We remember former President Jimmy Carter through a slightly different lens-- through the eyes of a longtime friend and through the portraits of Carter that are housed here at the National Portrait Gallery.

Political aide Jack Watson met Carter 10 years before he became president. He found a farmer in work clothes driving a Chevy and quoting philosophy. Over their long friendship and while serving as chief of staff, Jack came to appreciate Carter as a man who was willing to take "bitter medicine" to do what he felt was right for the country. 

Jack describes a huge Polaroid portrait of Carter by the landscape photographer Ansel Adams, and he also explains why a softly lit painting depicting Carter in the Oval Office is not one of his favorites.

See the portraits we discussed:

Jimmy Carter, by Ansel Adams

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, by Ansel Adams

Jimmy Carter, by Robert Templeton

Other portraits in the collection:

Jimmy Carter, by Richard Avedon

Jimmy Carter, by Alan Reingold (Time magazine)

Jimmy Carter, by Andy Warhol

In this mini 'Blink' episode, Kim asks political aide Jack Watson for his thoughts on a couple of Time magazine covers featuring his old boss, former President Jimmy Carter. 

One depicts the transition team that helped Carter sift through potential political appointees -- a team that Jack led. The other depicts Carter with his characteristic broad smile, which, Jack says, doesn't tell the whole story.

See the artwork we discussed:

The Great Talent Hunt, by Jack Davis

Jimmy Carter, by Alan Reingold

Paris in the early 1900s was a magnet for convention-defying American women. It offered a delicious taste of freedom, which they used to explode the gender norms of their day, and to explore new kinds of art, literature, dance and design. In the process, they became arbiters of modernism.

In this episode we revisit our interview with curator Robyn Asleson about the National Portrait Gallery’s “Brilliant Exiles” exhibition, which opened in April. It features 60 trailblazing women, including the dancer, singer and spy Josephine Baker, as well as the bookshop owner Sylvia Beach, who took a chance on James Joyce. Also in the lineup: Ada ‘Bricktop’ Smith, whose bustling nightclub became a hub for American jazz musicians, and Romaine Brooks, the painter who reinvented herself... and then reinvented herself again.

The exhibition runs until Feb. 23, 2025, so there's still time to catch it!

See the portraits we discussed:

Ada “Bricktop” Smith, by Carl Van Vechten

Josephine Baker, by Stanislaus Julian Walery

Gertrude Stein, by Pablo Picasso

Sylvia Beach, by Paul-Émile Bécat

Romaine Brooks, self-portrait

Every time a president leaves office they're asked to do something that might not come naturally-- sit still, be quiet and surrender to someone else's work. In other words, they have their portrait painted.

The National Portrait Gallery and the White House Historical Association both commission portraits of the outgoing president and first lady. Several of the paintings have become iconic images, stamped on history. Others have been known to stop viewers in their tracks. Some have been unloved. 

In this episode Kim and WHHA president Stewart McLaurin compare notes on some of the most storied paintings of first couples in their care.

See the portraits we discussed:

George Washington (Lansdowne portrait), by Gilbert Stuart

John F. Kennedy, by Aaron Shikler

Lyndon B. Johnson, by Peter Hurd

Lyndon B. Johnson, by Elizabeth Shoumatoff

Michelle Obama, by Sharon Sprung

Michelle Obama, by Amy Sherald

In 1872, decades before women were legally allowed to vote, Victoria Woodhull made an audacious run for the White House. The press ridiculed her stance on 'free love' and she spent election night in jail. But she had put the first small crack in one of the thickest glass ceilings around. Twelve years later Belva Lockwood, the first woman to argue before the Supreme Court, took another swing at it. 

We celebrate Election Day with a look back at some of the first women who dared to run for the highest office in the United States, including Sen. Margaret Chase Smith and Rep. Shirley Chisholm. They ran against long odds, but they had grit and they got the ball rolling.

With Smithsonian curator Lisa Kathleen Graddy, and journalism historian Teri Finneman.

See the portraits we discussed:

Victoria Woodhull, unidentified artist

Get Thee Behind Me, (Mrs.) Satin! by Thomas Nast

Belva Lockwood, by Nellie Mathes Horne

Margaret Chase Smith, by Ernest Hamlin Baker

Shirley Chisholm, unidentified artist

Further reading:

Press Portrayals of Women Politicians, 1870s - 2000s, by Teri Finneman 

Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President, by Jill Norgren

The Woman Who Ran for President: The Many Lives of Victoria Woodhull, by Lois Beachy Underhill

No Place For A Woman: A Life of Senator Margaret Chase Smith, by Janann Sherman

The Good Fight, by Shirley Chisholm

Shirley Chisholm: Champion of Black Feminist Power Politics, by Anastasia C. Curwood

With Election Day just around the corner, we go back in time to figure out how early presidential candidates got their message, and their image, in front of voters. It wasn't easy. Asking directly for people's vote was seen as undignified, so candidates mostly stayed home in the early 1800s. As a result, most Americans didn't know for sure what their candidates looked like, or sounded like.

Kim speaks with curator Claire Jerry,  from the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, about the stream of new technologies-- from printing to photography to radio-- that transformed political advertising and gave candidates a more direct line of communication with the American people.

See the portraits and campaign materials we discussed:

William Henry Harrison campaign button

Abraham Lincoln, by Mathew Brady

Abraham Lincoln campaign button

Franklin D. Roosevelt at microphone

Ronald Reagan poster

We're back! Season six of PORTRAITS hits your feed Oct. 22 with a new slate of shows that use artwork to decode our world. Kim Sajet, director of the National Portrait Gallery, talks with guests about presidential campaigns, scientific discoveries and some of the currents running through today’s cultural landscape. 

As AI art gets more and more sophisticated, how do we tell the difference between a portrait that’s created by a human being – with a soul – and art that’s created by a complex algorithm? And if we can’t tell the difference, will artists be out of a job?

Oxford mathematician Marcus du Sautoy explains how AI art works, and why he thinks code can actually help artists to expand their creative universe.

But there’s one big question that remains: What does AI art tell us about the inner world of AI itself?

See the portraits we discussed:

Edmond de Belamy, published by Obvious Art

The Next Rembrandt, brainchild of Bas Korsten

Kim Sajet, generated by AI

Kim Sajet, by Devon Rodriguez

You can see Prof. Marcus du Sautoy’s ‘Creativity Code’ lecture here.

In this mini episode from our 'Blink' series, Rick Chapman shares stories from photographing elite athletes who have competed in the Olympic Games. The first step, he says, is to put the camera down. The second is not to talk about sports too much.

Rick's ESPY Collection, for ESPN, features 40 celebrity athletes, including boxers, tennis stars and basketball royalty. You can find it here.

See the portraits we discussed:

Venus Williams, black and white

Venus Williams, color

Shaun White, black and white

Shaun White, color

Dolley Madison was eight years old when the Declaration of Independence was signed, and 40 when her husband James became president. In her late 70s she sat for a photograph, becoming the first (former) first lady to do so. Then, this summer, the National Portrait Gallery acquired it.

In this mini 'Blink' episode, Kim speaks with Ann Shumard, senior curator of photographs, to hear how this rare daguerreotype came to light and how the Gallery was able to buy it.

See the photograph here.