George W. Bush marks 9/11 anniversary with painting exhibition

Twenty-five years after the September 11, 2001 attacks that came to define his presidency, former US president George W. Bush – now an avid painter – is showing 16 works inspired by that day, in a new exhibition at his presidential library in Dallas, Texas.

The show opens with a painting of Lower Manhattan shrouded in thick grey smoke beneath a clear blue sky, depicting the moment after both World Trade Center towers collapsed following the impact of two hijacked passenger jets, Elodie Soignard writes for AFP.

Bush, who had been in office for less than eight months when the attacks occurred, is described in the exhibition's introduction as having returned to this defining moment in American history through brush and canvas, capturing the symbols, the people and the embraces that have stayed with him ever since.

It is the latest in a series of collections produced by the 80-year-old former president, who took up painting several years after leaving the White House in 2009.

Earlier exhibitions have focused on portraits of veterans from the wars launched in the aftermath of 9/11, and on American immigrants.

Bush himself appears in around half of the 16 paintings, which range from widely recognised moments – such as being told by an aide that a second plane had struck the World Trade Center – to quieter, more personal scenes, including one showing him holding his father, former president George H.W. Bush, by the hand.

Running through the surprisingly colourful series is the recurring motif of the American flag. It is barely visible in the opening painting of the attack on Manhattan, fills the frame entirely in a work depicting the Pentagon – struck by a third hijacked aircraft – and appears again, held aloft by first responders, in another piece.

The exhibition frames these as the moments Bush remembers most vividly: not fear, but resolve; not despair, but the instinct of ordinary Americans to come together and help one another.

The attacks were followed by an extraordinary surge of patriotism across the United States, with flags displayed nationwide and Bush's approval ratings reaching record highs. His popularity would later fall sharply amid growing opposition to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the economic fallout of the global financial crisis.

Visitors to the exhibition described being struck by its emotional register. Educator Farran Burnette, 40, said the paintings brought back not just memories of the attacks themselves but of the unity that followed, adding that knowing the artist had been president at the time gave the works “a different kind of weight” and made seeing events through his eyes “really, really powerful”.

Seventeen-year-old student Anna Catherine Duplantis, who was born after the attacks, said Bush's unpolished, non-realist style helped connect her to the period, describing the work as raw and able to channel emotion in a way that felt more powerful than a more polished, cinematic depiction might have.

Beyond the attacks on New York and the Pentagon, a fourth hijacked aircraft crashed in a field in Pennsylvania after passengers stormed the cockpit. The attacks officially claimed 2,977 lives, with thousands more deaths attributed to 9/11-related illness.