Latest news with #AmySherald
Politico
18 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Politico
How the National Portrait Gallery got tangled in MAGA politics
EYE OF THE BEHOLDER — Amy Sherald, the distinctive artist renowned for her stylized portraits of Black Americans like former first lady Michelle Obama, pulled her upcoming exhibition, 'American Sublime,' from the National Portrait Gallery last week, saying that the museum feared her painting of a trans woman posed like the Statue of Liberty could offend President Donald Trump. The museum maintains that it never suggested removing the painting, but rather that it pitched an accompanying video to 'contextualize the piece.' In any case, the show's D.C. run is over before it began. Sherald's withdrawal highlights the Trump administration's pressure campaign on the Smithsonian's various museums, following a March executive order scrutinizing 'improper ideology' in its displays and the recent ouster of the gallery's longtime director, whom Trump accused of supporting 'DEI' and attempted to fire — a decision the Smithsonian challenged, saying he lacked the authority to make it — before she announced her resignation. But it also underscores something that predates Trump, a tension at the heart of the Portrait Gallery's mission that has ensnared it in controversy since long before MAGA was a glimmer in the president's eye. On the one hand, it's an arts institution, ostensibly dedicated to freedom of expression, aesthetic innovation and elevating the country's artistic genius. On the other, it's a government organization beholden to the whims of politics, the sensibilities of elected officials and the tastes of voters, many of whom aren't exactly fans of cutting-edge art. For politicians, the provocations and ambiguities of the avant-garde can be a political liability — or a cudgel with which to batter the other side. It was 2010 when the Portrait Gallery walked face-first into one of the most notorious censorship scandals to hit the fine art world in recent American history. The brouhaha surrounded a 1980 video piece titled, A Fire in My Belly, by the late writer and artist David Wojnarowicz, a polemic and highly celebrated contemporary of East Village luminaries like Keith Haring, Nan Goldin and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Wojnarowicz died of AIDS at age 37 in 1992, but the piece appeared in a 2010 show that the Portrait Gallery called 'the first major museum exhibition to focus on sexual difference in the making of modern American portraiture,' drawing the ire of the Catholic League and House Republicans, who seized on an 11-second shot of ants crawling over a crucifix. For the conservative gay writer Andrew Sullivan, himself a Christian, there was no mistaking the work as blasphemous. 'To see a rejected Jesus left on the cross and on the ground to be covered by ants, is, in this context, clearly neither offensive nor heresy,' he wrote at the time. But to the Catholic League's Bill Donohue, it was 'hate speech,' and congressional Republicans like House Speaker John Boehner and Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor leapt at the whiff of culture war. They threatened to cut the gallery's federal funding, calling the video offensive to Christians and casting it as a misuse of taxpayer dollars — even though the gallery did not use public funds to stage the exhibition, which was privately funded. The secretary of the Smithsonian, G. Wayne Clough, unilaterally caved to the censorship demands — a decision that proved to be a lose-lose, inviting condemnation from free-speech advocates but failing to fully alleviate pressure from the right, which continued to advocate for funding cuts and the takedown of the entire exhibition. (Clough, who left the role in 2014, defended his choice to censor the show, saying it allowed the rest of the exhibit to stand.) The gallery's commissioner, James T. Bartlett, resigned in protest. And the Andy Warhol Foundation, which had backed the show with grant money, vowed to never support the gallery again — a pledge it upholds to this day. The censorship scandal followed debates from the late 1980s and early 1990s over the National Endowment for the Arts and its support of artists who explored queerness, sexuality or religious imagery. In 1989, Goldin staged a show in New York about the AIDS crisis that included in its catalogue an essay by Wojnarowicz excoriating religious and political leaders for fomenting homophobia and exacerbating the epidemic. In response, the NEA withdrew a grant it had awarded the exhibition. (That money was later partially restored, under the condition that it would not support the catalogue.) The American Family Association, a champion of the Christian right, cropped images of sex acts from Wojnarowicz's artworks into mailers that it circulated around the country with headlines like, 'Your tax dollars help pay for these 'works of art.'' Wojnarowicz won a lawsuit against the group in New York for violating his copyright and misrepresenting his