The presidential portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama that will hang in the Smithsonian Institute were unveiled today. While Michelle Obama’s very grey portrait bears little resemblance to the former First Lady, as it’s lacking her signature frown, it’s Barack Obama’s portrait that has social media buzzing. It’s not the “Fairytopia” setting that artist Kehinde Wiley chose as a backdrop for Barack Obama’s presidential portrait that’s causing a stir, it’s the painter’s history of creating images of black women decapitating white women that has everyone talking. Does anyone really believe that the most racially divisive President in recent history arbitrarily chose this ISIS-inspired artist who clearly has an issue with white people?

The GP reports about the interesting past of the artist who painted former President Obama’s portrait for the Portrait Gallery, While reviewing previous works by artist Kehinde Wiley, it was discovered that he has a great fondness for painting black women beheading white women. Both beheading pieces are titled “Judith beheading Holofernes”, referencing a story in the Book of Judith, which involves a beautiful woman who seduces an invading general before he is able to destroy their land, gets him drunk, and then decapitates him.

https://twitter.com/CorneliusRye2/status/963094677443420160

Typical artists from the Rennaissance era have placed Judith in the role of a scriptural savior, “a type of the praying Virgin or the church or as a figure who tramples Satan and harrows Hell.”

https://twitter.com/mitchellvii/status/963077878832185344

@BobCav tweeted: “Obama portrait painter , undoubtedly in the name of “artistic license”, butchered history by depicting Caravaggio’s classic “Judith Beheading Holofernes (1602)” as a vile image of a black woman decapitating a white woman.

https://twitter.com/BobCav/status/963128545055821824

“@BennettTruth” tweeted: “Also by Obama portrait painter Kehinde Wiley: This darling little number. I just LOVE how he blended the floral notes with the beheading of the white kid.”

https://twitter.com/Bennettruth/status/963130618707050496

“Maggie” tweeted: “It gets worse. The artist (Kehinde Wiley) who painted Obama’s portrait has a penchant for depicting black women beheading white women.”

https://twitter.com/VancityMaggie/status/963146263586783232

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