During the television series that inspired these paintings, Lahav observed that contenders such as scientist Jonas Salk, one of the inventors of the polio vaccine, were not ultimately selected as “Great Americans.” To Lahav, the outcome reflected our tendency to champion those whose images are everywhere, and influenced his exploration of portraiture and history in The Great Americans.

Lahav found much to contemplate in Salk, who left a conflicted legacy. Following his discovery, Salk was both acclaimed by the general public as a humanitarian and criticized by the scientific community, which perceived him as grabbing media attention and not giving credit to fellow researchers. Today, the injected vaccine Salk invented has been largely displaced by an orally-administered live version developed by his rival Albert Sabin. Lahav depicts Salk with his second wife, artist Françoise Gilot, the former partner of Pablo Picasso. The harlequin check on Salk’s shirt references a common motif for Picasso, from whose stature Gilot sought to distance herself by moving to America. Pairing Salk with Gilot amid competing patterns, Lahav suggests the push and pull of their complex legacies and relationships to fame.