work, though he was awarded only $1 in damages. The backlash to the NEA funding of Wojnarowicz's art was part of a broader uproar over the sexually explicit photography of Robert Mapplethorpe and the accusations of blasphemy levied against Andres Serrano's 'Piss Christ,' a darkly enigmatic photograph of a crucifix submerged in the artist's urine. All of which presaged the gallery's apparent skittishness over Sherald's portrait of a Black, transgender Statue of Liberty today. But the latest dustup also breaches into new censorious territory. The political arguments over artists in the past, while often explicitly homophobic, largely focused on the supposed obscenity or blasphemy of their work — nudity, sex, religious iconography. However disingenuous, these criticisms appealed to deeply held discomfort in straight society surrounding depictions of sex — and particularly gay sex — as well as Christian symbols. Opposition to Sherald's painting, however, dispenses with these critiques altogether. You'll find no genitalia or supposedly profaned crosses in the portrait. It is a decidedly G-rated image. Were it not for the hackneyed title, Trans Forming Liberty, you could easily miss the transness of its subject entirely. Frankly, it's a boring painting — obvious, even ham-fisted in its invocation of a civic image, perhaps, but nothing remotely approaching the frankness or transgression of Wojnarowicz, Mapplethorpe and Serrano. Nonetheless, the White House celebrated the cancellation, with one official telling The New York Times it was a 'principled and necessary step.' In a sense, then, Sherald gave Trump exactly what he wanted, complying with a demand before it came — just as law firms and media organizations that bent the knee to the administration have been accused of 'anticipatory compliance.' The Trump administration has been successful in erasing trans people from government websites and documents. Now, apparently, it's winning in galleries, too. Ironically, that may increase the visibility of the portrait, which most of the country would not have seen if it hadn't splashed onto their phones along with the headlines. That was certainly the case for Wojnarowicz. After the gallery pulled his video, the media attention posthumously catapulted his name beyond the niche world of fine art and back into the political mainstream. The Museum of Modern Art and the New Museum, among others, screened the censored video. And in 2018, the Whitney staged a landmark retrospective of his work called History Keeps Me Awake at Night that effectively canonized Wojnarowicz, who has surged in popularity among young queer creatives. 'The most powerful moments of the exhibition have a moral grandeur rare in contemporary art,' wrote Philip Kennicott of the retrospective in the Washington Post, 'as it becomes clear that not only was Wojnarowicz fully cognizant of the tools being used against him, he made the onslaught the subject of his work.' Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@ Or contact tonight's author at dylonjones@ or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @tdylon_jones. What'd I Miss? — Trump: Epstein 'stole' young woman from Mar-a-Lago spa: President Donald Trump said today that Jeffrey Epstein 'stole' young women from his Mar-a-Lago beach club spa decades ago. 'People were taken out of the spa, hired by him. In other words, gone,' Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. 'When I heard about it, I told him, I said, listen, we don't want you taking our people, whether it's spa or not spa … And he was fine. And not too long after he did it again. And I said outta here.' The anecdote comes a day after Trump said that he severed ties with the disgraced financier and child sex offender, who died in prison by suicide six years ago, after 'he stole people who worked for me.' — Trump administration moves to repeal climate 'holy grail': The Environmental Protection Agency proposed repealing the federal government's bedrock scientific declaration on the dangers of greenhouse gases — in a legally risky move by President Donald Trump's administration to undo regulations on fossil fuels. The so-called endangerment finding, which the Obama administration issued in 2009, laid out a comprehensive case for how human emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases threaten human health and welfare. Rescinding it undermines the legal basis for most EPA climate rules, including limits on power plant and vehicle emissions. The elimination of the finding is sure to draw legal challenges from blue states and environmental groups, who note that decades of scientific research backs up the conclusion that planet-warming pollution from the use of oil, natural gas and coal are altering the Earth's climate. — Trump fired court-appointed Habba replacement, records show: President Donald Trump moved to fire the career federal prosecutor New Jersey judges picked to be acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, according to court records filed today. The Department of Justice