The Obama Presidential Center and Museum is finally set to open this week in Chicago, but not before yet another controversy.
First, there were the issues of land appropriation and environmental impact; then there was severe building delays and the eyesore that is the design of the structure itself. Money was also an issue. In addition to massive cost overruns in the construction process, admission to the Obama center is set to be priced at $30 for adults – significantly higher than other presidential libraries.
When the center officially opens to the public on Friday (i.e. Juneteenth), visitors will be greeted by a massive portrait of former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama in what has been dubbed the “Hope and Change Lobby.” The painting was unveiled on Sunday and immediately got people’s attention for the way it depicts the couple.
Portrait of a Problem
Nigerian-born, Los Angeles–based artist Njideka Akunyili Crosby was commissioned to create the framed 9-by-10-foot portrait of the Obamas that will hang in the main lobby of the center. While there is no denying Akunyili Crosby’s talent, many have been struck by the composition of the work.
“You tell me, does anything jump out at you as a little off about this portrait,” Megyn asked her guests, National Review’s Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke, on Wednesday’s edition of The Megyn Kelly Show.
Cooke was the first to ring in: “He’s in the back!”
In Megyn’s view, the arrangement of Barack, who is off-center and sitting on a table behind Michelle, makes the former president look more like the “first partner” (to borrow a phrase of California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s wife Jennifer) than the commander-in-chief.
And that was, apparently, by design. “I was thinking of a composition that would not preference one [Obama] over the other but to treat them equally,” Akunyili Crosby said at the unveiling. “It’s like, ‘Yes, he was the president and she is this incredible, powerful, amazing, super-respected person.’ They are, like, equal.”
But that’s not all. As Lowry noted, many of the other elements depicted in the painting are actually more about the former first lady’s background than her husband’s. The house depicted behind the couple is Michelle’s childhood home on Chicago’s South Side, while the car is meant to be her father’s 1970 bronze Buick.
A press release announcing the portrait, which is titled The Obamas: Springing Forth (2026), said the “densely layered work… weaves together archival imagery, family albums, historical ephemera, and cultural touchstones.” The “precise biographical details” are meant to “simultaneously honor and connect the Obamas’ lasting legacy to the many generations of artists, activists, citizens, and leaders whose collective journeys helped pave their way to the White House and sustained them through two terms.” Sure.
No Love Lost?
From the poses to the peculiar objects, Lowry joked that the design of the portrait is perhaps the latest attempt to restore the Obamas’ rumored-to-be rocky relationship. “Maybe it’s necessary to keep the marriage together. I don’t judge other people’s marriages,” he said. “[Akunyili Crosby] is a talented artist… but I think the portrait is absurd… The likenesses are good, but, otherwise, all stuff in the background and [whatnot] is just way too self-important.”
Cooke was inclined to agree. “I am going to get in trouble for saying this, but… Michelle Obama seems to hate Barack Obama,” he posited. “Everything she says on her podcast is horrible… Your wife doesn’t view you as the greatest person who has ever lived because she lives with you and she knows all of your flaws, but, I mean, he is an intelligent guy… he doesn’t seem to have stepped out on his family, he was president of the United States twice, but she talks about him like he is a total moron.”
“You know the complaint you hear from men about sitcom dads that they’re always idiots, that there’s never a positive role model in sitcoms? She talks about him a little bit like that,” Cooke continued. “I just think it is weird that she spends all this time on a podcast complaining about having been first lady, complaining about having been married to Obama, saying fairly mean things about Obama, and then they suddenly have a portrait together for the opening of his library and he is in the back.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Cooke and Lowry by tuning in to episode 1,341 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Channel (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.