things for me.
Studio art or even bench crafting is good for the soul. It changes how one looks at the world, and what one is on the inside, PROVIDED it is an exploration. An academic, by the numbers approach will kill it dead.
Sadly, you are correct. There has already been talk that Zero plans to “retire” in the Washington, D.C. area. Hawaii is just too far away from the Beltway for a full-time residence. Penny Pritzker better plan on buying the Obamas a suburban estate in Virginia or Maryland, along with a beach-front vacation home in Hawaii. And of course, he’ll need an office, staff and Secret Service security in both locations, not to mention secure travel from the east coast to the islands.
Book it: Barry Obama will be the most expensive former president in U.S. history, and there’s no telling what he will grant himself by executive fiat before leaving offfice
Years ago I used to shoot tournament archery. I would have the exact same experience. Your focus is so intense that time seems to slow down. It go to the point that I could actually see the arrow leave my bow and travel tot he target.
Good one!
Yours was an interesting observation as well. Thank you for sharing. I think the instructor of my class said that it puts one in the non-analytical brain side ( can’t recall if that’s right or left). It is good for the soul as you said. But meditation is easier!
Do you paint?
Do you paint?
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Did. I haven’t in years though. Sculpted as well.
This is a part of why I enjoy some of these paintings by Bush so much. The artist depicts the world he sees; the world looks at that work and in turn sees into the artist. That takes a lot of courage and confidence. The ego stands naked in the public square.
The good will and candor seen in these is a reflection of W’s personality. I have mixed feelings about the presidency. I like and respect the man very much.
RE: it takes courage to put your art out in front of the whole world, especially when you know its only mediocre. Im sure he doesnt need the money, or the validation.
Speaking of validation, Vincent Van Gogh, whose paintings sell to well over a hundred million dollars today only sold one painting in his lifetime.
How much do you think Bush’s paintings will sell for IF they were for sale?
I’ve no doubt Dubya selling his art could make an income most of us would consider pretty good. But it would be based on his being a celebrity with a pre-existing following, wouldn’t it? Not on painterly technique and penetrating insight of his subjects.
I hope W finds peace. He bore some tremendous burdens. I didn’t agree with a lot of things he did, but he seemed like he genuinely cared about the country.
Bush can paint, speak Spanish, and fly a jet plane. Sarah Palin was starting point guard on a championship basketball team, plays the flute, was a beauty contest finalist, and can hunt, fish, and skin a deer. Neither of the Obamas can do any of these things, yet Bush and Palin are portrayed as morons and the Obamas are portrayed as Renaissance geniuses.
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