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Michael D'Antuono is an American contemporary artist whose painting style focuses primarily on socio-political issues. He is best known for his controversial portrait of the U.S. President Barack Obama in front of the Presidential Seal entitled "The Truth," which became a U.S. and international news story twice. The UK publication The American called him "one of the world's most controversial artists." [1]
D'Antuono worked as an art director for the New York City advertising agency DMB&B, where he created television campaigns. He also works as a freelance illustrator. [2] [3]
D'Antuono's painting of United States President Barack Obama titled The Truth, which depicts Obama standing in front of the U.S. Presidential seal holding curtains on each side and wearing a crown of thorns, created a great deal of political controversy. D'Antuono planned to unveil the painting at New York City's Union Square on April 29, 2009, to mark the 100th day of Obama's presidency. The artist canceled the public unveiling due to an outpour of protests by the religious right, including thousands of e-mails, phone calls, and blog posts demanding the planned exhibit be shut down. [4] [5]
Four years after his initial attempt, D'Antuono was invited to finally publicly display The Truth along with several other of his paintings at Boston's Bunker Hill Community College Art Gallery, as part of their politically charged "Artists on the Stump – the Road to the White House 2012" exhibition. This created another firestorm of controversy. [6] [7] [8] [9] Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights president Bill Donahue and former GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain were among those who was against and denounced the painting. [10]
D'Antuono has focused on several socio-political issues with his other paintings.
His piece inspired by the Trayvon Martin tragedy, A Tale Of Two Hoodies, created a great deal of public discourse concerning the racism faced by African American youth. The painting was listed for sale on EBay but removed because it violated their terms and conditions, [11] it was later sold on ArtFido [12]
Taking aim at the Republican opposition to congressional tax increases, D’Antuono created Who the Hell Is Grover Norquist? in 2012. The work candidly shows the power Oz-like Norquist, the founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform, has over the Republican Party. [13]
D'Antuono has also done provocative pieces on corporate influence, dependence on foreign oil, media bias, immigration, outsourcing, Citizens United, and other hot topic issues. [14]
D'Antuono displays the Picasso quote "Art is not meant to decorate rooms. It is an offensive weapon in the defense against the enemy" directly under his name in the header of his website. In interviews, D’Antuono indicated that the purpose of his art is to challenge people to think more deeply about socio-political issues. [15]
Frank Shepard Fairey is an American contemporary artist, activist and founder of OBEY Clothing who emerged from the skateboarding scene. In 1989, he designed the "Andre the Giant Has a Posse" (...OBEY...) sticker campaign while attending the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).
Kehinde Wiley is an American portrait painter based in New York City. He is known for his naturalistic paintings of black people that reference the work of Old Master paintings. In 2017, Wiley was commissioned to paint former President Barack Obama's portrait for the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. The Columbus Museum of Art hosted an exhibition of his work in 2007 and describes his paintings as "heroic portraits which address the image and status of young African-American men in contemporary culture."
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Barack Obama, who served as the President of the United States from 2009 to 2017, has elicited a number of public perceptions regarding his personality and background. As the first African-American President of the United States, his race and culture played a prominent role, both positively and negatively.
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Robert Theodore Barrett is an American painter, illustrator, and professor of illustration at Brigham Young University. His illustrated works include The Story of the Walnut Tree, Silent Night, Holy Night: The Story of the Christmas Truce, and The Nauvoo Temple Stone. He illustrated a book about President Barack Obama, entitled Obama: Only in America (2010), written by Carole Boston Weatherford.
The Barack Obama "Joker" poster is a manipulated image of Barack Obama, then president of the United States, used by some critics of the Obama administration. The image was created by Firas Alkhateeb in January 2009, and portrays Obama as comic book supervillain Joker, based on the portrayal by Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight (2008). Alkhateeb has said the image was not intended to make a political statement. He uploaded the image to the photo-sharing website Flickr, from where it was downloaded by an unknown individual who added the caption "socialism". It was described in 2009 by The Guardian as the "American right's first successful use of street art".
Crucifixions and crucifixes have appeared in the arts and popular culture from before the era of the pagan Roman Empire. The crucifixion of Jesus has been depicted in a wide range of religious art since the 4th century CE, frequently including the appearance of mournful onlookers such as the Virgin Mary, Pontius Pilate, and angels, as well as antisemitic depictions portraying Jews as responsible for Christ's death. In more modern times, crucifixion has appeared in film and television as well as in fine art, and depictions of other historical crucifixions have appeared as well as the crucifixion of Christ. Modern art and culture have also seen the rise of images of crucifixion being used to make statements unconnected with Christian iconography, or even just used for shock value.
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Jamaal Rolle(born 7 June 1984), also known as "The Celebrity Artist", is a Bahamian visual artist and journalist.
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artFido is an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell works of art worldwide. In addition to its auction-style listings, the website also includes ordinary fixed-price shopping.
President Barack Obama is an oil-on-canvas portrait of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States, completed by the artist Kehinde Wiley in 2018 for the National Portrait Gallery.
Cross in the Mountains, also known as the Tetschen Altar, is an oil painting by the German artist Caspar David Friedrich designed as an altarpiece. Among Friedrich's first major works, the 1808 painting marked an important break with the conventions of landscape painting by including Christian iconography. In the hierarchy of genres, religious (history) painting was considered the highest genre of art; Friedrich's use of landscape to evoke a spiritual message was thus controversial, causing debate between proponents of neoclassical ideals and the new German Romanticism of Friedrich and his peers.
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