Last month, news broke that the Obamas are installing an art gallery in the White House, which would mean turning the family dining room on the ground floor into a space for contemporary art. The dining room seats 130 people and hosts a fair amount of events, making it an important place to now include a gallery. The Obamas have hired designer Michael Smith, who previously redesigned the Oval Office.
As we previously pointed out, Glenn Ligon, Jasper Johns, and Ed Ruscha already have work displayed at the White House. Inspired by Shepard Fairey telling Juxtapoz that if he could put any work in the White House, it would be Barbara Kruger's WE DON'T NEED ANOTHER HERO, we asked some of our favorite curators to share their ideal art piece for this new gallery space. Let's hope they consider these excellent responses.
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11 Curators Choose an Art Piece That Should Hang in the White House's New Gallery
Matthew Higgs
White Columns
David Hammons, In The Hood, 1993
"The more you think about it, the more thoughts it generates. It is both specific and ambiguous. It is a fragment of something larger. Something is missing. The title is perfect, a haiku-like poem that generates endless narratives. It was made twenty years ago but remains utterly, maybe even eternally present."
Song Chong
Milk Studios Gallery
Gordon Parks, Outside Looking In, 1956
Gordon Parks, Segregated Drinking Fountain, 1956
"The artwork that I would select (and this was very hard!) would be one of two photographs by Gordon Parks, Outside Looking In or Segregated Drinking Fountain, which were both taken in 1956 Mobile, Alabama."
"I chose these images for several reasons: one is aesthetic beauty. These are rare color photographs by Parks. But more importantly, I chose these photographs because of the complex narrative that they present on race, opportunity, mobility, and access. With these images, and the other images that form this body of work, Parks highlights the normalized conditions of racism that were insidiously a part of day-to-day life. Racism was hegemonic, and we are still trying to break these signifying chains. I also hope that works like these can remind us that the struggle for civil rights is not a part of our distant past: we have a long way to go, and we stand on the shoulders of giants. (And Gordon Parks is a national treasure!)"
Eric Shiner
Andy Warhol Museum
Edmonia Lewis, Forever Free, 1867
Hank Willis Thomas, I Am A Man, 2009
"Although it may be a surprise that I'm not recommending that the work of Andy Warhol, an icon of American culture, I'm selecting two artists whose social activism spans a century and more. Edmonia Lewis is perhaps one of the most under-recognized and under-celebrated artists in American history. Half African and half Native American, she rose to the upper echelon of the international art world as the Civil War raged on in America. Her masterpiece Forever Free (1867) is a proud and heroic monument to the new-found freedom of African Americans. Thanks to its strong imagery and broken chains, it represents the essence of American freedom."
"I would also display this amazing sculpture in front of a grid of contemporary artworks by young African American artist Hank Willis Thomas. Thomas' phenomenal work I Am A Man (2008), echoes Lewis' depiction of freedom; however, in this case, a play on words evocative of picket signs held by proud African American men during the Civil Rights movement."
"Shown together, I believe these works, made just over 140 years apart from one another, draw much-needed attention to the progress our country has made in terms of civil rights, yet also show that there's much work left to be done."
(Edmonia Lewis: Courtesy of the collection of Howard University Art Museum, Washington, DC)
(Hank Willis Thomas: Courtesy of the collection of Ford Foundation, New York, NY)
Jessica Hodin
Bleecker Street Arts Club
William Eggleston, Black Family by the Sea, 1974
"Born in 1939 in Memphis, Tennessee, William Eggleston represents the quintessential American photographer. He received a National Endowment for the Arts Photographer's Fellowship in 1975 and shortly thereafter had his first solo show at New York's Museum of Modern Art. His subject matter was, simply put, America, through the lens of his democratic camera. From Niagara Falls to a commission from AT&T to photograph the Gulf states; from the J. Paul Getty Museum and its grounds to Elvis Presley's mansion, Graceland; and another commission from Coca-Cola to photograph their plants in four cities in the US, Eggleston exposed the raw, quotidien, and unglamorous American life of the lower middle class. Eggleston took many many silver gelatin prints that have made it into lauded private and public collections, but since he is credited with discovering the dye transfer process of color printing, I would urge the White House to acquire a color print such as these."
