‘We’re Just So Crazy in Love With Her We Had to Do It!’: The National Portrait Gallery Acquires a Portrait of Beyoncé

Alert the Bey-hive: the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery
in Washington, DC, has confirmed that it is acquiring photographer
Tyler Mitchell’s portrait of Beyoncé, which originally appeared on
the cover of Vogue.

Mitchell became the first black photographer to shoot a cover
for Vogue magazine’s coveted September issue last
year, and the 24-year-old artist marked the one-year anniversary
with another headline-making announcement:

“A year ago today we broke the flood gates open,” Mitchell
wrote on Twitter. “Now I’m glad to share
this picture is being acquired into the Smithsonian National
Portrait Gallery’s permanent collection.”

The museum responded in a Tweet: “We’re
just so crazy in love with her that we had to do it!”

The museum’s associate curator of photography, Leslie Ureña,
confirmed the news. “We are thrilled to acquire this magnificent
portrait of Beyoncé,” she said in a statement. “This acquisition
will allow us to document a significant shift in the history of
fashion photography through the depiction of a key figure in
American culture.”

Ureña went on to quote Beyoncé’s own words from
the Vogue issue, in which she said, “‘Until there is
a mosaic of perspectives coming from different ethnicities behind
the lens, we will continue to have a narrow approach and view of
what the world actually looks like. That is why I wanted to work
with this brilliant 23-year-old photographer Tyler Mitchell.’”

At the museum, Mitchell’s photograph of Knowles will join a
2003 poster promoting her
album Dangerously in Love, making it the second
portrait of the singer in the permanent collection of “23,000
likenesses of figures who have altered the course of American
history,” according to Ureña.

Bey and her husband, Jay-Z, are also no strangers to museums.
Last year they took over the Louvre in Paris to film their music
video, “Apeshit,” sparking so much interest that the museum
launched a special tour leading visitors around to each of the
artworks referenced in the video.

Portrait Gallery staff curators have yet to decide when and
where the work will go on view. But when that does happen, expect
visitors to go apeshit.

The post ‘We’re Just So Crazy in Love With Her We Had to Do
It!’: The National Portrait Gallery Acquires a Portrait of
Beyoncé appeared first on artnet News.