The National Portrait Gallery unveils First Lady Laura Bush’s
portrait
by Gallery Shoal Creek artist Aleksander Titovets
On
December 19th, Aleksander Titovets, his wife Lyuba and their
two daughters attended the unveiling of First Lady Laura Bush’s
portrait at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.
Sasha, as Aleksander is fondly called, has lived in El Paso
since coming to the United States in 1992,
My good friend, Adair Margo, who's Chairman of the President's
Committee on the Arts and Humanities, introduced me to
Sasha's paintings last year, said Mrs. Bush. Sasha
was born in Russia, and he brings an Old World style to
his work in the United States. The nostalgia of his portraits
and landscapes is striking. And I was especially happy
to invite an artist from my mother's childhood home of
El Paso, Texas, to paint my portrait.
Jovial and never without words, Sasha was speechless when
he was contacted in the fall of 2007 by the White House. In
1992, the Titovets left their homeland and the city of St.
Petersburg where they had each studied and begun their artist
pursuits. Sixteen years later, he was invited to the White
House to meet the First Lady. It is an extraordinary honor
for the Russian who came to this country with twenty-five dollars,
painted garage doors when he first arrived in El Paso , and
in a few short years achieved national recognition as a artist.
At the unveiling, Mrs. Bush turned to Titovets, Sasha,
I hope you finally told your mother about your latest accomplishment.
Sasha said that he postponed telling his mother when his
work was chosen for this portrait. He thought the news
might be "too big" for her. And history shows
us that these assignments can sometime turn out poorly.
Years ago, Peter Hurd was commissioned to paint Lyndon
B. Johnson's portrait for the official White House collection.
President Johnson took one look at the final portrait and
declared it the "ugliest thing he'd ever seen." Across
Washington, the joke spread at Hurd's expense that artists
should be seen, but not Hurd, at the White House. Peter
Hurd's portrait of President Johnson now hangs here in
the National Portrait Gallery.
Sasha Titovets had no reason to anticipate similar criticism, said
Ms. Bush. As you can see, his talent shines.
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