The original version of this article had an error that was corrected on 2/23/2021*
Yet another decision needs to be made about Donald Trump. Who should paint his Presidential Portrait to hang in the National Gallery, DC? Several suggestions have come from Hyperallergic - self-proclaimed as “sensitive to art and its discontents.” But the pitches are send-ups, not meant to be taken seriously. I have an artist in mind, too. But first, here are some of the Hyperallergic picks.
Pick of the litter
Topping the list is Jon McNaughton, identified by Hyperallergic as a “mediocre painter of far-right talking points.” One of them is a lithograph of the ex-president looking squinty-eyed at the viewer, you know, to impart determination.
The image comes with an inscription that explains Trump’s purposeful expression: “We will never give up. We will never concede.”
Other possibilities
Chuck Close also made the Hyperallergic list. The scoffing in this choice is that the artist, like this ex-president, made the #MeToo list as a sexual predator.
George W. Bush made the cut, too, not so much for his picture-making skills but for his “catastrophic mismanagement” of the Iraq war, which parallels Trump’s abysmal neglect of his country during the pandemic.
The winning bet
My favorite Hyperallergic suggestion is Cecilia Gimenez, the art restorer in Spain who botched repairs of a 19th-century fresco of Jesus. Why her? The expectation is that the Trump portrait will not go on view but instead lie moldering in storage.
That’s when the services of conservator Gimenez could come in to ruin it altogether.
Exercise in futility
To hear the Washington Post tell it, though, none of this will matter because no one will be able to see Trump’s Presidential Portrait since no one will visit the National Gallery. Owing to Trump supporters’ attack on the Capitol, the area is cordoned off with razor wire.
But even without the fortifications against insurrection, you can’t visit the museum, and that’s Trump’s fault, too. As the Post points out, a whole year after the first covid-19 case in the United States, the pandemic rages on account of his cavalier attitude to the illness.
No contest
My pick for the National Gallery portrait is the actor/cartoonist Jim Carrey. Granted, his swipes at Trump and his sycophants are harsh, but they tell the truth.
And while I’m not submitting his name as a serious contender for Trump’s official portrait, I take Carrey’s drawings seriously, and he does, too.
As he told the New Yorker, making his anti-Trump drawings are his job as a citizen. “It’s my responsibility to pick up the sword.”
The remark is especially relevant since so many Republicans dropped it on the Senate chamber floor last week when they acquitted Trump.
As for the absurd suggestions for Trump’s Presidential Portrait, that’s as it should be for an absurd man.
*Correction (2/23/2021): contrary to what we originally reported, Chuck Close has never done a portrait of Donald Trump.