revealed Trump's decision in an email filed with a federal judge in Pennsylvania, who is preparing to weigh in on an escalating fight between the Trump administration and the federal bench in New Jersey. The filing underscores Trump's direct involvement in a bid to keep his former personal attorney, Alina Habba, as New Jersey's top federal prosecutor, despite the expiration last week of her 120-day tenure as interim U.S. attorney and New Jersey judges selecting prosecutor Desiree Leigh Grace to serve in Habba's place. — Trump says 10-day deadline for Russia to broker ceasefire in Ukraine starts today: President Donald Trump said today that Russia must agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine by Aug. 8 or risk sanctions, accelerating a deadline that was previously up in the air. Trump in July set a 50-day deadline for the agreement with Ukraine, threatening tariffs if a deal was not made. On Monday, during his meeting with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, he said he was shortening this deadline to '10 or 12 days.' Aboard Air Force One on today, on his way back to the United States, Trump said the clock was ticking and it was '10 days from today.' 'And then we're going to put on tariffs,' Trump added, 'and I don't know if it's going to affect Russia, because he wants to, obviously, probably keep the war going.' — Senate Banking advances first large, bipartisan housing package in a decade: The Senate Banking Committee unanimously advanced landmark housing legislation today, marking a rare area of overwhelming bipartisanship in a divided Congress. The Renewing Opportunity in the American Dream to Housing Act of 2025, sponsored by Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and ranking member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), includes proposals that aim to expand and preserve the housing supply, improve housing affordability and access, advance accountability and fiscal responsibility, and improve oversight and program integrity. — Democrats sue over efforts to defund Planned Parenthood: California Attorney General Rob Bonta and 22 other Democratic attorneys general and governors are suing the Trump administration over a bid to strip federal funds from Planned Parenthood clinics. 'We need to just call it what it is: punishment for Planned Parenthood's constitutionally protected advocacy for abortion,' Bonta said at a press conference Tuesday morning. Congressional Republicans have wanted to cut funding to Planned Parenthood since Trump's first term. If they're successful, about 200 of the 600 clinics the nonprofit operates around the country could close, with over half of them in California. AROUND THE WORLD U.K. TO RECOGNIZE PALESTINIAN STATE — Keir Starmer has committed to recognizing a Palestinian state ahead of September's United Nations General Assembly, Downing Street announced today. The British prime minister told a special meeting of his Cabinet that 'now was the right time to move this position forward' because of the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza and the diminishing prospects of a peace process. He said that the U.K. will recognize a Palestinian state in September unless the Israeli government takes 'substantive steps' to end the crisis in Gaza and commits to a long-term peace process that delivers a two-state solution. Israel swiftly dismissed the move as a 'reward for Hamas.' EU CONSIDERS PENALTIES — European Union countries are moving toward agreeing a plan to punish Israel over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza but stopped short of triggering the penalty at a meeting in Brussels today. The European Commission has proposed partially suspending Israel's association agreement with the EU, to curtail the country's access to a key research and development program for start-ups. The plan comes in response to a Commission review that found Israel was in breach of its human-rights obligations under the terms of the deal. EU countries' ambassadors discussed the Commission's proposal at a meeting today but there was no qualified majority in favor of pressing ahead with it now, according to three diplomats speaking to POLITICO on condition of anonymity because the matter is sensitive. Nightly Number RADAR SWEEP DRESSING THE PART — If you go to a Pitbull concert these days, you'll likely find yourself in a sea of fans wearing bald caps, suits and fake goatees, mimicking the artist's signature look. Fans dressing up like musicians — parkas for Oasis, cowboy boots and hats for Beyoncé, feather boas for Harry Styles — has become a key part of the concert-going experience since the pandemic. Expense and hard to get concert tickets have turned shows into an occasion to go all out, and some artists have used fans' desire to dress like them to build community and expand their reach with fashion and brand deals. The Economist reports on this new era in concert going. Parting Image Jacqueline Munis contributed to this newsletter. Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here.
