An ambitious portrait gallery spanning America's entire executive history has arrived at Goldman Sachs' headquarters in lower Manhattan. Artist Salvatore Catalano has created 47 presidential portraits, each paired with a defining quote from the man who held the office.
The exhibition draws its power from an intentional pairing: Catalano selected remarks that either captured the essence of an era or revealed something fundamental about the individual president. He then let those words guide his artistic choices in color, shadow, and composition.
For George Washington, Catalano chose the cautionary line from his farewell address: "Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism," delivered in September 1796. John Adams gets a gentler, more personal touch through words Adams wrote to his daughter Abigail: "To be good, and to do good, is all we have to do." Thomas Jefferson's portrait carries his conviction about press freedom: "Where the press is free ... all is safe."
The three most recent presidents round out the display with contemporary resonance. Barack Obama's quote, "We are the change that we seek," comes from his Super Tuesday speech in 2008. Joe Biden is represented by a reflection on resilience: "The art of living is simply getting up after you've been knocked down," spoken during his first campaign. Donald Trump's selection reads as a promise: "Our golden age has just begun," from his second inaugural address.
Catalano, who has devoted decades to developing a signature style in portraiture, explained the urgency behind the project. "Most Americans can't name the presidents, much less tell you what they look like," he told Axios. "We look at a list of names, but there's no color there. There's no brilliance, no blood."
Finding the right quote for each president required deep research. "My job is to find things that nobody else knows about these people," Catalano said. For Washington, he deliberately bypassed the most famous lines to land on something more unconventional that still spoke to him.
The full exhibition displays all 47 portraits framed by two flags: the 13-star Betsy Ross flag on the left and the modern 50-star flag on the right, a visual bookend to American history.
The Goldman Sachs lobby installation runs through August before moving to Washington.
Author James Rodriguez: "Matching presidents to their own words is a clever way to dodge hagiography, but the real test is whether people actually stop to read them."
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