The official portrait of former Gov. Tim Pawlenty was unveiled Monday night and is being hung today in a hallway of the state Capitol, on the ground floor in the west wing at the south corridor leading to the Great Hall.
Do you think it looks like him?
Rossin, a one-name Bulgarian artist with an international reputation, painted the Pawlenty portrait.
It joins the gallery of paintings of the state’s previous 38 governors. Many of the others included symbols important to the governor: Jesse Ventura has his hand on a replica of “The Thinker” statue, with dark, swirling skies in the background; Arne Carlson is wearing a University of Minnesota letter jacket; Rudy Perpich is with his wife, Lola.
The Pawlenty portrait has no symbols. And I’m not sure his face really looks like that.
From MPR, 2010: “The cost of the portrait – between $25,000 and $30,000 – will be paid with funds from the Governor’s Office budget.”
Our next budget cut. An archival quality photographic portrait by a Minnesota photographer should be more than adequate to the task, i.e., to hang in a darkened hallway for future generations of school children to ignore.
You asked if we felt it looked like him. I saw photo of it earlier and my first thought was … it doesn’t look like him. There is no emotion or life in his face. It almost seems fitting as I feel he really was a candidate for President more than a Governor of Minnesota.
Yikes, if this is supposed to be TPaw, I can only imagine how creepy the portrait of Dayton will be.
How would the artist know which Pawlenty to paint? During his campaign Pawlenty was all over the map trying to be someone he isn’t. He tried fiscal conservative, topnotch governor, budget balancer, job creator, etc. and the citizens of Minnesota could not recognize him because he was none of those. I think the portrait we got is like a Betty Crocker portrait. Betty Crocker is actually made up of features from multiple people. I guess the painter did get it right.
He looks like a well dressed ganster. As we all know he was the “Godfather” for the Republican party and the USA is safe now that he has failed in his run for President. His legacy of what he REALLY did to MN is sick and sad.