Fox News
5 days ago
- Politics
- Fox News
Michelle Obama portraitist's exhibit with trans Statue of Liberty pulled after pressure from Vance
EXCLUSIVE: Artist Amy Sherald canceled her upcoming exhibit featuring a portrait of a transgender Statue of Liberty at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery after Vice President JD Vance raised concerns the show included woke and divisive content, Fox News Digital has learned. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March that placed Vance in charge of overseeing the removal of programs or exhibits at Smithsonian museums that "degrade shared American values, divide Americans based on race, or promote programs or ideologies inconsistent with Federal law and policy." Vance said Sherald's "American Sublime" exhibit violated Trump's executive order and was an example of woke and divisive content during a meeting June 9 with the Board of Regents, a source familiar with the meeting told Fox News Digital. "Vice President Vance has been leading the effort to eliminate woke indoctrination from our beloved Smithsonian museums," an administration official said in an email to Fox News Digital. "On top of shepherding the One Big Beautiful Bill through the Senate and helping President Trump navigate international crises, the vice president has demonstrated his ability to get President Trump's priorities across the finish line." Sherald, best known for painting former first lady Michelle Obama's official portrait in 2018, announced Thursday she was pulling her show, "American Sublime," from the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery slated for September, The New York Times first reported. Sherald said she was rescinding her work from the exhibition after being told that the National Portrait Gallery had some concerns about featuring the portrait of the transgender Statue of Liberty during the show. The painting, "Trans Forming Liberty," depicts a trans woman with pink hair wearing a blue gown. "These concerns led to discussions about removing the work from the exhibition," Sherald said in a statement, The New York Times first reported Thursday. "While no single person is to blame, it's clear that institutional fear shaped by a broader climate of political hostility toward trans lives played a role. "This painting exists to hold space for someone whose humanity has been politicized and disregarded. I cannot in good conscience comply with a culture of censorship, especially when it targets vulnerable communities. "At a time when transgender people are being legislated against, silenced and endangered across our nation, silence is not an option," Sherald added. "I stand by my work. I stand by my sitters. I stand by the truth that all people deserve to be seen — not only in life, but in art." The Smithsonian did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding Vance's involvement in the matter. The White House said the removal of Sherald's exhibit is a "principled and necessary step" toward cultivating unity at institutions like the Smithsonian. "The 'Trans Forming Liberty' painting, which sought to reinterpret one of our nation's most sacred symbols through a divisive and ideological lens, fundamentally strayed from the mission and spirit of our national museums," Trump special assistant Lindsey Halligan said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "The Statue of Liberty is not an abstract canvas for political expression. It is a revered and solemn symbol of freedom, inspiration and national unity that defines the American spirit." Other members of the Smithsonian's Board of Regents include the Chief Justice of the United States, John Roberts, along with senators John Boozman, R-Ark.; Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev.; and Gary Peters, D-Mich., along with several other House members.
New York Post
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Artist pulls art from Smithsonian gallery after museum tries to alter her trans Statue of Liberty painting
The artist who painted former First Lady Michelle Obama's official White House portrait has pulled her latest show from a D.C. Museum this week after the space's owners wanted to alter one of her works to avoid offending President Donald Trump, The New York Times reported Thursday. Artist Amy Sherald withdrew her solo show from the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery after she was told her painting 'Trans Forming Liberty' — a depiction of the Statue of Liberty as a trans woman — may be removed by the gallery. 'I entered into this collaboration in good faith, believing that the institution shared a commitment to presenting work that reflects the full, complex truth of American life. Unfortunately, it has become clear that the conditions no longer support the integrity of the work as conceived,' Sherald said in a letter to Smithsonian secretary Lonnie Bunch III. Sherald painted the portrait of Obama currently owned by the National Portrait Gallery. The work, which is a grayscale image of the former First Lady that features some brighter colors near the bottom of her floor-length dress, generated controversy when it was unveiled in 2018. 5 American Sublime Opening Party, Whitney Museum of American Art, Manhattan, New York, United States – 02 Apr 2025. Sansho Scott/ / Shutterstock Critics online savaged the more abstract elements of the portrait, and some ripped the work for not looking anything like Obama. Courting controversy once again, Sherald refused to have 'Trans Forming Liberty' altered or removed from her 'American Sublime' gallery that was set to debut at the museum in September. In a statement she produced Thursday that was shared with Fox News Digital, the artist said she was 'informed that concerns had been raised internally' about the work. 'These concerns led to discussions about removing the work from the exhibition,' she said. 'While no single person is to blame, it's clear that institutional fear shaped by a broader climate of political hostility toward trans lives played a role.' 5 Amy Sherald attends the 2025 Met Gala Celebrating 'Superfine: Tailoring Black Style' at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 05, 2025 in New York City. Getty Images In a separate statement obtained by The Times, Sherald said that Bunch had proposed replacing the transgender depiction with a video of people reacting to it — an idea the artist rejected. 