WeeklySA_AdminSECOND LEASE: Amy’s work of art bowls over former US First Lady Michelle Obama
By Jacob Mawela
American painter Amy Sherald was diagnosed with congestive heart failure at the age of 30. At the time, she worked as a waitress serving – and having to wait another eight years – to finance her desire to become a painter at age 38.
As if this were not enough, blessing poured over her, becoming, at age 39, a recipient of a new heart which was transplanted on her in December 2012. It saved her life, and opened new doors and vistas to pursue what she loved most, and not what her parents sought to choose for her – which was medicine – but the world of her dreams – the world of art.
Four years later, in 2016, she became the first woman and first African-American to win a National Portrait Gallery’s Premier award.
Sherald parents preferred for her a career in medicine, but she was determined to do what pleased her heart, declaring, tongue in cheek, “what I needed was somebody to prove wrong.” Her initial encounter with art had been through illustrations and works of Leonardo da Vinci and Rembrandt.
Attending school as one of the few African-American students in a predominantly white area in America’s South, Sherald’s fair complexion further compounded her situation – an experience which made her conscious of race from an early age.
Her own desire of the beckoning art world, became a reality at the Clark Atlanta University where she commenced a pre-medicine track her parents had hoped for. But simultaneously, she registered for painting class under the tutelage of art historian, Arturo Lindsay, at the Spelman College, graduating with a BA degree in painting in 1997.
Sherald would take an apprentice with Lindsay – painting for free for five years – all of this would lead to an MA in fine arts in painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore in 2004 – progressing to take an internship with Norwegian figurative painter, Odd Nerdrum, in Norway.
Sherald paints from photographs of people she randomly encounters in her everyday life, whom she invites for photography sessions.
Former US first lady Michelle Obama chose Sherald to paint her official portrait for the National Portrait Gallery in 2017, applying her signature grayscale to depict Obama’s skin as that of a person, de-emphasising her racial identity.
Unveiled in 2018, the portrait, along with that of her husband, then president Barack Obama – drew multitude of visitors to the National Portrait Gallery.
Elaborating on why she chose Sherald, Michelle Obama recounted an immediate connection upon meeting the artist, feeling “blown away by the boldness of her colours and the uniqueness of her subject matter” as well as Sherald’s personal presence: “Within the first few minutes of our conversation, I knew she was the one for me.”
For art connoisseurs, the book will appeal to the heart, depicting in delicate ways how excellently and with abundance of care, Sherald brings to real life the soul of subjects she handles and encounters.
• A hardback, Amy Sherald: American Sublime is published by Yale University Press and distributed in South Africa by Jonathan Ball Publishers. Available at leading bookstores countrywide. It retails for R1 080.
