Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery Has a Winner

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The polls have closed, and the National Portrait Gallery will continue its 50th anniversary celebrations with the installation of a portrait of celebrity Marc Anthony on its “Recognize” wall. In April, the Portrait Gallery invited its followers to cast their votes across the museum’s social media platforms for one of three portraits of celebrities who are turning 50 in 2018 and whose portraits are included in the museum’s permanent collection. The majority of the votes went to a portrait of Hispanic American singer, songwriter, actor and producer Marc Anthony by Puerto Rican photographer ADÁL.

The portrait will be on view on the National Portrait Gallery’s “Recognize” wall, on the museum’s first floor. A media open house will take place beginning at 11:30 a.m. Thursday, May 3.  Twitter, Instagram and Facebook posts of the photograph are welcome with the encouraged use of #myNPG. To further engage with the museum, the public can visit its galleries or follow it digitally at npg.si.edu, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and the museum’s blog.

In its sixth iteration, voters in the People’s Choice Contest were invited to choose between portraits of Anthony; American actress, singer and author Molly Ringwald; and Asian American television actor Daniel Dae Kim. In 2014, the Portrait Gallery created “Recognize” as an opportunity for audiences to select portraits from the museum’s collection that they would like to see on view. Twice a year, the museum proposes three portraits and invites the public to vote for its favorite.

Combining Latin rhythms, ballads and mainstream pop music, Anthony is one of today’s most significant crossover artists, having sold more than 12 million albums worldwide. This photograph shows the singer, who is of Puerto Rican heritage, just as he was hitting his stride with his first salsa records, which established him as one of the all-time top-selling artists in the genre. The image shows the singer with his arms extended and his head looking up at the sky, in a posture that conveys his natural and enduring stage presence. Anthony’s eponymous English album from 2000 went triple-platinum, heralding the beginning of a Latin pop explosion in the United States. Twenty years later, his success is undiminished; he won 10 awards at the 2014 Billboard Latin Music Awards, including for “Hot Latin Song” for his life-affirming “Vivir Mi Vida.”

National Portrait Gallery

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery tells the multifaceted story of the United States through the individuals who have shaped American culture. Spanning the visual arts, performing arts and new media, the Portrait Gallery portrays poets and presidents, visionaries and villains, actors and activists, whose lives tell the American story.

The National Portrait Gallery is part of the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture at Eighth and F streets N.W., Washington, D.C. Smithsonian Information: (202) 633-1000. Connect with the museum at npg.si.edu, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and the museum’s blog.

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SI-288-2018