'When I understood a video would replace the painting, I decided to cancel,' she said. 'The video would have opened up for debate the value of trans visibility and I was opposed to that being a part of the 'American Sublime' narrative.' However, a Smithsonian spokesperson disputed Sherald's account of Bunch's proposed alterations. 5 The exterior of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery June 9, 2025 in Washington, D.C. The Washington Post via Getty Images 'The video was to accompany the painting as a way to contextualize the piece, 'It was not to replace Amy Sherald's painting,' they said in a statement. When asked for comment, the Smithsonian pointed Fox News Digital to its recent statement on the matter. 'While we understand Amy's decision to withdraw her show from the National Portrait Gallery, we are disappointed that Smithsonian audiences will not have an opportunity to experience 'American Sublime,'' it read. 5 Visitors view the official portrait of former first lady Michelle Obama by Amy Sherald at The Art Institute of Chicago on June 18, 2021 in Chicago, Illinois. Getty Images 'Unfortunately, we could not come to an agreement with the artist. We remain appreciative and inspired by Ms. Sherald, her artwork and commitment to portraiture,' it added. Sherald's exit comes after Trump signed an executive order in March to remove leftist ideology and historical revisionism from government institutions. In the order, he called out the Smithsonian for having 'come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology.' 'This shift has promoted narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive,' he added. 5 Amy Sherald at the Marc Jacobs 2026 Runway Show, New York Public Library, NYC, Manhattan, New York, United States – 30 Jun 2025. Jason Lowrie/ Trump also declared he would be firing the Portrait Gallery's director, Kim Sajet, for being a 'strong supporter of D.E.I.' Sajet resigned from her role in June. The White House provided Fox News Digital with a quote from Trump admin official Lindsey Halligan blasting Sherald's artwork. 'The 'Trans Forming Liberty' painting, which sought to reinterpret one of our nation's most sacred symbols through a divisive and ideological lens, fundamentally strayed from the mission and spirit of our national museums. The Statue of Liberty is not an abstract canvas for political expression — it is a revered and solemn symbol of freedom, inspiration, and national unity that defines the American spirit.' She added, 'President Trump's Executive Order mandates that such institutions serve not as platforms for ideological division, but as sources of unity, inspiration and pride of our shared history. The removal of this exhibit is a principled and necessary step toward restoring that purpose.'
Boston Globe
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Amid a culture of fear, a celebrated artist's most important exhibition is pulled from Smithsonian
And it appears that Sherald's 'Trans Forming Liberty,' her 2024 portrait of a transgender woman dressed as the Statue of Liberty, rattled museum leadership in a climate of deep hostility from the administration toward transgender people. Advertisement Installation view of Amy Sherald: American Sublime (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, April 9-August 10, 2025). Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama, 2018. (Tiffany Sage/ Tiffany Sage/ Sherald said the Portrait Gallery had proposed replacing the painting in D.C. with a video of viewers' reactions both to it and transgender issues more broadly. In a the museum countered, saying it wanted the video to accompany, not replace, the painting. Either way, no agreement could be struck, and Sherald withdrew. Advertisement 'The video would have opened up for debate the value of trans visibility and I was opposed to that being a part of the 'American Sublime' narrative,' Sherald told the New York Times. 'Unfortunately, we could not come to an agreement with the artist. We remain appreciative and inspired by Ms. Sherald, her artwork and commitment to portraiture,' the museum But even without 'Trans Forming Liberty,' it's a fair guess the show would have been under external pressures: Sherald's paintings are for the most part elegant, precise portraits of unnamed Black subjects painted life-sized. There are two exceptions in the exhibition. The first is her portrait of Breonna Taylor, a memorial image painted with dignified beauty of the innocent Black woman but weary grace. It was the exhibition's centerpiece, an emblem of the artist's larger project to build Black life into a canon of American art long indifferent to its inclusion. Artist Amy Sherald with her portrait of the late Breonna Taylor. Joseph Hyde/Vanity Fair Either one might easily raise the ire of the current administration. We don't have to look very long, or very far, to parse the current president's view of Obama's husband. On his Truth Social website this week, the 47th president posted a shockingly raw AI-generated video of former President Barack Obama being violently arrested in the Oval Office and dragged away in handcuffs. But there's more here than a simple obsessive animus, one president to another (though it's also clearly that). Advertisement The current administration's blunt enforcement of what it deems acceptable expression now touches virtually all aspects of American life. That includes media (as in the 60 Minutes lawsuit debacle), entertainment (the cancellation of 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,' a known Trump tormentor), and higher education (see the administration's roughshod bullying of Harvard and Columbia over its specious claims of antisemitism). A favorite target of the Trump administration, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts by government, private business, and educational institutions, looms over Sherald's withdrawal, too. The most recent addition to the constellation of Smithsonians, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, was one of the second Trump administration's prime targets. In a March executive order titled ' (It also singled out the Smithsonian's Museum of American Art and the Smithsonian American Women's History Museum.) In May, when Advertisement Here in Massachusetts, the National Endowment for the Arts in May refused to disburse funds already promised to the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art for 'Power Full Because We're Different,' Which brings us back to Sherald, ensnared by the strident decree of a cultural bureaucracy in deep regressive mode. To be clear: This was her decision. She chose not to compromise her integrity and intentions, which have been consistent and clear from the start. She had been making portraits of Black subjects for years when the invitation to paint Michelle Obama arrived. It is completely in tune with her core sensibility to capture her subjects simply, truthfully, as they are. Ruth Erickson from Cambridge with Jullian Kalim, 8, and his brother Cassidy Kalim, 3, looked at portraits of the Obamas at the MFA Boston in 2022. