Summary: Bill and Melinda Gates portrait -- discussion by artist Jon Friedman. Jon Friedman discusses his portrait of Bill and Melinda Gates in the exhibition "Recent Aquisitions" and the process he used to create the work. Friedman grew up in Northern Virginia and is currently based in New York City and Truro, Massachusetts. His work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions around the country. Many of his portrait subjects are leaders in the worlds of science, medicine, and technology, including David Baltimore, Maxine Singer, Harold Varmus, and Charles Vest. His work is in many private and institutional collections, including the American Philosophical Society, the Carnegie Institute of Washington, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Institutes of Health, the National Portrait Gallery, the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and the Royal Society. This portrait of Bill and Melinda Gates was commissioned for the museum through the Marc Pachter Commissioning Fund, which was established in honor of a former director of the museum. Recorded at NPG, May 17, 2011. Image: Bill and Melinda Gates / Jon R. Friedman (born 1947) / Oil and collage on canvas attached to wood panel / 127.3 x 117.2cm (50 1/8 x 46 1/8") / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; acquired through the Marc Pachter Commissioning Fund
