THIS WEEK'S HOT TOPIC
For most politicians, contemporary art is a political football, but for Barack and Michelle Obama, it is something more. That much is clear at the new Barack Obama Presidential Center, which opened earlier this month on Chicago’s South Side with a suite of new artist commissions.
The Obamas worked with Thelma Golden, the venerated director and chief curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem, to curate the work. Many of the commissioned artists, including Theaster Gates, Jenny Holzer, and Carrie Mae Weems, are true art stars. Some, like Njideka Akunyili Crosby and Lorna Simpson, rose to blue-chip status amid the Black figuration movement that defined the art world—and market—for much of the 2010s.
Barack and Michelle Obama with Njideka Akunyili Crosby, painter of the First Couple's portrait, at the Obama Presidential Center, June 14th. Courtesy of the Obama Presidential Center.
Perhaps more than any first couple before them, the Obamas used the presidential platform to champion art in meaningful ways. In one sense, their efforts reflected their times. While the art world became obsessed with redressing the canon, for instance, the pair oversaw a years-long effort to diversify the historically-stuffy work displayed in the White House, introducing pieces by Jacob Lawrence, Glenn Ligon, and Alma Thomas (the latter of whom became the first Black woman artist shown in the space).
But the couple never lost sight of the present tense, either. When they tapped contemporary artists Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald to paint their portraits, the Obamas weren’t aiming to recreate the same perfunctory canvases of their predecessors; they were trying to upend the formula, reanimate it in a way that felt contemporary and new. Now, the Obamas have done the same thing at the Presidential Center, commissioning work by artists who don’t have brand names, just something to say.
You might keep this in mind in the weeks leading up to the semiquincentennial, as we are inevitably inundated with debates over what is and isn’t “American art.” These conversations are almost always framed in the past tense, but remember: the story of American art isn’t finished; we write a new page every day.
3…THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT GETTING A DEALER'S ATTENTION
1
Do not show up to a gallery unannounced with your portfolio under your arm. Visit almost any gallery website and you'll find some version of the same sentence: "The gallery does not accept or review unsolicited submissions from artists." Dealers want to discover artists on their own terms and build a program that reflects their vision. Occasionally, an artist may be introduced by a collector, curator, or fellow artist whose opinion carries weight, but those situations are the exception. More often than not, pushing a portfolio on a dealer (whether in person or by email) is the quickest way to get dismissed. There are far more effective ways to get your practice in front of the people who may ultimately want to support it.
2
Use social media to document your practice, not just to sell your work. A common mistake artists make is turning their Instagram into a catalogue of available pieces. That's not to say artists can't successfully sell work through social media—many do. But if your goal is to attract gallery representation, it helps to think beyond individual artworks. Galleries are always mindful of how supply and demand shape an artist's market. If every painting, drawing, or sculpture immediately appears online, collectors have more to choose from, and galleries have less opportunity to shape the conversation around the work. Share what you're making, but also share your process, studio life, influences, and the world around you. Dealers aren't only looking at the art; they're trying to understand the artist behind it.
3
Be an enthusiastic member of the community, even when you’re not immediately gaining something. Go to openings, attend artist talks, visit studios, and support your peers' work. Many gallery relationships begin not through a formal introduction, but through repeated encounters and genuine engagement. Dealers pay attention to who is showing up, contributing to conversations, and building meaningful connections with other artists. Don’t go crazy trying to do this; creating meaningful work is still the most important part of the job. But solid careers are rarely built in isolation. The more invested you are in your community, the more likely your community will invest in you.
A NUMBER TO KNOW
28
The number of artworks commissioned for the Obama Presidential Center, which opened to the public last Friday on Juneteenth. Ambitious by any measure, the sprawling campus of parkland, public library, museum, and community center reinforces in grand fashion that no first couple in American history has been as enamored by—or more willing to fund the creation of—contemporary art as Barack and Michelle Obama.
Although there have been no public reports on the size of the art budget, it’s sure to have been substantial given the project's overall cost of $850 million. The commissioned pieces also span a who’s who of blue-chip artists, such as an 83-foot-high stained glass window by Julie Mehretu, a three-story Mark Bradford collage mapping the city of Chicago, and a monumental stone fountain by Maya Lin.
But the art program isn’t all big names, either. Other contributions include a 70-foot panoramic mural celebrating family sports on the center’s basketball court, painted by homegrown South Side artists Sam Kirk and Dorian Sylvain, and a courtyard sculpture by Washington, D.C.-based artist Nekisha Durrett commemorating the abolitionist icon Harriet Tubman.
In this way, the curation calls back to the duality in the Obamas’ official portraits: Barack’s by the blue-chipper Kehinde Wiley, and Michelle’s by the then-emerging Amy Sherald. The latter selection makes the Obamas perhaps the first and only first couple to help mint a contemporary art star. Maybe their selections for the Presidential Center will help them do it again. Either way, it’s safe to say they’re in no imminent danger of being leapfrogged in the taste department by any other Oval Office occupants anytime soon.
Whatever the final art budget was, it depended partly on the same question that artists and their dealers have to answer any time a prestigious institution wants to commission or acquire a work: How much of a discount should we give them to be a part of this? Even when it comes to a former resident of the White House, the green still matters.
—Tim Schneider / The Gray Market
ASK: ACCESS SOPHISTICATED KNOWLEDGE
Yvette from Miami ASKed: Last week, you mentioned bidding through a representative to obscure your client’s identity and location. What are some of the best—or worst—art advisor "tricks" you've seen pulled at auctions, art fairs, or elsewhere?
Josh Baer for NoReserve: Well, the best trick was also the worst trick. When PDF previews weren't a thing, getting into an art fair a day early could allow an advisor to beat everyone for his client. A long time ago, a very well-known advisor (who has recognizable hair, like someone else we know) employed a makeup artist to disguise him, then used a worker's pass to get into Art Basel. But he got caught, and the gallery he was working for was suspended from the fair the next year.
A year or two later, I was at the same fair the day before the opening, and within 10 minutes, I had the director, Marc Speigler, calling me to say "WTF?" When I explained I was there to see a work I owned that had been damaged in transit to the fair, he just said: "Never mind." Of course, I won’t say that after I checked my work, I didn't spend a few extra minutes perusing other booths.
Have your own question for the NoReserve team? Reply to this email or reach out to us on Instagram, @no.reserve. Readers whose submissions we choose get a special prize—six free months of our paid newsletter, The Baer Faxt.
2 MINUTES WITH…
The topic of presidents and art reminded us of an interview we conducted with Punchbowl News founders Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman back in 2023. The topic of the day was the person who, unfortunately, would become the defining artist of the Joe Biden administration: Hunter Biden. Remember when the former first son’s paintings were supposedly commanding $500,000 a pop?
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