The first portrait presented in former U.S. President George W. Bush’s new and second art book, Out of Many, One: Portraits of America’s Immigrants, is probably his best. Showing Joseph Kim, a young man who came to the United States as a North Korean refugee, the painting exhibits many formal qualities that Bush has shown in his past portraits of veterans and world leaders. The canvas presents a tightly cropped image of the subject’s head rendered with thick, visible brushwork in bright colors. There is, however, a depth in the lavender shading of Kim’s face, the unblended orange of his collared shirt, and the sensitivity of his gaze out of the canvas and away from the viewer that defies the flatness typical of many of Bush’s works in earlier publications and throughout Out of Many, One.
Part of the two-dimensionality of the former president’s work can be attributed to process: despite having met most of his subjects (and in some cases knowing them quite well), he typically paints from photographs. Kim’s portrait is no exception to this approach; however, Bush’s text about the young man hints at why this portrait feels so much more complex. “Joseph’s office is just downstairs from mine at the Bush Institute, where he works as an assistant and expert in residence in our Human Freedom Initiative.” While this proximity made it “easy to get his photo,” it also indicates that Bush, when he has regular access to his subjects, is capable of painting works that show at least a glimmer of engagement with his stated artistic influences, which include Lucian Freud and “the Impressionists.”
