Modern Art Work & The Obamas

Every modern first lady shows interest in the arts with some being avid fans of a particular form or style.  Jackie Kennedy loved the ballet with an exquisite eye for centuries old antiques while beautiful photographs adorned her private space.  Lady Bird Johnson loved wildflowers, especially those indigenous to Texas, while kick-starting forerunners to environmental projects focusing along highways.   Michelle Obama has eclectic taste and is being ecumenical in her choices for the residence.  When a new first family moves in and during their tenure, the nation's museums are open for them to select what they want to display on the their private residence walls in addition to what is available from the White House Art Collection replete with 18th & 19th century artists.  Laura Bush was quite fond of the impressionist Claude Monet's tranquil water scene gifted to the White House by the family of JFK.  She chose to have it in the West Sitting Hall right across from the door to the Master Bedroom where she could look at it while reading or chatting on the phone.  Hillary worked hard to innovate with a sculpture garden with annual exhibits during her stay as first lady.  (Monet in White House private collection courtesy George W. Bush archives)

Alma Thomas (1891 -1971) an abstract artist who was the first African American to earn a 1971 solo exhibit at the prestigious Whitney museum Art of (Hard Edge), Watusi (completed in 1963) is one of the paintings the Obamas placed in the residence. The other abstract from this artist is named Skylight.

President Obama, Malia & Michelle watch the video montage on the modern artists while in Paris at the  museum known as the Pompidou in June 2009.  Photo courtesy of the White House.

The President & Mrs. Obama made some modern choices for their walls.  Modern art is a theme shown over the past few months with a trip to the Pompidou Centre or the Centre Georges Pompidou during time in Paris.  The Kandinsky Exhibit was quite fun Mom & Dad, but for Sasha & Malia they got to try their hand at making art based on the Alexander Calder (1898 - 1976) exhibit.  It is part of the experience for all children visiting that section of the museum. Wonder what Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (1866 - 1944) would think.

Richard Diebenkorn (1922 -1993) painted Berkeley No.52 circa 1955.  The colorful abstract has a place of honor at the Obamas. 

Art is a theme throughout the young tenure of the Obama presidency.  Thursday starts the First Couples foray as hosts entertaining heads of state.  A philanthropist married to a United States senator will entertain the Obamas and their guest at her Rosemont Farm.  Teresa Heinz Kerry just missed being a first lady, but 2004 is where Barack Obama came into prominence with the American public.  The Farm will supply the vegetables and meets in a true locavore element that pleases Michelle Obama, though she will not be photographed (today) picking the greens and vegetables herself.  Gardens are a form of art to her. While the spouses negotiate, the first lady will host a tour for the  G-20 spouses (mostly wives) at the Andy Warhol Museum complete with a spectacular luncheon in Pittsburgh.  Prior, the tour will hear more art performed by students, Yo-Yo Ma (performed at the inaugural), Trisha Yearwood and Sarah Bareilles.  An interesting choice of Warhol (Andrew Warhola 1928 - 1987) given the need to treat the international honored guests to sophisticated Americana known as pop art and Warhol was born in Pittsburgh.  President Jimmy Carter feted Warhol in the White house in the 1970s where Warhol presented an art piece that was a rendering of the president.  Warhol has many pieces that explore erotica as well.  Its fraught with interest because the tour will have a climatic ending as one of Warhol's time capsules is due to be opened.  Ought to be quite the topic over lunch - even with all the translators.

Ed Ruscha (born 1937) titled this hip 1983 piece I Think I'll...  This pop art piece particularly underscores the modern element to the Obama's tastes.  Since 1964, Ruscha paints words into many of his paintings.  Sometimes they are satirical and often with touches of humor.

