Description

Forty-fourth president, 2009–17In 2008, Barack Obama made history when he was elected as the first African American president, capping a meteoric rise in Illinois, and then national, politics. His election was taken as evidence of increasing racial tolerance in the United States. Programmatically, Obama had a series of very difficult challenges, ranging from health care to the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and the Middle East. Domestically, Obama managed a sagging economy while also enacting the Affordable Care Act. In foreign policy, he oversaw the drawdown of American troops in combat zones. Yet the issue of race remained combustible as the political culture began to fracture at the end of his second term.Chuck Close’s double portraits of President Obama are woodburytypes—a photomechanical printing process that results in a slight relief of the image. Close intended these to function as a pair, and the close-up framing, elimination of background, and dramatic lighting allow us to engage the subject eye to eye.44o presidente, 2009–2017En 2008 Barack Obama hizo historia al convertirse en el primer afroamericano elegido presidente, culminado así su meteórico ascenso político y una campaña presidencial que promovía el progreso y el optimismo. Para muchos, su elección fue signo de una mayor unidad racial y generó un sentimiento de esperanza como nunca se había visto.Cuando Obama asumió su cargo, Estados Unidos sufría su peor crisis económica desde la Gran Depresión. A pesar de esto, Obama promulgó con diligencia la Ley de Cuidado de Salud Asequible, que extendió los beneficios de salud a...

Record Contributed By

National Portrait Gallery

Record Harvested From

Smithsonian Institution