Ransom Riggs
What’s New on the White House Walls
by Ransom Riggs - July 17, 2009 - 7:04 AM

Hopefully, what you put on your walls (besides paint) should do more than just match the couch — it should make a statement about who you are. For years, the paintings that adorn the walls of the White House have remained more or less the same: American landscapes and portraits of Dead White Guys being the norm. But now, president Obama is shaking up more than just economic and health care policy — he’s also changing what’s on the walls. The Obamas are still on the hunt for all the art they want to hang — the call is out for works by female, African-American and Asian-American artists, and galleries and private collectors are eagerly opening up their catalogs — but a few pieces have already been chosen. Here’s what new on the walls of the White House.

Ed Ruscha’s “I Think I’ll …” (1983)
This bold, abstract work from Los Angeles-based artist Ed Ruscha (roo-SHAY) comes from a painter known for using unconventional materials in his work, from gunpowder and vegetable juices to blood. It might just fit the personality of an unconventional president — one who’s known for bouts of contemplation.
WK-AP851_obamaa_G_20090521155343

“Watusi (Hard Edge),” 1963
Another abstract painting, this one from African-American artist Alma Thomas. From The Independent: “A prominent abstract painter of the 1960s and 1970s and the first African-American woman to have a solo art exhibition at New York’s Whitney Museum. Born in Columbus in 1891, racist attitudes and a poor education system for African-Americans at that time hampered her childhood, but she excelled at architectural drawing.”
30-obama3_206203s

“Numerals: 0 through 9,” by Jasper Johns (1961)
From the Tate Gallery’s website: “In the 1950s, Johns began using flags, targets and numbers as the basis of his paintings. These were ordinary familiar things, but also had an iconic, emblematic quality. This work is one of a series that he undertook in the summer of 1960, using the superimposed numbers 0 to 9. Johns let the process of painting the number sequence dictate the structure of the painting. This allowed him to concentrate on the qualities of the paint itself, exploring colour and thickness. The result is a highly abstract structure, but one rooted firmly in the real world.”
T00454_9

“Berkeley, No. 52,” by Richard Diebenkorn
A 20th-century abstract expressionist, Diebenkorn had his studio in the Santa Monica neighborhood where I now live, and named his most famous series of paintings — abstract interpretations of the view out his studio window — after it. Here’s Obama’s painting (not my neighborhood):

richard-diebenkorn-berkeley-n-52-1955-ost

And here’s one of his “Ocean Park” paintings — a pretty accurate rendition of my street, I must say.Cityscape_I_360

« Previous Post   -   Next Post »
Click here to get a Risk-Free issue of mental_floss magazine
Comments (9)

  1. It’s so great that the Obama’s have the courage to shake up the status quo. These works will look GREAT in the “People’s House.”

    posted by lulu on 7-17-2009 at 9:49 am

  2. Good thing he got rid of the Churchill bust as well. That was sooo tacky. Seeing how he has such a little understanding of history it is no surprise he would put up abstract art.

    posted by Hurricane on 7-17-2009 at 11:00 am

  3. From the Daily Telegraph:

    “American politicians have made quoting Churchill, whose mother was American, something of an art form, but not Mr Obama, who prefers to cite the words and works of his hero Abraham Lincoln. Indeed a bust of Mr Lincoln now sits in the Oval Office where Epstein’s Churchill once ruled the roost.

    “Churchill has less happy connotations for Mr Obama than those American politicians who celebrate his wartime leadership. It was during Churchill’s second premiership that Britain suppressed Kenya’s Mau Mau rebellion. Among Kenyans allegedly tortured by the colonial regime included one Hussein Onyango Obama, the President’s grandfather.”

    You’re right. No understanding of history at all.

    posted by nisuha on 7-17-2009 at 11:49 am

  4. The bust of Churchill by Epstein is owned by the British Government Art Collection and was loaned to George W Bush by Tony Blair. Obama did not “chuck it out” as Right-wingers are saying. (I was having a conversation in the Post Office and mentioned Churchill and a woman, recognizing my British accent, turned around and screamed at me “Obama threw out the bust of Churchill, that tells you a lot about him”)

    posted by Mark on 7-17-2009 at 12:19 pm

  5. Buuuurnnn.

    Super cool that Obama’s bringing in more recent history into the White House. It shouldn’t just be a museum to house 18th/19th century artifacts, but the whole history of American art.

    posted by Chocobo on 7-17-2009 at 12:24 pm

  6. Hurricane, what exactly about abstract art would demonstrate a lack of understanding of history? If you want to properly appreciate a lot of abstract art, you have to understand the context in which the works were painted and have the ability to use your understanding of the period in which the painter lived to interpret the painting. Just because you have to think about it a bit doesn’t make it any less valuable than concrete paintings of the same subjects.

    posted by Fruppi on 7-17-2009 at 12:38 pm

  7. Well, since he’s going to ruin our economy with cap and trade, I could care less what paintings he has on the walls as he drags our country deeper into economic trouble.

    posted by NoCap'nTrade on 7-17-2009 at 2:55 pm

  8. D’oh! That last image is of “Cityscape #1″ which is in the collection of the SF MoMA. It’s probably a pretty accurate rendition of a street, but one up in the bay area. Reminds me of Daly City. Definitely hundreds of miles from being an Ocean Park.

    posted by Farmer Boi on 7-21-2009 at 1:51 pm

  9. Ed Ruscha, Jasper Johns, Richard Diebenkorn: great, no problem, great stuff that I would love to have on my walls also, but let’s be real, these are three white guys.

    posted by Laura on 1-12-2011 at 3:46 pm

Comment

commenting policy