Heather Curtis
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON (WMAL) – People will be able to pay their respects to the late Aretha Franklin at the National Portrait Gallery Friday when her portrait goes on display in the museum’s In Memoriam space on the first floor.
The portrait is a color lithographic poster by graphic designer Milton Glaser that appeared as an inset in Eye magazine – a quarterly print magazine on graphic design – in 1968, the year the National Portrait Gallery opened.
“You can see she’s singing, and you can just feel the passion and power of her singing not only through her facial expression but through this sort of burst of color and energy radiating around her,” said museum curator Robyn Aslesson.
The poster is an original one saved by a teenager and acquired by the museum in 2011 according to Aslesson. It will be on Display through Wednesday Aug. 22. Aslesson expects thousand of people to stop in to see it.
This is not the first time the museum is honoring the Queen of Soul. In 2015, the 18 time Grammy Award winner received the museum’s Portrait of a Nation Prize. She also performed at the inaugural American Portrait Gala singing “Respect,” “Freedom” and “Chain of Fools.”
“The voice of Aretha Franklin—unmistakably familiar for its depth, range, and emotional power—has shaped American soul and pop music since her first commercial success in the late 1960s,” said a press release issued by the museum in 2015 when Franklin received that prize.
Among other honors Franklin was given in D.C. was the Kennedy Center Honor in 1994.
“She’s been back to the Kennedy Center many times, and we consider Aretha part of the family here,” wrote Kennedy Center President Deborah Rutter in a statement.
Then in 2015, she performed “Natural Woman” at the Kennedy Center honors, bringing President Barack Obama to tears.
“That moment, at the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors, when she performed ‘Natural Woman’ as part of the tribute to Carole King was just – WOW,” Rutter wrote.
Franklin herself was brought to tears when she was awarded the Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush during a ceremony at the White House in 2005.
Copyright 2018 by WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved. (PHOTO: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution)
