The Obama portraits “lived” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) for two short months from November 2021 to early January 2022. During their residency visitors could gaze at the life-size, deeply moving portraits of the 44th President of the United States and the First Lady. As a complement to the official state portraits LACMA installed a remarkable exhibition of portraits of black Americans that provides a survey dating from 1790 to the present. This virtual program focuses on the art of Amy Sherald who portrayed Michelle Obama and that of Kehinde Wiley who created the presidential portrait of Barack Obama. Examples of work by other African American artists explores their artistic achievements to position the Obama portraits within two traditions: one of American portraiture and the other of state portraits.