Upon their return to the White House, the splendor of the choices of the  Obamas own artwork will reign supreme.  Michelle will enjoy the serenity of the art for a few days before taking off to Copenhagen next week to champion Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympics.  Not one, but two paintings depicting Homage to the Square from Josef Albers (1888 - 1976) adorn the walls at the White House on loan from the Hirshorn Collection.  Albers was also a poet. The painting pictured left is Homage to the Square:  Midday and completed sometime between 1954 - 1957. The painting for the Homage series started in 1949.  Like abstract artist Alma Thomas shown above, Josef Albers was also a teacher.  Upon retirements, they both dedicated the remainder of their lives to their art works. (Photo courtesy The Independent)

A definite nod was given to winner of a 2005 Alphonse Fletcher Foundation Fellowship Glenn Ligon (1960 -) who painted Black Like Me #2  (1992) who is just a year younger than the president.  Again, continuity reaches through the Obama art pieces as Ligon like Albers uses words and paints in acrylic on canvas.  Ligon who is openly gay and an African American from New York has juxtaposed family albums with old school gay porn in one piece.  It is part of the art that many artists of vintage and antiquity along with their modern counterparts push the edges during their times. 

Glenn Ligon's piece on loan to the First Family.

It's fascinating to review a couple of the choices the Obamas have to look at during their home life.  For traditionalists, there is the Edgar Degas bronze figure of Dancer Putting on Her Stocking, a Cézanne (1839 - 1906), yet they mesh with Jaspers Johns lead relief of Numerals, 0-9. Michelle has a wide range of tastes and its reflected in the art selection and her personal style that is not totally dependent on the old masters.  Another voice in the selection of modern and abstract art pieces is the Obama interior designer, Michael Smith of Santa Monica who also worked with the White House curator William Allman.

Another young talented but terribly depressed artist met an untimely death by suicide.  In fifteen years Nicolas de Staël (1914 -1955) produced over a thousand paintings including many abstract landscapes. This painting is entitled Nice completed in 1954.

Gorgeous Green Room in Silk

First Lady Mamie Eisenhower (blue dress) with guests in the Truman version of the Green Room.

Moiré patterned silk covers the walls of the salon, Green Room. Formerly a daintier yellow, Thomas Jefferson had a green camouflage dropcloth functioning as a rug to catch the crumbs that missed his mouth in what was slated to become a dining room. It is sandwiched between the East Room and officially Michelle Obama's favorite, the Blue Room. Of course, it got a redo into the French Empire style after the Jeffersonian era because the British BBQ'd the entire White House in the War of 1812. Later, Victorian style gave way to Colonial Revival championed by McKim, Mead & White in Teddy Roosevelt's day throughout the room. Laura Bush redid the room in the summer of 2007 and added African American artist, Jacob Lawrence's (1917-2000) The Builders to the collection of art adorning the silk walls. At the time, the White House Acquisition Trust purchased the sixty year old painting, it sold for $2.5 million dollars and is one of only five pieces of art by an African American artist in the formal White House collection. The rule to command a spot as an artist on many of the state room walls (absent presidents) the painter gets the honor after dying and the work has to be more than twenty-five yeas old. Laura Bush with The Builders over her shoulder. She took some flack because the picture is of black men doing hard labor. Photo Courtesy the Washington Post.

Lighter Relieving (1847) Farmyard in Winter (1858) Bear Lake, New Mexico Georgia O'Keefe (1930) from the White House Art Collection located on the walls of the Green Room

Art in the Green Room covers many styles. Holding pride of place is an iconic painting of Benjamin Franklin by David Martin sitting right above the oldest mantel in the White House - circa 1819. Abigail Van Buren's portrait also graces the room. Louisa Adams portrait in oils is a period piece painted by Gilbert Stuart. Scenes form the Mississippi River in Lighter Relieving a Steamboat Aground by George Caleb Bingham in 1847 is above the north door.

The urn and candlesticks on the coffee table in front of the Duncan Phyfe striped sofa are part of the silver pieces from John & Abigail Adams.

