George W. Bush: A president’s self-portraits
A hacker released a trove of information stolen from the former president’s emails, and among the discoveries was a pair of self-portraits.
I never thought I’d say this, said art critic Jerry Saltz in NYMag.com, but “I like something about George W. Bush. A lot.” Last week, a hacker released a trove of information stolen from the former president’s emails, and among the discoveries was a pair of self-portraits painted by Bush since leaving office. One depicts Bush in the shower, his naked back toward the viewer, that famous “empty, happy gaze” reflected in a shaving mirror. The other depicts the former president’s splayed legs and feet in a bathtub, as seen from Bush’s own point of view, with the faucet still filling the tub. The paintings are simple, but reveal an unguarded Bush in his own private universe—“a man who saw the entire world from the inside.” People spent eight long years trying to fathom the contents of Bush’s seemingly incurious mind, said Oliver Burkeman in Guardian.co.uk, and here now is a glimpse. There is something affecting about the “lack of grandiosity” in these simple self-portraits that helps us “inch (slightly) toward empathy.”
I find the paintings “strangely heartbreaking,” said Bruce Handy in VanityFair.com. The recurring bathing theme suggests a need for absolution, as if Bush is trying, like Lady Macbeth, to wash the blood of Iraq from his hands and the guilt of 9/11 and Katrina from his conscience. Yet because Bush depicted himself in this “fragmented and oblique” way, his paintings also give us a sense of a man still trying to evade full scrutiny—the viewer’s and perhaps even his own. Yet that “mirror’s reflection is relentless, inescapable,” said Clare Malone in Prospect.org. However Bush tries to hide, or to regain his innocence by baptizing himself clean, these self-portraits suggest he’s a man who knows he “cannot escape his past.”
Good Lord, spare me this liberal psychobabble, said Jill Lawrence in NationalJournal.com. Bush started painting when he left office in 2009, and self-portraits “are not the only types of art he’s been producing.” Bush himself recently released a “shockingly good” portrait of his late dog Barney, and has painted several Texas landscapes, none of which support the themes of “cleansing and redemption.” Whether or not Bush paints in pursuit of post-presidential peace, said Elspeth Reeve in TheAtlantic.com, his art sure does have therapeutic value. Look how it’s helping liberals who once despised him “work out the lingering traumas of the 2000s.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
How much can you save shopping secondhand?
The Explainer Many Americans are buying pre-owned items to counteract the effects of inflation
By Becca Stanek, The Week US Published
-
Downtown St. Louis is in a real estate 'doom loop'
Under the Radar The city is ripe with abandoned buildings and vacant lots, with its real estate market in dire straits
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
TV to watch in May, from 'Bridgerton' to 'Black Twitter: A People's History'
The Week Recommends The return of an HBO staple, a new series from the filmmaker behind 'Tiger King,' and more
By Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, The Week US Published
-
Arizona court reinstates 1864 abortion ban
Speed Read The law makes all abortions illegal in the state except to save the mother's life
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Trump, billions richer, is selling Bibles
Speed Read The former president is hawking a $60 "God Bless the USA Bible"
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
The debate about Biden's age and mental fitness
In Depth Some critics argue Biden is too old to run again. Does the argument have merit?
By Grayson Quay Published
-
How would a second Trump presidency affect Britain?
Today's Big Question Re-election of Republican frontrunner could threaten UK security, warns former head of secret service
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
'Rwanda plan is less a deterrent and more a bluff'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By The Week UK Published
-
Henry Kissinger dies aged 100: a complicated legacy?
Talking Point Top US diplomat and Nobel Peace Prize winner remembered as both foreign policy genius and war criminal
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Last updated
-
Trump’s rhetoric: a shift to 'straight-up Nazi talk'
Why everyone's talking about Would-be president's sinister language is backed by an incendiary policy agenda, say commentators
By The Week UK Published
-
More covfefe: is the world ready for a second Donald Trump presidency?
Today's Big Question Republican's re-election would be a 'nightmare' scenario for Europe, Ukraine and the West
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published