Smithsonian Displays Obama Cupcake Art

POSTED: Sunday, February 15, 2009

WASHINGTON -- A double portrait of Presidents Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln faces the prospect of being eaten away -- not by the ravages of time, but by visitors to the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington.

Created by artist Zilly Rosen, the portrait titled "A New Birth of Freedom," is made of more than 5,600 yellow cupcakes with different colored icing. The 9-foot by 15-foot portrait is on display at the museum.

The public is invited to "de-install" the portrait by eating the cupcakes.

The museum said this is Rosen's second cupcake portrait of Obama. Rosen, who runs the Buffalo, N.Y. bakery Zillycakes, constructed a 1,200-cupcake portrait of Obama in November and set it up in his campaign headquarters in Buffalo.