Amy Sherald | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 30, 1973 Columbus, Georgia, U.S. |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation | Painter |
| Known for | Official Portrait of First Lady Michelle Obama The Bathers Portrait of Breonna Taylor |
| Awards | Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2016 |
Amy Sherald (born August 30, 1973)[1] is an American painter. She works mostly as a portraitist depicting African Americans in everyday settings. Her style is simplified realism, involving staged photographs of her subjects.[2] Since 2012, her work has used grisaille to portray skin tones, a choice she describes as intended to challenge conventions about skin color and race.[3]
In 2016, Sherald became the first woman as well as the first African American ever to win the National Portrait Gallery's Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition with her painting, Miss Everything (Unsuppressed Deliverance).[4][5] The next year, she and Kehinde Wiley were selected by former President Barack Obama (Wiley) and former First Lady Michelle Obama (Sherald) to paint their official portraits, becoming the first African Americans ever to receive presidential portrait commissions from the National Portrait Gallery.[6] The portraits were unveiled together in 2018 and have significantly increased attendance at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.[7]
In December 2020, her piece The Bathers (2015) was sold at auction for $4,265,000, nearly 30 times the presale estimate.[8] On November 17, 2021, Welfare Queen (2012), sold for $3.9M in a Phillips New York auction and brought to light the need for more governance around resale royalties for artists.[9]
- ^ Fikes, Robert (November 25, 2018). "Amy Sherald (1973– )". BLACK PAST. Archived from the original on August 9, 2020. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
- ^ Schjeldahl, Peter. "The Amy Sherald Effect". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on October 31, 2020. Retrieved March 6, 2020.
- ^ "Amy Sherald | National Museum of Women in the Arts". nmwa.org. Archived from the original on January 6, 2020. Retrieved March 4, 2020.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
:10was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
:18was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Crow, Kelly (October 13, 2017). "Obamas Choose Rising Stars to Paint Their Official Portraits". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on April 23, 2020. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
- ^ FelderS (May 31, 2018). "Presidential Portraits On View". npg.si.edu. Archived from the original on June 30, 2020. Retrieved August 11, 2020.
- ^ "Amy Sherald Painting Skyrockets to Record-Setting $4.2 Million at Phillips, Works by 4 More Black Artists Set New Benchmarks". December 9, 2020. Archived from the original on January 25, 2021. Retrieved January 11, 2021.
- ^ Finley, Cheryl; Haaften-Schick, Lauren van; Reeder, Christian; Whitaker, Amy (November 22, 2021). "The Recent Sale of Amy Sherald's 'Welfare Queen' Symbolizes the Urgent Need for Resale Royalties and Economic Equity for Artists". Artnet News. Retrieved November 30, 2021.