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff But the Obama portrait arrived in 2018 less as a painting than a heavy symbol amid a violent lurch in American life: From a two-term president who became a beacon of Black achievement to a political outsider openly hostile to the progress his predecessor seemed to embody. When the painting went on national tour in 2022, along with Kehinde Wiley's portrait of the former president, it drew crowds, including Advertisement But is pulling back, in this moment, this place, defiance or acquiescence? That's a larger question that artists, thinkers, and institutions are grappling with in every corner and context. Either way, it's an outcome enjoyed primarily by just one person, and we know who that is. Murray Whyte can be reached at
Fox News
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Artist pulls art from Smithsonian gallery after museum tries to alter her trans Statue of Liberty painting
The artist who painted former First Lady Michelle Obama's official White House portrait has pulled her latest show from a D.C. Museum this week after the space's owners wanted to alter one of her works to avoid offending President Donald Trump, The New York Times reported Thursday. Artist Amy Sherald withdrew her solo show from the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery after she was told her painting "Trans Forming Liberty" — a depiction of the Statue of Liberty as a trans woman — may be removed by the gallery. "I entered into this collaboration in good faith, believing that the institution shared a commitment to presenting work that reflects the full, complex truth of American life. Unfortunately, it has become clear that the conditions no longer support the integrity of the work as conceived," Sherald said in a letter to Smithsonian secretary Lonnie Bunch III. Sherald painted the portrait of Obama currently owned by the National Portrait Gallery. The work, which is a grayscale image of the former First Lady that features some brighter colors near the bottom of her floor-length dress, generated controversy when it was unveiled in 2018. Critics online savaged the more abstract elements of the portrait, and some ripped the work for not looking anything like Obama. Courting controversy once again, Sherald refused to have "Trans Forming Liberty" altered or removed from her "American Sublime" gallery that was set to debut at the museum in September. In a statement she produced Thursday that was shared with Fox News Digital, the artist said she was "informed that concerns had been raised internally" about the work. "These concerns led to discussions about removing the work from the exhibition," she said. "While no single person is to blame, it's clear that institutional fear shaped by a broader climate of political hostility toward trans lives played a role." In a separate statement obtained by The Times, Sherald said that Bunch had proposed replacing the transgender depiction with a video of people reacting to it — an idea the artist rejected. "When I understood a video would replace the painting, I decided to cancel," she said. "The video would have opened up for debate the value of trans visibility and I was opposed to that being a part of the 'American Sublime' narrative." However, a Smithsonian spokesperson disputed Sherald's account of Bunch's proposed alterations. "The video was to accompany the painting as a way to contextualize the piece, "It was not to replace Amy Sherald's painting," they said in a statement. When asked for comment, the Smithsonian pointed Fox News Digital to its recent statement on the matter. "While we understand Amy's decision to withdraw her show from the National Portrait Gallery, we are disappointed that Smithsonian audiences will not have an opportunity to experience 'American Sublime,'" it read. "Unfortunately, we could not come to an agreement with the artist. We remain appreciative and inspired by Ms. Sherald, her artwork and commitment to portraiture," it added. Sherald's exit comes after Trump signed an executive order in March to remove leftist ideology and historical revisionism from government institutions. In the order, he called out the Smithsonian for having "come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology." "This shift has promoted narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive," he added. Trump also declared he would be firing the Portrait Gallery's director, Kim Sajet, for being a "strong supporter of D.E.I." Sajet resigned from her role in June. The White House provided Fox News Digital with a quote from Trump admin official Lindsey Halligan blasting Sherald's artwork. "The 'Trans Forming Liberty' painting, which sought to reinterpret one of our nation's most sacred symbols through a divisive and ideological lens, fundamentally strayed from the mission and spirit of our national museums. The Statue of Liberty is not an abstract canvas for political expression — it is a revered and solemn symbol of freedom, inspiration, and national unity that defines the American spirit." She added, "President Trump's Executive Order mandates that such institutions serve not as platforms for ideological division, but as sources of unity, inspiration and pride of our shared history. The removal of this exhibit is a principled and necessary step toward restoring that purpose."
