“Family Portrait 2026”

by Kenneth Michael Zeran

The Giclee series “Family Portrait 2026” by the American artist Kenneth Michael Zeran commemorates the 250th Anniversary Celebration of The United States of America.

It is a companion piece to a widely acclaimed artwork Zeran did in 1976 on the Bicentennial. Many thousands of prints were reproduced and made available. The artwork was collected and exhibited nationally- The John F Kennedy Center for The Performing Arts, Philadelphia Civic Center Museum, New York City Cultural Archives, Fraunces Tavern, American Heritage's "American Experience" in Washington D.C, The White House, Philadelphia '76 Salute to the States Exhibit, Philadelphia Civic Center Museum, The South Street Seaport Museum in New York, Associated American Artists, The American Photograph Corporation, The New York City Bicentennial Centers, the USO in Japan, South Korea and West Germany, The Boy Scouts of America and many others.

Zeran commented on the current work. "I wanted to address the fifty years following the 1976 piece in a non-political manner. An artist is an observor of performance. To accomplish this I looked to my dualist instincts and created what appears on the surface to be a familiar representational image. However, it is actually a Dada experience. Marcel Duchamp, the master of Dada and also Picasso, became interested in the Fourth Dimension. That is what is happening in this artwork. The execution of the art is in the control of the observor. I have simply prepared an objective set of criteria. The emotioanl reaction provides it's meaniing and serves as an introspective discovery. It will be different for every observor which, in mass, brings about the duality of today's American experience. A country divided but tied to the same principles."

"Genius from The Age of Enlightenment gave America its Constitution. The First Amendment appears in the red stripes while the Second Amendment is repeated in the white and the identical star fields appear at opposite ends- all tied together in one body. Perhaps this is the conumdrum and Catch 22 the country finds through dissension."

Continental Congress defined the flag: "White signifies purity and innocence: Red signfies hardiness and valor. Blue signifies vigilance, perseverance and justice.". George Washington added "We take the stars from heaven, the red from our Mother Country, separating it by white stripes, thus showing that we have separated from her. The white stripes shall go down to posterity representing liberty."

Adroit Media
2026