Simmie Lee Knox was born on August 18, 1935. He is an American painter who painted the official White House portrait of former United States President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton. He was the first black American artist to receive a presidential portrait commission. Early life Simmie Knox was born to Simmie Knox Sr., a carpenter and mechanic, and Amelia Knox. At a young age Simmie’s parents divorced and he was sent to live on his aunt and uncle’s sharecropper farm with his eight cousins in Leroy, Alabama. At age 13 he was hit in the eye by a baseball while playing a game, and it was suggested that drawing would aid his recovery. His segregated school did not have an art program, but the Catholic nuns who taught him recognized his talent and found someone to teach him. He attended Central High School in Mobile. Subsequently, Knox studied at Delaware State College while working in a textile factory. He then enrolled at Tyler School of Art in Pennsylvania, where he attained his masters degree. Art Knox began his career teaching at the Bowie State College, Maryland and the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington D.C. He painted still lifes and sold them on a market stall. On leaving college abstract art was in vogue. He continued in this style through the 1970s before committing himself to portraiture in 1981. “With abstract painting I didn’t feel the challenge. The face is the most complicated thing there is. The challenge is finding that thing, that makes it different from another face,” he later said. He has painted many notable figures such as Muhammad Ali, and Supreme Court Justices Thurgood Marshall and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, before coming to the attention of the White House. In 2000 he was selected to create a portrait of President Bill Clinton. He became the first black American painter to paint an official portrait of an American president. The paintings of Bill and Hillary Clinton took two years to complete, finished in 2002 and unveiled in June 2004. As a professional artist Knox works from a small converted garage next to his home in Silver Spring, Maryland. Knox has been described as “the unofficial portraitist for trailblazing African Americans”. In 2013 a short film was created and shown about Knox’s life, by the Delaware Humanities Forum. 7 “I think that a good portrait is the most difficult thing for an artist to bring off successfully. Not only must you get an accurate likeness, but you must create a good painting. . . you must convey a subject’s character and spirit. ---Simmie Knoxs
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