More of That Change / Obamas Want Diverse Modern Art in White House, Want Older Stuff Out

As went the bust of Churchill...

Obama brightens up the White House

With modern tastes and a mission to promote diversity, the President's art collection signals a break with tradition. Arifa Akbar reports

Saturday, 4 July 2009

Richard Diebenkorn, Berkeley No. 52, 1955, oil on canvas: Critically acclaimed 20th century American painter. His early work is associated with Abstract Expressionism; his later work (best known as the Ocean Park paintings) was instrumental to his acclaim. The Obamas have the robustly coloured Berkeley No. 52 in their living quarters. " height="335" width="300">

Richard Diebenkorn, Berkeley No. 52, 1955, oil on canvas: Critically acclaimed 20th century American painter. His early work is associated with Abstract Expressionism; his later work (best known as the Ocean Park paintings) was instrumental to his acclaim. The Obamas have the robustly coloured Berkeley No. 52 in their living quarters.

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With every new administration comes a new era and with it, a new art collection to reflect the shifting sands of American cultural politics. In the Clinton years, it was a frothy portrait of Mamie Eisenhower clad in a pink debutante ballgown that took pride of place on the imperial walls of the White House. George Bush fancied the more muscular patriotism of George Caitlin's "wild frontier" paintings.

Now, America's first black President has made clear that he wishes to add a splash of colour to the walls of Washington's First House. Barack Obama is extending his push for diversity to the White House's art collection, The Art Newspaper revealed this week, with the launch of a campaign that will replace the fustiness of the existing collection with works by "more diverse" artists.

Discreet approaches have been made to dealers and collectors who represent black, Hispanic and Asian artists as well as female painters to redress the current dearth; of the 400 pieces in the White House's permanent art collection purchased over the centuries, only five are by black artists.

The President has already shown that his artistic proclivities tend towards modern and contemporary painters such as Ed Ruscha and Jasper Johns: on inauguration day, the National Gallery of Art furnished the presidential living quarters with a wealth of loans, including John's 1969 lead relief, Numerals, 0 Through 9 and Ruscha's I Think I'll ...

Now, the First Lady's office, which is handling the White House's art outreach effort, has enlisted the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden to lend them paintings by modern artists, from Glenn Ligon, a Bronx-born artist whose work traces the experience of a gay African-American, to Alma Thomas, the first African American woman to have a solo art exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1971.

The Obama's foray into acquiring artworks by female and non-white artists – much of it through long term loans – has been met by shock and enthusiasm in equal measures in America's artistic circles, and their choices to remove some of the older artworks is viewed as a deeply symbolic gesture.

More symbolism over substance. Awesome!

Read the rest here:
Obama brightens up the White House - News, Art - The Independent