Repetition—multiples, that is—and vagueness, were Andy Warhol’s stock in trade. In his choice of subjects for his photo-based portraits, by electing to portray world leaders of every stripe, he ensured that his own political views remained obscure.

He made portraits of liberals like Robert F. Kennedy and Jimmy Carter. But he also made portraits of Ronald Regan, Richard M. Nixon, and the Shah of Iran. For the Nixon picture, done at the time of the 1972 presidential elections, Warhol wrote, “Vote George McGovern” at the bottom of the silkscreened print. When applauded for making a partisan joke, he said, “The idea was you could vote either way.”

Warhol upset the balance between ideological commitment and political hero worship by playing all sides at once. For him, surface was everything. Depth and discovery? Not so much. 

One of Warhol’s conceptual offspring is Robb Pruitt, the artist who created the shimmering chrome-plated Andy Monument, which was installed at the crossroads of Warhol’s universe, Union Square, a few years ago. Pruitt began making portraits of President Barack Obama since the morning after his election in 2009. Each one is based on the most recent images of the president cresting the waves of the Internet. Pruitt projects his chosen image onto ready-made 24-by-24-inch canvasses and renders the portrait in white paint onto backgrounds in muted American flag colors that he paints in batches.

In a recent interview for Modern Painters magazine, Pruitt said that he thinks of both his consistent painting regimen and the presidency as being akin to endurance performance art: “I never missed a day, just as he doesn’t miss a day.” He intends to continue the daily paintings until Obama departs the White House. The finished work will comprise 2,922 paintings, incorporating such seminal events as his first State of the Union address to seemingly mundane activities.

Robb Pruitt | The Obama Paintings and The Lincoln Monument opened on Friday at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, where it continues through August 2. 4454 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, andy Warhol monumentMI. Information.