Nora Abrams
MCA Denver
Felix Gonzalez-Torres, “Untitled” (The End), 1990
"I would suggest a stacked paper work by Felix Gonzalez-Torres. The humility and poignancy of his works and the implicit democratic ideas embedded in them would be a good reminder to both the President and the citizens who visit of the importance of these core, fundamental values. Gonzalez-Torres used minimal, spare objects to articulate deeply political ideas about equality, violence, war, and injustice. His works are profound for how quietly yet forcefully they address such ideas."
(© The Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation. Courtesy of Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York. Photo © MCA, Chicago)
Christine Messineo
Bortolami Gallery
Richard Aldrich, Untitled, 2012 (left)
Richard Aldrich, Sill, 2013 (right)
"I can easily imagine a work by the America artist Richard Aldrich. I think particularly at this moment looking towards a younger artist who is is beginning to have solo museum exhibitions demonstrates a contemporary eye. The paintings here show a whimsical and diverse sensibility; a beautiful painterly abstraction in combination with a realistic iteration of architectural trim."
(Courtesy of the artist and Bortolami Gallery, New York)
(Left: Oil, wax and enamel on linen, 84 x 58 inches, 213.4 x 147.3 cm)
(Right: Oil and wax on linen, 84 x 58 inches, 213.4 x 147.3 cm)
Kathy Grayson
The Hole
Kurt Kauper, Barack and Michelle Obama, 2009
"I think it's important for Obama and his wife to have serious 'traditional' Presidential portraits of themselves: this will be the first time there is an African American Presidential portrait on a wall full of white guys, and Kurt Kauper is a very subtle conceptual and psychological figurative painter who captures in these portraits many interesting thematics surrounding this epic presidency, all in this sorta 'post-human' style that is very indicative of portraiture in 2013."
Ken Miller
Various Exhibitions
Mary Lee Bendolph, Blocks, strips, strings, and half squares, 2005
"For the White House gallery, I would select a Gee's Bend quilt. Partly this is just a personal choice; I am a huge fan of graphic, abstract work. But I also think the Gee's Bend quilters would ideally represent America's creative democratic spirit."
(Cotton, 84 x 81 inches)
Ken is curating upcoming shows for TOLOT in Tokyo (September 2013) and the Hyundai Cards Design Library in Seoul (October 2013).
Todd von Ammon
Team Gallery
Santiago Sierra, Veteran of the War of Afghanistan Facing the Corner, New York, NY, USA, April 2013, 2013
"I think one of the United States veterans would be the most appropriate. We expressed this best in the press release for 'Veterans.' While remaining anonymous, each veteran brings reality and specificity into the viewer’s general perceptions of war and those who carry out its actions. The presence of the veteran references the relationship between power and guilt as well as the distance between the often cryptic political motives that lead to war and the experiences of those directly affected by its consequences. These documentations of performances provide an incredibly empathetic viewpoint into the collective psyche of the soldier. The performance is uncomplicated and articulate, but loaded with pathos."
(Digital lambda print, 78.7 x 39.4 inches; 200 x 100 cm)
Ralph Taylor
Lazarides Gallery
Piero Manzoni, Artist's Shit, 1961
"Contemporary politics is such a cautious, fearful environment and its attitude to culture is overwhelmingly conservative. This series is playful, scatological, and childish, but even makes a visceral point about what we consider to be art and our reverence for artists. It shines a harsh light on our obsession with celebrity and how we allocate 'genius,' but when all's said and done, it would be pretty funny to see in the White House."
Cristina Salmastrelli
Affordable Art Fair
Thierry Bisch, Rabbit Flag, 2010
"This work is by French artist Thierry Bisch. Bisch has eschewed traditional media and now works solely in digital media. It is a forward-looking approach that we think would stay on top of the President’s mind is the ever-evolving and technologically complex nature of the country. We like that it’s a foreign artist, and a foreigner's take on the American flag—a statement on how the U.S. is seen by the rest of the world."
(Courtesy of Artemiss Contemporary)
(Mixed media, 20 x 20 inches, $599)
