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Celebrated paintings of Barack and Michelle Obama from the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery will embark on a five-city tour in summer 2021, the museum announced Thursday, giving residents in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Atlanta and Houston a chance to see in person the works that sparked a media frenzy when they were unveiled in 2018.
Kehinde Wiley's official portrait of President Obama and Amy Sherald's painting of the first lady, like the Obamas themselves, broke boundaries. L.A.-born, New York-based Wiley and New York-based Sherald were the first African American artists to be chosen by the National Portrait Gallery for such commissions. Times art critic Christopher Knight wrote that their works "cheerfully buck the official portrait trend of instantly forgettable painterly pablum."
Los Angeles will be the third stop on the tour. The exhibition will run at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art from Nov. 5, 2021, to Jan. 2, 2022.
The other participating museums are the Art Institute of Chicago, where...