The Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery has announced a five-city tour next year of the portraits of President Barack Obama and Mrs. Michelle Obama by artists Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald, respectively, that will launch during the summer of 2021.
The tour will commence in Chicago, June 18, 2021, and will continue, with the works traveling across the country, through May 30, 2022. The portraits will be at the Art Institute of Chicago during June 18-Aug. 15, 2021; other venues will include the Brooklyn Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Atlanta's High Museum of Art and Houston's Museum of Fine Arts.
Next year, in mid-May 2021, the Obama portraits, commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery, will temporarily go off view from the museum's exhibitions for tour preparation.
In addition to the paintings, the tour will include an audio-visual element, Portrait Gallery-led teacher workshops and curatorial presentations in each location. In anticipation of the tour, the Portrait Gallery is also publishing a book in partnership with Princeton University Press; The Obama Portraits will be released Feb. 11.
