Decorating the White House with Smithsonian Art
Continuing a Washington tradition, the Obamas selected artwork from the Smithsonian collections to hang in their historic home
- By Abby Callard
- Smithsonian.com, August 04, 2009
(Glenn Ligon / Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden)
Glenn Ligon
1992
Paint stick and acrylic gesso on canvas
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
“Glenn Ligon is a very interesting artist who has managed to bridge conceptual art of the 1960s with art that has a social conscience to it,” says Kerry Brougher, chief curator and deputy director of the Hirshhorn. “What he often does in his pieces is to take text, say from novels, and pick lines from that text and run it over the canvas until it becomes abstract in a way.” For this piece, Ligon employs a line from John Howard Griffin’s 1961 memoir, Black Like Me, in which Griffin, a white American author, wrote about how he artificially darkened his skin to travel in the South as a black man. The phrase “All traces of the Griffin I had been were wiped from existence,” repeats in all caps on the canvas, slowly overlapping until the words disappear into black.
Comments (5)
Am hunting a picture of an Indian Lady Sarah Brandon that my grandmother told me had hung in the White house as she was My grandmothers grandmother any information you can give me on this would be very helpful.
Posted by Cheri Mikes on August 4,2010 | 11:12 PM
Regarding these comments about Alma Thomas'"Watusi", I am reminded of the comment attributed to Pablo Picasso that, "the bad artists imitate, the great artists steal." Thomas' work here is a transformation of the Matisse painting. There is power in the decision to reverse colors and to change perspective from "L'escargot,"giving "Watusi" integrity to stand on its own as a distinctive piece.
Posted by Marshall Waddell on October 15,2009 | 04:11 PM
And just how much did the taxpayers of the United States contribute to this artist for this counterfeit "art"?
Will the Smithsonian be issuing a Correction in the next issue?
What a disgrace.
Posted by EPR on October 14,2009 | 10:56 PM
This painting is a direct copy (rotated 90 degrees) of Henri Matisse, L'escargot.
The comment that the artist is "trying to mix together different styles such as Henri Matisse’s cutouts" was an understatement!
This "work" if you want to call it "art" does not belong in a national museum!
The artist seems to be a bit of a scam artist rather than someone with real talent.
Posted by DEW on October 8,2009 | 07:30 PM
This isn't just "mixing together" influences including Matisse. It is a direct copy of a Matisse work, just rotated 90 degrees and with the colors switched around:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/strifu/2205522821
Posted by MDC on August 4,2009 | 01:27 AM