Amy Sherald at the Whitney- Persistence for the Creative Life

When I moved out of Manhattan in 2008, the Whitney Museum was still uptown and walkable from my Yorkville apartment. I finally got to the “new” version ( opened in 2015) down in the Meatpacking District, with its sleek shiny glass structure and stunning views of  the Hudson and a wonderful exhibit, American Sublime, open until August 10th.

I had seen Amy Sherald’s work before, at the National Portrait Gallery, which will host the show in September. In 2018 she was selected to do Michelle Obama’s official portrait. At the Whitney, there’s a separate gallery just for the Obama painting, with a special guard.

Her work is big and bold, and although she calls herself a “realist,” there’s a bit of the abstract with her giant washes of contrasting background colors and her use of grey for skin tones ( her unique style to take away the focus on race).  Working from staged photos of models, the portraits are mostly flat, but the faces seem real. The result is that when you stand in front of one of her portraits, the subject seems alive, even familiar. The eyes stare right at you and you are brought into the humanity of the individual and the shared humanity of all of us.

There  was something about this intimacy, this vulnerability that drew me in. As a painter, I just wanted to go home and paint. The color alone was inspiring. When I researched her back story, I could see that Amy pursued the creative life, even when it was not encouraged ( her mother wanted her to be a doctor or a lawyer). She went through the struggles of losing her dad and her brother to illness, and her own heart disease at age 30 for which she eventually got a transplant. All of that slowed her down, but never stopped her. Because art was what she always wanted to do. And so she found her way. Thanks for the inspiration Amy!