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Off the Wall: White House Changes Mind About Painting (FReeper Victory!)
The New York Times ^ | Wednesday, November 4, 2009 | Randy Kennedy

Posted on 11/04/2009 3:20:11 PM PST by 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.

(Excerpt) Read more at artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; Culture/Society; Free Republic; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: affirmativactionart; almawthomas; art; cheaters; cultureofcorrution; fraud; frinthenews; likelystories; matisse; noclass; obama; painting; pajamapeoplerule; plagiarism; underthebus; watusi; youlie
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To: Indy Pendance

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.


21 posted on 11/04/2009 3:32:40 PM PST by a fool in paradise (I refuse to "reduce my carbon footprint" all while Lenin remains in an airconditioned shrine)
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To: kristinn; TChris
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.

22 posted on 11/04/2009 3:33:36 PM PST by Domandred (Fdisk, format, and reinstall the entire .gov system. I am Jim Thompson.)
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To: Teflonic
I don’t understand anybody that would call that art.

My niece painted better than that .... when she was 3.
23 posted on 11/04/2009 3:33:47 PM PST by TomGuy
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To: kristinn

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.


24 posted on 11/04/2009 3:35:26 PM PST by ElayneJ
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To: kristinn

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


25 posted on 11/04/2009 3:35:32 PM PST by Fresh Wind ("Prosperity is just around the corner." Herbert Hoover, 1932)
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To: kristinn

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?


26 posted on 11/04/2009 3:37:39 PM PST by GeronL (http://tyrannysentinel.blogspot.com .... I am a rogue nobody. One of millions.)
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To: Indy Pendance

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.


27 posted on 11/04/2009 3:38:24 PM PST by Teflonic
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To: San Jacinto

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.


28 posted on 11/04/2009 3:38:24 PM PST by bikerman (Buck Farack)
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To: Domandred
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.

29 posted on 11/04/2009 3:38:27 PM PST by a fool in paradise (I refuse to "reduce my carbon footprint" all while Lenin remains in an airconditioned shrine)
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To: kristinn
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.
30 posted on 11/04/2009 3:38:42 PM PST by Brown Deer (4 Google execs are on Obama's staff - YouTube is owned by Google)
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To: kristinn

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!”


31 posted on 11/04/2009 3:39:21 PM PST by GeronL (http://tyrannysentinel.blogspot.com .... I am a rogue nobody. One of millions.)
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To: kristinn

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.


32 posted on 11/04/2009 3:40:04 PM PST by Atlas Sneezed (Why not "interpret" your tax returns like the Supreme Court "interprets" the Constitution?)
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To: San Jacinto

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.


33 posted on 11/04/2009 3:40:29 PM PST by bikerman (Buck Farack)
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To: Teflonic

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


34 posted on 11/04/2009 3:40:30 PM PST by Indy Pendance (Conservatives are their worst nightmare)
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To: Flint

LOL

That’s great


35 posted on 11/04/2009 3:40:49 PM PST by Running On Empty ((The three sorriest words:"It's too late"))
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To: kristinn

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.


36 posted on 11/04/2009 3:40:53 PM PST by Atlas Sneezed (Why not "interpret" your tax returns like the Supreme Court "interprets" the Constitution?)
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To: Indy Pendance
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.

37 posted on 11/04/2009 3:41:50 PM PST by GeronL (http://tyrannysentinel.blogspot.com .... I am a rogue nobody. One of millions.)
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To: Domandred

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


38 posted on 11/04/2009 3:42:20 PM PST by LucyJo
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To: Brown Deer

You’ll have to ask Michelle yourself.


39 posted on 11/04/2009 3:42:40 PM PST by a fool in paradise (I refuse to "reduce my carbon footprint" all while Lenin remains in an airconditioned shrine)
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To: Teflonic

A package of color construction paper....

So much art, even before you cut them!


40 posted on 11/04/2009 3:43:56 PM PST by GeronL (http://tyrannysentinel.blogspot.com .... I am a rogue nobody. One of millions.)
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