The Primitive Portraitist

Morgan Monceaux, a troubled Vietnam vet, walked into a Long Island gallery one day in 1992, looked at the American primitive paintings on the wall, and said “I can do this.” Within a few weeks his portraits of 40 U.S. presidents were on that wall. It’s been a bumpy ride since, but he now has a one-man show in Baltimore and three paintings in the National Portrait Gallery.