The illustrious portraits of Barack Obama (by Kehinde Wiley) and Michelle Obama (by Amy Sherald), which have brought record crowds to The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C. since 2018, will soon be going on tour. Beginning in June 2021, the paintings will be embarking on a five-city museum tour across the country, allowing those who may not have previously had an opportunity to view the portraits a chance to finally do so.
The first stop of the tour is none other than the Art Institute of Chicago, where the portraits will remain from June 18, 2021, until August 15, 2021. From there, the portraits will travel to the Brooklyn Museum in New York (Aug. 27 – Oct. 24, 2021), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Nov. 5 – Jan. 2, 2022), the High Museum of Art in Atlanta (Jan. 14 – Mar. 13, 2022) and Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts (Mar. 25-May 30, 2022).
The exhibit will also be accompanied by audio-visual elementals, a workshop, and an illustrated book.