In 1961, during Jacqueline Kennedy's interior revamp, she employed a French designer that focused on a Federal style for the Green Room. Fireplace mantels endured switch-outs from a modern for nineteenth century standards circa 1852 to something decades earlier bought by James Monroe. The room suffered though the 1904 white cane furniture and then, seized upon the idea of the fluffiest Turkish chairs to decorate the almost 627 square feet of space. That is more complicated than one might suspect for any designer because there are separate 6 doors to the Green Room as well. Jackie Kennedy believed heartily in themes and located things from important Americans, including Daniel Webster's Duncan Phyfe sofa and an urn Abigail Adams purchased. She hung the watered silk on the walls and varying degrees of that have been there ever since. (Green Room at conclusion of Jackie Kennedy's historic redo)

Pat Nixon's curator tut-tutted the wrong era moldings for the room and had them replaced along with appropriate ceiling medallions. One thing about the White House, do not forget to look up as the ceilings are works of art as well. Even the Oval Office has a ceiling medallion. Draperies in the rooms also have exquisite attention to detail along with carpets be they an Axminster in Jackie's heyday or after the Pat Nixon overhaul. Laura Bush's rendition thirty-six years later is closer to that with a brighter hued color palette.

President Obama waits to be announce into the East Room by aides.

The picture contains the rosier color of the Martha Washington club chairs in front of the WH's oldest mantel with the author of Poor Richard's almanac staring down on President Obama with the late Senator Ted Kennedy, Liberal Lion of the Senate. Photos courtesy of the White House by Peter Souza.

Duncan Phyfe has several pieces to enchant in the room. Scalamandr did the original wreath and butterfly motif that Texas designer Ken Blasingame, the White House preservation authorities and Laura Bush chose. The room has had many incarnations with the Monroes settling on making it the Card Room for their fierce games of whist.

Barbara Bush gives an interview to CBS with her dog, Millie utterly unimpressed.

Before the makeover, the same Eisenhower set up, Jackie Kennedy greets the wives of astronauts in the Green Room

Marta Sahaun de Fox of Mexico with Lara Bush in 2001 before her makeover of the room. Notice the more plain fabric on the chairs. Just over Mrs. Fox's shoulder is a magnificent piece of furniture with all kinds of hidden compartments. Atop it resides the Argand Lamp from the late 18th century.

Each first family finds different functions to hold in the Green Room. The first declaration of war was signed in the green room by President Madison. On February 24, 1862 Willie Lincoln who died upstairs was put in his coffin in this room to keep Mary Lincoln. had The appropriation of Green did not come until the time of John Quincy Adams and his wife (1825-1829) made it the Green Drawing Room while Grace Coolidge thought it the perfect backdrop for some semi-nude art after decreeing the room needed genuine Federal period (tons of eagles) placed in the room that started as a Lodging Room. It's also a room for interesting receptions and entertaining. Eleanor Roosevelt spent time with Amelia Earhart in the Green Room.

The Green Room at the time of Andrew Johnson.

Green Room in time of the 1904 Roosevelt administration. Just outside the doors is the Grand Staircase as it used to open right to the Cross Hall before the Truman renovations. Ghastly choice in furniture & art during the Roosevelt era in my opinion.

Painted Ladies of the White House

There were a number of firsts with the painting of Hillary Clinton's portrait. The first African American portrait artist Simmie Knox did a tandem of her and President's Clinton's official oil portraits. She is wearing a pantsuit with her hand touching her best selling book with an example of historic White House China on the table. The painting hangs on the Ground floor in the Hall. Portraits courtesy of the White House Collection.

All over the White House the painted eyes of presidents and first ladies watch the new occupants as they settle into the presidential manor. President Nixon used to speak with the portraits and keep himself in the wilting humidity of a Washington summer closeted in
the Lincoln Sitting Room with the fireplace crackling. Nancy Reagan was very particular about the portraits and where certain first ladies would grace the walls. Her portrait is a stunning red visage that matches perfectly the red carpets on the Ground Floor and Cross Hall - it was not an accident. Part of the tradition in modern times is to select a portrait artist and the result is part of a White House Ceremony unveiling the art. Usually, the second term in office is when the president and first lady start thinking about their formal portraits and start to select or audition painters of the first brush. The styles change over the years, with portraits of the first First Couples being part of living in the early days of the republic. (President Obama & Nancy Reagan on Ground Floor in the hallway pass her portrait on the way into Diplomatic Reception Room as he signs The Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission honoring his memory.)

