![]() ![]() McCurdy’s portraits are so labor intensive because they are meticulously rendered. The Cumming Collection, © Robert McCurdy Untitled (Toni Morrison) by Robert McCurdy, 2006 I’ve recently started taking Sundays off, which has turned out to be a good thing, but for 20 years it has been seven days a week.” Untitled (The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso) by Robert McCurdy, 2008 “So, its six or seven days a week, nine hours a day, every day. a year to a year and a half on each project,” McCurdy says, explaining why his process is so exhaustive. ![]() In his essay “Portraits of the Good and the Great: The Ian and Annette Cumming Family Collection,” published in the exhibition's catalogue, Thompson explains that McCurdy was invited to work with the Cummings in 2005 and has, “consistently and exclusively worked with them, producing on average one portrait each year.” Dodge Thompson-who is the chief of exhibitions at the National Gallery of Art-helped the Cummings to commission and acquire more than 24 portraits of global leaders in various disciplines, including politics, writing and business. Ian McNeil Cumming (1940–2018), a noted businessman and philanthropist, and his wife, Annette Poulson Cumming, began to amass their portrait collection in 1995 and continued to build it for more than 25 years. ![]() Part two of the online exhibition debuted December 4 and includes portraits by American artists Jack Beal, Chuck Close and Nelson Shanks. (The museum is now closed due to Covid-19 restrictions.) Now available online, “ Visionary: The Cumming Family Collection,” includes portrayals of Muhammad Ali, Neil Armstrong, Warren Buffett, Toni Morrison, Jane Goodall and others. This portrait is one of many featured in an exhibition that opened last fall at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. He smiles slightly at the viewer, and the warmth of his grin touches the apples of his cheeks. His playful personality comes across in the painting. In the final portrait, the Dalai Lama dons glasses and long, burgundy robes cocks his head to one side and folds his arms in front of his torso. In 2008, McCurdy finished his captivating depiction of the religious leader. “He got his assistants to pull apart the house and find a camera, and they found an instamatic, so we took a picture together.” “He wanted to do a photograph together, and I said, ‘I’ve got no more film,” says McCurdy. ![]()
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