As if Oprah Winfrey needed any more immortalizing. The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery on Wednesday unveiled a portrait of Winfrey painted by Chicago artist Shawn Michael Warren to be part of the museum’s permanent collection.
The painting will go on display Wednesday after its unveiling in a ceremony presented by Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch, National Portrait Gallery Director Kim Sajet, Warren and Winfrey herself. It will be displayed on the first floor of the museum in Washington, D.C.
The full-length portrait, oil on linen, is described in an announcement from the National Portrait Gallery as being approximately 6 feet, 10 inches tall, and depicting Winfrey in a purple taffeta dress in the garden of her home in Montecito, California. In the painting, she’s holding a sprig from an olive tree; the purple is in tribute to Alice Walker’s novel “The Color Purple” and Winfrey’s breakout role in Steven Spielberg’s 1985 film adaptation.
Warren was selected for the commission after he worked on a mural of Winfrey in the West Loop on the side of an apartment building overlooking Green Street. That mural was painted in 2020 by artists Warren, Jane Barthes, Anna Murphy and Kalan Strauss in homage to the former Harpo Studios campus a few blocks away, where the “Oprah Winfrey Show” was produced from 1990 to 2011.
Warren, born in Chicago, is a graduate of the city’s American Academy of Art as well as the Florence Academy of Art in Italy. His worked is described as realism influenced by Renaissance painters. His subjects have included historic figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. and narrative events such as the Great Migration. His murals can also be seen in Los Angeles and Indianapolis.
According to the announcement, the commission is part of an ongoing effort by the museum to add portraits of living subjects who have shaped American history and culture. More information is at npg.si.edu.
dgeorge@chicagotribune.com
