Off the Wall: White House Changes Mind About Painting (FReeper Victory!)

The New York Times ^ | Wednesday, November 4, 2009 | Randy Kennedy

[kristinn]

.SNIP

ARTnews has reported that the White House has quietly de-listed a painting by Alma W. Thomas that it chose last month, among some 45 pieces borrowed from several Washington museums, to decorate the private White House residence and the West and East Wings.

Titled, “Watusi (Hard Edge)” from 1963, the work takes a Matisse collage and, as Holland Cotter wrote in The New York Times, praising the selection, “shifts the pieces around, cools the colors down, and adds a title that refers to a Chubby Checker song.”

“But through copying Matisse,” Mr. Cotter added, “she began to work out a format she would use again and again.”

Some conservative Web sites, like Freerepublic.com, had criticized the painting as a fraud, calling it a “re-colored reprint” and questioning the wisdom of hanging it in the White House. By late October, the painting, which had been destined for the East Wing, had been removed from the list of works bound for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, ARTnews reported, though a second Thomas painting from 1973 remains on the list. The Hirshhorn Museum, which owns the painting, confirmed that the 1963 work had been sent back, but no one involved with the White House loans at the museum would say why, the publication said.

Semonti Stephens, the deputy press secretary for Mrs. Obama, said that the painting had been intended to go in the first lady’s office and that the the decision not to put it there was made only because its dimensions did not work in the space in which it was to hang.

[kristinn]

Kudos to Freeper beelzebubba who called out the White House and the New York Times on this a month ago here.

Matisse original

[kristinn]

Congrats!

[hsalaw]

So the painting’s a fake, the Obozos are fakes - looks like a perfect fit.

[khnyny]

It looks like Obama, Michele and Oprah have a lot in common...

[Teflonic]

I don’t understand anybody that would call that art.

[eureka!]

White House art consultant Shepard Fairey, however, saw nothing wrong with keeping the painting.

[Flint]

I may be rich. My wife saved a whole drawer full of pictures like that my two sons did in elementary school.

[Beelzebubba]

I shall never forget my small part in embarrassing the Obama administration!

[Doogle]

[San Jacinto]

Hey that thing is a fraud. I've got the original hanging on my refrigerator! It's from my grandkid's nursery school.

[kristinn]

Neither shall Michelle :-(

[trisham]

I would be art if a boob belt were placed around it.

[Doogle]

"eeeeyeah, congrats"

[heartwood]

Well, whodah thunk it? An artsy cultured educated Freeper?

Hats off to you, beelzebubba. Now go cling on to your guns and Bible. You’re disturbin’ your betters.

[JavaJumpy]

“I don’t understand anybody that would call that art.”

And I don’t understand anybody who would call the First Lady’s fashions glamorous, but there it is.

[Indy Pendance]

What the heck is that? Art, my grand kids could do that. The last time I went to an art museum, this was the featured painting, called 'Red Yellow Blue', yeah, that's art:

[Rennes Templar]

I did one like that in third grade but threw it away, darn it.

[GauchoUSA]

Look at the purple blob, the painter couldn’t even stay inside the lines!! Dadaism at its best.

[a fool in paradise]

He made a career out of ripping off other artists too.

[GauchoUSA]

Good Romanian colors

[a fool in paradise]

It was done to subvert the art world and public perceptions of art. Now we’ve had nearly 100 years of anti-art. It is the new establishment.

[Domandred]

Here's an overlay with the original rotated posted by TChris in the other thread in case anyone missed it.

Close enough to be plagiarism even in most public high schools.

[TomGuy]

I don’t understand anybody that would call that art.

My niece painted better than that .... when she was 3.

[ElayneJ]

Excellent!
Now I wonder if it’s common practice to borrow paintings from museums to decorate the WH. I’ve not heard of this being done by presidents in the past.

[Fresh Wind]

Have the Obombas been using Ward Churchill as an art consultant?

[GeronL]

Um. was this a black artist by any chance? A feminist icon for some reason?

There has to be a reason they chose it. Just diss the original, maybe?

[Teflonic]

The railing around them to keep people from fondling the red, yellow, or blue squares cracks me up. As if a replacement print couldn’t be produced in ten minutes if one were damaged.

[bikerman]

I’ve got the original hanging on my refrigerator! It’s from my grandkid’s nursery school.

Yours is a fruad I have the original hanging on my refrigerator. My granddaughter painted it.

[a fool in paradise]

The New York Times celebrated the masterstroke genius of it all...

Titled, “Watusi (Hard Edge)” from 1963, the work takes a Matisse collage and, as Holland Cotter wrote in The New York Times, praising the selection, “shifts the pieces around, cools the colors down, and adds a title that refers to a Chubby Checker song.”

The emperor's new clothes really ARE snazzy.

[Brown Deer]

the decision not to put it there was made only because its dimensions did not work in the space in which it was to hang.

I'd be curious to know the dimensions of the painting and the dimensions of its replacement.

[GeronL]

I think this masterpeice, the original, is just a color test for Matisse.

If we could talk to the dead... lol.. “Masterpeice? Your talking about my color palette test!”

[Beelzebubba]

Semonti Stephens, the deputy press secretary for Mrs. Obama, said that the painting had been intended to go in the first lady’s office and that the the decision not to put it there was made only because its dimensions did not work in the space in which it was to hang.

---

Yeah. The one of 45 they send back.

[bikerman]

I’ve got the original hanging on my refrigerator! It’s from my grandkid’s nursery school.

Yours is a fruad I have the original hanging on my refrigerator. My granddaughter painted it.

[Indy Pendance]

When I saw it, the railing was there. Like it’s the Mona Lisa.

[Running On Empty]

LOL

That’s great

[Beelzebubba]

the work takes a Matisse collage and, as Holland Cotter wrote in The New York Times, praising the selection, “shifts the pieces around

---

Nothing “shifted”. The identical composition was rotated 90 degrees.

[GeronL]

lol!!

I bet they had a 3-page explanation about how Red, Yellow and Blue was a comment on materialism, war and the awfulness of western civilization.

[LucyJo]

Ah, c’mon now, great artistic minds think alike, doncha know??? ; )

[a fool in paradise]

You’ll have to ask Michelle yourself.

[GeronL]

A package of color construction paper....

So much art, even before you cut them!

[a fool in paradise]

If I recall, I think I read that he moved into collage (at a time that color collage was NOT a grade school endeavor) when his eyesight started failing him.

[a fool in paradise]

The art world is a joke. And the prices realized are artificial. Millions of play dollars. Sometimes they go up, sometimes they go down. And sometimes you wind up with a butchered cow swimming in formaldehyde.

[GeronL]

My computer has paintbrush and my eyesight is failing, let me try some art.

[a fool in paradise]

It worked for Shepard Fairey.

[Indy Pendance]

I didn’t bother reading the crap they printed. Perhaps I should submit my daughter’s green bedroom walls since green was suspiciously missing.

[Indy Pendance]

Are you in Brown Deer, WI? If so, hi neighbor, I’m in West Bend.

[Indy Pendance]

LOL!

[eureka!]

Yep. All class. Just like Obama.

[a fool in paradise]

Communist propagranda too. He did rip off at least one Nazi SS design for a t-shirt once.

[Brown Deer]

Yes, I am. :-)