Bruce attends The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery Gala in Washington, D.C.
Earth, Wind & Fire was honored at the 2019 Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery Gala on Sunday, November 17th, 2019. Bruce’s portrait of the band is now hanging in the gallery.
Bruce’s comments: Thank You Chris McElrath for creating the beautiful 30” X 40″ print. Regina Jones, Publisher of SOUL Newspaper. You introduced me to Maurice White, founder of Earth, Wind & Fire. And Thank You to Maurice for coming up with the idea for this portrait in 1978. He asked me to make the guys look like Super Heroes.
Here’s a portion of the Vogue article on the event…
A tour of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery will have you face-to-face with the presidential likenesses of Lincoln and Washington, along with hundreds of other pioneers and mavericks like Mary Cassatt, Rosa Parks, and Leonard Bernstein. But through August 30, the famous Washington, D.C., museum will exhibit six new portraits of contemporary luminaries. There’s Frances Arnold (scientist, engineer, and Nobel Laureate); Jeff Bezos (Amazon magnate); Philip Bailey, Verdine White, Ralph Johnson, and the late Maurice White (of Earth, Wind & Fire); Lin-Manuel Miranda (famed Hamilton composer, lyricist, and actor); Indra Nooyi (former PepsiCo CEO); and our very own Anna Wintour.
The portraits were created by such artists and photographers as Katy Grannan, Robert McCurdy, Bruce W. Talamon, Mark Seliger, Jon R. Friedman, and Annie Leibovitz, and were presented last night at the 2019 American Portrait Gala.
To read the entire article, click here.
The photo of Bruce with his portrait of Earth, Wind & Fire (Photographed by Ryan Kobane/BFA.com)