Here are examples of some of the work by (real) artists:
Portrait of Stu-mick-o-súcks, Buffalo Bull's Back Fat, chief of the Blood tribe, by George Catlin. The article has to put in the usual slam about him being 'just a tourist'. Nonsense. He did promote his paintings in London and New York, but he had to feed his family same as everyone else. And he did a tremendous service in memorializing the Plains Indians as they were before 'civilization' got hold of them.
Winslow Homer, one of THE greatest American artists. BOTH his oils and his watercolors are truly magnificent, and he was tremendously sensitive to the difference.
William H. Johnson's stuff, however, is totally lame. Why couldn't they get something by a black American artist who could actually PAINT, like Henry Ossawa Turner?
"The Banjo Lesson"
"The Annunciation"
Although Bamma would never have a Christian religious painting in the White House . . . .
I've got a steak dinner that says they no more personally chose these paintings than they flew to the Moon.