The Daily Swarm

Paste:

“We’re not trying to say that this is a comprehensive show about hip-hop and its history,” says Brandon Fortune, a curator of painting and sculpture who co-organized the show with fellow curators Frank Goodyear and Jobyl Boone. “It’s hip-hop through the lens of portraiture, which is what we do.”

Recognize! is the first large-scale hip-hop installation to hang on Smithsonian walls, but the National Portrait Gallery is not alone in its attempt to bring this living, street-based artform into the confines of a museum. In 2006, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History launched a massive campaign to collect hip-hop memorabilia, which netted Grandmaster Flash’s turntables, Fab Five Freddy’s boom box, and a mixture of cheers and jeers from editorials and blogs. Exhibitions at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Brooklyn Museum have also displayed the genre’s artifacts, raising questions about what this new relationship between hip-hop and the museum world will mean for either party.

AP:

Legs crossed and fingers splayed, LL Cool J strikes the same regal pose seen in John D. Rockefeller’s 1917 portrait—though he wears a ball cap.

LL Cool J and dozens of other hip-hop artists are being catapulted into the National Portrait Gallery with the likes of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Some of the artists, including Ice T and Big Daddy Kane, are portrayed with the same power and royalty as kings and presidents long passed.

The new exhibit, RECOGNIZE! Hip Hop and Contemporary Portraiture, will be on view through October. It’s the first Smithsonian Institution exhibit to examine the influence of hip-hop music and style on American art and culture. The show, featuring four large graffiti murals and galleries with paintings, photography and video portraits, sits in contrast to the museum’s nearby American Origins, with portraits dating to the 1600s.