Friday, October 19, 2007

Laura Duggan: Sandra Day O'Connor portrait



Recent exhibiton @ the Smithsonian
Donald W. Reynolds Center for
American Art and Portraiture
National Portrait Gallery News

“Portraits of Sandra Day O’Connor”
In Oct. 2006, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor—the first female Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1981–2006)—sat for two three-hour sessions with artists from The Painting Group, a New York-based group of 25 artists, led by masters Aaron Shikler and David Levine, who have been meeting regularly for 40 years. The 25 resulting portraits of O’Connor included in the exhibition showcase the artists’ diverse interpretations of the same subject, illustrating that there is no one way to depict or view an individual.

Laura Duggan painted this portrait and has been with the painting group for over 20 years. Marc Pachter, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, says these portraits capture O'Connor as both a justice and a woman. "That's what I love," he said, "that when you look around we have a sense of a professional, formal presence. But then we have a sense of an intimate connection with it. I love the fact that some really didn't put her in robes at all." (Photo: CBS)

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