HUD's "Grand Manner Style" portraits

From the Danbury Connecticut NewsTimes.com

NEWTOWN -- Last September, local artist Daniel Duffy was under the gun to complete a five-portrait commission for the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development by mid-October.

"I was going loony, working 18-hour days," he said of painting pictures of HUD's current secretary and his four predecessors.

But he met the deadline and on Wednesday, the paintings, which range in size from 30 by 40 inches to 30 by 48 inches, will be unveiled in HUD's Washington headquarters.

They represent a renewal of a portraiture tradition that lapsed during the George H.W. Bush and William J. Clinton administrations.

The article goes on to say that Duffy had "received an e-mail from HUD officials last June asking if he would be interested in submitting a proposal for a portrait of its current secretary, Alphonso Jackson." He sent off a proposal and quote of $20,000 for the portrait. HUD responded that for that price "they wanted a frame included." In the end Duffy earned $100,000 because....

HUD also wanted portraits of Jackson's four predecessors, Mel Martinez, who served under the current President Bush; Clinton appointees Henry Cisneros and Andrew Cuomo; and Jack Kemp, secretary under President George H.W. Bush.

The paintings were to be done in the grand manner style -- formal three-quarter portraits, ornately framed. (my emphasis)

Now with all the money the Bush administration has squandered I suppose what's another $100K? But when I read of the concern that payday loans at interest rates "as high as 800 percent" are exacerbating the housing crisis and I read how economists are staring into the abyss pondering its depth and I read that the last hope in a weak economy for some people in their 50's is to move back in with their parents...... well somehow "grand manner style" portraits "ornately framed" seems just a bit in our face. Not to mention the  irony of Alphonso Jackson's apparent hopes to hang on the walls of HUD forevah given the investigations into possible cronyism and corruption and recent calls for his resignation from members of the Senate.

WTF is wrong with these people?

Comments

[pansypoo]

portraitist need work too.
i should get on that gravee train. 16 hour days? waaaaay too anal.