Artist Rob Pruitt has painted a new portrait of President Obama every day for six years. Having commenced on the day of Obama’s first inauguration, Pruitt’s The Obama Paintings will total 2,922 works by the time the 44th president leaves office. The artist, who previously performed an Oscars-style Art Awards at the Guggenheim, will debut his prolific project in May at Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD). In addition to the 2′ x 2′ portraits, Pruitt will unveil The Lincoln Monument, a sculpture that features three stacked, copper-painted truck tires filled with 200,000 pennies.
Pruitt paints each Obama portrait in under 15 minutes, capturing a single moment from the day’s events in a few, simple strokes. “When one thinks of a monument made to honor an individual, there is often a particular attribute of the subject that has been singled out by the maker, which is then exaggerated to produce a dominant quality in the completed work,” Pruitt explains in MOCAD’s press release. “My aim with this project has been to create a monument to President Barack Obama with an approach that eschews an overarching, singular quality—something that views the presidency in its entirety.”
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Experience Pruitt’s modern monuments for yourself at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit from May 15 through August 2, 2015.
Rob Pruitt, Exquisite Self-Portrait: The Artist, 2010. Silkscreen on canvas 84 3/4 x 63 3/4 inches. Image courtesy the artist and Gavin Brown’s enterprise. © Rob Pruitt
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