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George W. Bush Releases New Book Featuring Paintings of Immigrants

This combination photo shows the cover image for "Out of Many, One: Portraits of America's Immigrants" by George W. Bush, left, and a photo of former President George W. Bush. (Crown via AP, Left, and AP)
This combination photo shows the cover image for "Out of Many, One: Portraits of America's Immigrants" by George W. Bush, left, and a photo of former President George W. Bush. (Crown via AP, Left, and AP)
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George W. Bush Releases New Book Featuring Paintings of Immigrants

This combination photo shows the cover image for "Out of Many, One: Portraits of America's Immigrants" by George W. Bush, left, and a photo of former President George W. Bush. (Crown via AP, Left, and AP)
This combination photo shows the cover image for "Out of Many, One: Portraits of America's Immigrants" by George W. Bush, left, and a photo of former President George W. Bush. (Crown via AP, Left, and AP)

Former President George W. Bush has stepped into the US debate on immigration, saying migrants are "a force for good" and arguing for a gradual process to allow undocumented immigrants to earn legal status.

Bush, a past governor of Texas -a border state heavily impacted by migration- made his points in an op-ed article in the Washington Post previewing his new book featuring portraits of immigrants done by Bush himself.

The book of the former US president is named "Out of Many, One: Portraits of America's Immigrants."

Bush, 74, self-deprecatingly says he knows his paintings "may not set the art world stirring," but by sharing the portraits of immigrants, each with "a remarkable story," he hoped "to humanize the debate on immigration and reform."

From Florent Groberg, a young French man who won the US Medal of Honor for his service in Afghanistan-- to the much better-known stories of two migrants, Madeleine Albright and Henry Kissinger, the portraits drawn by Bush reflect diversity in immigrants' careers.

"New Americans are just as much a force for good now, with their energy, idealism, and love of country, as they have always been," Bush writes.

His book comes as President Joe Biden, who had promised to ease Donald Trump's severe immigration crackdown, has struggled with an uncontrolled surge of migrants, the biggest in 15 years, coming through the country's southern borders.

"The help and respect historically accorded to new arrivals is one reason so many people still aspire and wait to become Americans. So how is it that in a country more generous to new arrivals than any other, immigration policy is the source of so much rancor and ill will?" Bush asked in his op-ed.

While offering no specific policy prescriptions, Bush advocates several steps including a path to citizenship for those brought to the US as children and known as "dreamers"; greater securing of the southern border; a modernized asylum system; and increased legal immigration to allow "talented people to bring their ideas and aspirations here."

As for the millions of undocumented migrants living in the US, Bush says that a grant of amnesty would be "fundamentally unfair" to those trying to come legally, but he adds that "undocumented immigrants should be brought out of the shadows through a gradual process in which legal residency and citizenship must be earned."

Applicants should have to pay a fine and back taxes, document their work history, demonstrate English proficiency and knowledge of US history and civics, and provide a clean background check.

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New York's Met Museum Sheds New Light on African Art Collection

A 13th-century sculpture from the Niger Delta in present-day Mali, on display at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. ANGELA WEISS / AFP
A 13th-century sculpture from the Niger Delta in present-day Mali, on display at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. ANGELA WEISS / AFP
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New York's Met Museum Sheds New Light on African Art Collection

A 13th-century sculpture from the Niger Delta in present-day Mali, on display at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. ANGELA WEISS / AFP
A 13th-century sculpture from the Niger Delta in present-day Mali, on display at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. ANGELA WEISS / AFP

From a delicate 13th-century clay figure to self-portraits by photographer Samuel Fosso, New York's Metropolitan Museum reopens its African art collection on Saturday, exploring the "complexity" of the past and looking to the present.

After a four-year renovation with a $70 million price tag, the reopening of the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing comes amid heated debate over the representation of cultural diversity in Western museums and the return of works to their countries of origin.

The reopening should be "an opportunity to recognize that the achievements of artists in this part of the world (sub-Saharan Africa) are equal to those of other major world traditions," Alisa LaGamma, the Met's curator for African art, told AFP.

In a spacious gallery bathed in light, visitors are greeted by a monumental Dogon sculpture -- "a heroic figure, likely a priest," LaGamma explained.

Next to it sits a clay sculpture of a curled body from the ancient city of Djenne-Djenno, in present-day Mali, which is believed to be one of the oldest pieces in the collection, dating back to the 13th century.

'Complex history'

The exhibit does not present the works of sub-Saharan Africa as a single unit, but in chapters to better distinguish between the various cultures.

"We don't want people to oversimplify their understanding of an incredibly complex history," LaGamma said.

"There are over 170 different cultures represented among the 500 works of African art on display," she pointed out.

"That gives you a sense of how many different stories there are to tell in this presentation."

The museum wing, which also displays arts of Oceania and the "ancient Americas" -- prior to European colonization -- opened in 1982 after former Republican vice president and philanthropist Nelson Rockefeller donated his monumental collection. It is named for his son.

"This is a collection that was formed essentially following independence in a lot of what were new nations across sub-Saharan Africa," LaGamma said.

"It doesn't have necessarily the heavy weight of a collection that was formed under colonialism," she said, hinting at the pressure faced by many museums to respond to questions about the origins of works on display.

'African Spirits'

A third of the works shown here were newly acquired. The museum was thus able to benefit from a donation of thousands of photographs from the renowned Arthur Walther collection.

Among the vast trove of pieces donated is a 2008 series of self-portraits entitled "African Spirits" by Fosso, a Cameroonian-Nigerian photographer.

Among Africa's leading photographers, Fosso poses as major figures in African independence and civil rights struggles, from Congolese independence leader and first prime minister Patrice Lumumba to Nelson Mandela and Malcolm X.

Through around a dozen films directed by Ethiopian-American artist Sosena Solomon, visitors can also explore iconic cultural sites across the continent, like Tsodilo rock paintings in Botswana, the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela and Tigray in Ethiopia, and the tombs of Buganda kings at Kasubi in Uganda.

"In an art museum like this, it is important that rock paintings should be reflected," said Phillip Segadika, chief curator for archeology and monuments at Botswana's national museum, in residence at the Met to participate in the project.

"It tells us that what we are seeing today, whether it's in European art, medieval art, whatever -- it has a history, it also has an antiquity."