February 12, 2018

Forget Infrastructure Week. Start Your Monday With the Obamas’ Official Portraits.

The Smithsonian unveiled new paintings of the former first couple—and they did not disappoint.

AP

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery unveiled the official portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama on Monday. The paintings were created by renowned artists Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald, respectively. They are the first African American artists to be commissioned by the gallery to paint official portraits of a former president or first lady.

Take a look at the stunning works below:

Abaca Press/AP
Olivier Douliery/AP

FACT:

Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and the wealthy wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do.

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2020 demands.

FACT:

Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and the wealthy wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do.

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2020 demands.

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our newsletters

Subscribe and we'll send Mother Jones straight to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate

We have a new comment system! We are now using Coral, from Vox Media, for comments on all new articles. We'd love your feedback.