*Renowned artist Amy Sherald first gained national attention in 2018 with her portrait of Michelle Obama at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. This summer, she again made headlines after canceling her “American Sublime” retrospective at the same museum, concerned that officials might censor her painting of a transgender person depicted as the Statue of Liberty.
“Any kind of contextualization around the work would have been unacceptable, and it would’ve deviated from how the work was originally conceived,” Sherald said, CBS reports. “And because of that, I felt like my only choice was to pull out.” The museum had planned to pair the painting with a video to “contextualize the piece.”
Before the planned exhibition, the Trump administration voiced criticism against the Smithsonian, and a White House representative praised the cancellation. The official stated Sherald’s painting “sought to reinterpret one of our nation’s most sacred symbols through a divisive and ideological lens, fundamentally strayed from the mission and spirit of our national museums.”
Sherald does not see her work as inherently political, though she acknowledges its impact. “It lives in the world,” she told 60 Minutes. “And therefore, can be art on Monday and political on Tuesday.” Her approach, rooted in American Realism, reimagines iconic American imagery to reflect a more inclusive vision.
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“She is creating images that say something about America right now…She’s reimagining them, and redeploying them to make sure that that idea of America includes everyone,” curator Sarah Roberts said.
Sherald calls her work patriotic: “So I have to claim that patriotism. Otherwise, I’m just handing it over to somebody to give me the definition of what it means to be American. But I know what the definition of what it means to be an American is. And I’m the definition of an American.”
After canceling the Washington show, the Baltimore Museum of Art offered to host “American Sublime,” which opens Nov. 2.
MORE NEWS ON EURWEB.COM: Artist Amy Sherald in High Demand Following Michelle Obama Portrait Reveal
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