Taína Caragol, Dorothy Moss, Richard Powell, and Kim SajetThe Obama Portraits

From the moment of their unveiling at the National Portrait Gallery in early 2018, the portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama have become two of the most beloved artworks of our time. Kehinde Wiley’s portrait of President Obama and Amy Sherald’s portrait of the former first lady have inspired unprecedented responses from the public, and attendance at the museum has more than doubled as visitors travel from near and far to view these larger-than-life paintings. One guard said, “No other painting gets the same kind of reactions. Ever.” The Obama Portraits is the first book about the making, meaning, and significance of these remarkable artworks.

Please join artists Amy Sherald and Kehinde Wiley at the Stony Island Arts Bank for the launch of this exciting new book. Amy and Kehinde will be in conversation with authors Taína Caragol, Dorothy Moss, Richard J. Powell, and Kim Sajet. This event is hosted by Princeton University Press in partnership with the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC, and Seminary Co-Op.

Kehinde and Amy will be signing books. Books will be available for purchase on-site. 

Please read: the Stony Island Arts Bank has changed our policies to help us better manage capacity.

While seats are not guaranteed, RSVPing through Eventbrite will grant primary access to the event when doors open 30 minutes before the event.

If Eventbrite lists the event as “sold out,” you can join the online waitlist. If online ticket holders cancel their order, you will be given the option to be assigned an RSVP. (You must claim the RSVP within 24 hours to be moved from the waitlist.)

Each person in your party must arrive to the screening early to take advantage of their RSVP. Seats cannot be saved.

Any walk up attendees who do not have an RSVP will be placed on an onsite waitlist. If seats remain at five minutes before showtime, waitlisted attendees will be let in, in the order they arrived. The onsite waitlist is first-come, first-serve.

Capacity is limited. First come, first serve. Doors open at 5.

About the Author

Taína Caragol is curator of painting and sculpture and Latino art and history at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC. Dorothy Moss is curator of painting and sculpture at the National Portrait Gallery, where she also directs the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition and serves as coordinating curator of the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative. Richard J. Powell is the John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art and Art History at Duke University and the author of Cutting a Figure: Fashioning Black Portraiture and Black Art: A Cultural History, among other books. Kim Sajet is director of the National Portrait Gallery.