“Kent Twitchell, whose larger-than-life paintings cover entire walls and sides of freeways, said he planned to “bookend” two sections of the wall with portraits of President John F. Kennedy, who denounced the barrier in a Berlin speech in 1961, and President Ronald Reagan, who famously demanded, “Tear down this wall!” shortly before it came down in 1989.
But as he rushed to finish the portraits, Twitchell said he was told by organizers that he could leave one of the paintings in his studio: There was no room for both.
“They said there would only be room for one and they just assumed it would be Kennedy,” the disappointed artist said this week as he continued to work at putting the final touches on the Reagan one.”
They eventually found room for both, obvs, just in time for the ceremony tonight (I took the picture around 4:00). That’s Twitchell talking to the lady with the dog.
Update: Looking at the Wende Musem gallery, it looks like they made room by cutting out half of JFK & RR’s faces.
