Fullerton, Michael
The work of Michael Fullerton encompasses sculpture, printmaking and portrait painting, an apparently contradictory set of artistic approaches that are connected thematically by an interest in communication and the transfer of information in the modern age. The subject of Fullerton’s portrait is Katharine Graham (1917–2001), one of the first female media magnates in the United States. Graham acted as publisher and then chairwoman of the Washington Post between 1963 and 1991, a period during which the paper was at its most influential, famously breaking the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of Richard Nixon. Fullerton’s portrait suggests a traditional portrait painted from life, but was in fact created seven years after Graham’s death. This approach is part of Fullerton’s interest in oil painting and how it now sits within the wider spectrum of mass media and augments or competes with our understanding of image dissemination in the information age.
Katharine Graham
2008