Drawing Bin Laden, Before and After Death

RIDGEFIELD PRESS
By Macklin Reid

"This is not a portrait" (2011) by James Esber

CONNECTICUT- Since January, Osama bin Laden’s face has glared out from the walls of The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum on Main Street. New York artist James Esber’s ‘This is not a portrait’ exhibition features more than 100 drawings of Bin Laden’s face, created by a variety of people he invited to trace from and remake a drawing he’d done, based on a familiar photo image of Bin Laden. He is interested in the way common media images take on a life of their own. [link]