Best known for her official portrait of Michelle Obama, artist Amy Sherald paints powerful portraits of African Americans. Her goal is to make her subjects feel universal, not for their race but for their relatability. This is why she typically paints her subjects skin in shades of gray rather than in more realistic warm tones. It was her art teacher who first told her that she should be her own ideal subject.
“I didn’t want the work to be marginalized and put in a corner because I didn’t want the discussion around it to solely be about identity… blackness without the gaze of whiteness. [My art teacher] was the first woman to encourage me to paint images that looked like me.”
– Amy Sherald
You can follow Amy Sherald on Instagram, and you can see more of her work and read more about the artist on the Hauser & Wirth website.
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My OBT 
February 17, 2023 at 9:28 am
These are wonderful. The polka dot dress portrait and the woman holding the black purse–Cannot stop looking at both of those.
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February 18, 2023 at 9:41 am
Those are my faves, too!
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February 17, 2023 at 12:55 pm
This is NOT new! This goes to movies etc. I TOTALLY admire her work and work of others, but blacks in America at the last count, people of color (includes India and caberbean) were less than 30%. So in the art world none white art should be about 30%. That does not mean, out of the art world they should not be marginal. All people should be treated the same but when I get paid over a million a year like a player in the NFL I also wanted to be equal to them. Not going to happen. Please don’t think that I don’t think all of us are equail. Don’t get me started of gay lesbian. Summary, everybody should be treated the same. Do I need signs that white lifes matter also? We shouldn’t have major protests etc. over it. *putting soap box away*
Hal Going to take awhile for full recovery but I continue to improve. Again, I admire her art.
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February 18, 2023 at 9:47 am
My darling Hal, let’s just not go there. This is meant to be a happy place where we find things on which we can agree. We are not here to debate race or anything else. xoxo
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February 17, 2023 at 2:58 pm
I really loved that portrait of Michelle Obama when I first saw it so thank you for introducing me to more of Sherald’s work. I like that the work in many ways fits into a long tradition of formal portraiture while her choice of models, clothes, and colour palette are all twists on that art history heritage. And what a great testament to the importance of encouraging and affirming words from a good teacher.
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February 18, 2023 at 9:53 am
That’s so true about encouragement from someone you admire. We’ve all got plenty of negative voices in our heads, but it’s really important to retain and heed the positive ones.
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