We have one rule: "We won’t take anything off public display", Mr. Cooper said in a telephone interview. Nor will the museum lend a work likely to be requested for an exhibition anytime soon. “That limited us to looking at things in storage,” Mr. Cooper added. “But there’s quite a bit.Mrs. Obama and the house curator,William Allman, picked works they found using various museum Web sites that constituted a diverse and distinct collection, never seen before in the White House. According to Kerry Brougher, chief curator at the Hirshhorn Museum, “There are some very interesting figures. It’s more interesting and shows a greater diversity of art than I’ve seen.” In an ABC interview, Harry Cooper, a trader of modern and contemporary art at the National Gallery, says the Obamas’ chosen collection has what those in the art world call “wall power.”
"A lot of it is really important and pretty powerful. It has wall power. It looks powerful on the walls. Strong works which are visually arresting.” Cooper described the Obamas’ collection as “really mainstream paintings. “I think there’s a great range of work—both abstract work and figurative work and within the abstraction. There’s very clean geometric paintings as well as more expressive paintings.Of the 45 works, I found the less known ones to be the most intriguing. Where do they come from, why did the first family decide to go with these pieces, and why are they important? I felt compelled to seek out their history and their stories, as they are now entering an important context within the walls of the White House, telling their own story and adding to the new story they are now entering. I picked two artists to talk about, portraitist George Catlin and African American expressionist painter Alma Thomas, both of whom gave voice to an otherwise voiceless community.
George Catlin whose 10 paintings are on display in the White House and is known for capturing American Indian scenes and leaders during the mid-19th century. Besides his heartfelt, thought-out renditions of American Indian life, Catlin was quite outspoken when it came to Indian rights. He saw the bloody battles leading to the demise of the tribal lifestyle and wrote about them extensively in his diaries. He produced around 600 paintings. In hopes of preserving them and the memory of aboriginal tribesmen, Catlin tried to sell his works to the U.S government, which refused to buy it. The penniless Catlin sold his entire collection to a private buyer.
Catlin would be content knowing that now more than 500 of his paintings are safe and sound at the Smithsonian, and now some have migrated to the White House to be admired and pondered, just as Catlin hoped.
Alma Thomas, an Expressionist painter, has two of her works hanging in the White House, specifically in the first lady’s office. Thomas was born and raised in Columbus, Ga., then moved to Washington, D.C., and enrolled in Howard University’s art department. Thomas was the first African American to hold an MFA from Columbia University. Her best-known work is influenced by Expressionism, but she has worked in the realm of realism. Many critics liken her work to that of Henri Matisse and Georges Seurat. Thomas had her first show at the age of 68 when she retired from teaching. She also worked as a political activist and taught in D.C.’s poorest neighborhoods, even with an advanced case of arthritis.
Perhaps this new temporary home for these paintings, will bring lauds and attention to different sorts of art as well as to historically undermined groups of people not always put in the mainstream spotlight.
Pictures from NYTimes
No comments:
Post a Comment