Political Family Portraits [Edit]

The recent annual Art issue of W Magazine features an artistic portrait of Michelle Obama with her daughter Sasha, painted by Elizabeth Peyton.

Famous for her portraits of celebrities and politicians, Peyton usually takes inspiration from existing images such as photos and album covers. She transforms these images into a painting that is infused with an ideal and androgynous beauty.

For this portrait, Elizabeth Peyton used a photo of Michelle and Sasha Obama at the democratic convention as Barack Obama accepted the presidential nomination.

If you’d like to explore more of Peyton’s work, The New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York is currently running a retrospective exhibit, “Live Forever: Elizabeth Peyton,” through January 11, 2009. The exhibit will then travel to Minneapolis’ Walker Art Center, London’s Whitechapel Gallery, and the Bonnefanten museum in Maastricht, the Netherlands.