Teacher for the Deaf & crochet expert Grace Anna Goodhue Coolidge 1923 - 1929 as First Lady Teetotaler Lucy Ware Webb Hayes 1877 - 1881 as First Lady Daughter-in-law Angelica Singleton Van Buren acted as hostess/First Lady 1839-1841 as Hannah Van Buren had passed away. Permanently displayed in the Red Room. Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams (1825-1829) is the daughter-in-law of Abigail Adams is the first lady who advocated for females and their rights.

Wearing French empire and showing shapely cleavage, the Dolley Payne Todd Madison portrait (1804) in oil by her friend Gilbert Stuart is so well known it graces alongside presidential portraits. She was the official hostess for Thomas Jefferson when the portrait appeared and later she became first lady With 44 presidents and 46 first ladies in total, (some presidents were widowers and remarried or bachelors or married for the first time while in office), the wall space in the 55,000 square foot Executive Mansion has prime space and lesser space. The current president and first lady select who goes where. One prime piece of real estate is just beneath and around the Grand Staircase just off the foyer or anything on the state floor and mostly, it is the presidents in the corridors with special first ladies or hostesses of presidents inside the colored salons off the Cross Hall.

Tourists see the Vermeil Room on the ground floor where its incandescent light makes Jackie Kennedy's acclaimed portrait seems as if its always hung there in its rightful prominent place. Martha Dandridge Custis Washington has the most prominent space along the same wall and same height of her husbands Gilbert Stuart painting of her husband George in the White House's largest formal space, the East Room.

Elizabeth Kortright Monroe's (tenure 1817 -1825 though her daughter Eliza stepped in most of the time as hostess) oil portrait by John Vanderlyn retains a prominent place near the South Portico just before the entrance to the Green Room. Her ermine shawl is perfect for the French Empire design of the Blue Room she and her husband worked so hard to furnish.

The artists themselves are varied with some interesting stoeirs. Anders Zorn painted the youngest first Lady ever, Frances Folsom Cleveland. Howard Chandler Christy painted Grace Coolige with her collie, Rob Roy, beside her and the South Portico of the White House over her shoulder. Boldly sporting a nineteenth century pompadour, Henry Inman painted Angelica Van Buren who was related to Dolley Madison by marriage. Inmans work populates the vast White House Art Collection with many paintings of The First People. Modern twists occurred with Eleanor Roosevelt (1933 - 1945) the hands never still and Mamie Eisenhower (1953-1961) in her inaugural ball gown. Florence King Harding has a memorable coif immortalized in oils by Philip Alexius deLaslode lombos in 1921.

The chair pose is almost as popular as the ones with the White House as a backdrop.

Completed in 1967, Elizabeth (Bess) Wallace Truman seems to be the modern start for the seated pose. Above, wearing the famed triple strand is Barbara Pierce Bush (1989 - 1993) from 1992 painted in oils by Herbert E. Abrams. Elizabeth (Betty) Bloomer Ford painted by Felix De Cossio. It took awhile post presidency for the portrait of Rosalynn Smith Carter (1977-1981). In 1984, the softly hued oil portrait was completed by George Agusta. Rosalynn Carter has nothing on Martha Washington (1788-1796) whose official portrait came from Eliphalet F. Andrews who used a live model and dress from the nineteenth century when she was definitely a person of the eighteenth. The portrait was finally done a hundred years after the founding of America in 1878.

A new twist with oval portraits and using two Ediths. Edith Carrow Roosevelt (1901 - 1909) used a different frame, the south White House gardens while sitting on a bench. Edith Bolling Galt Wilson (1913 -1821) was the second first lady of the Wilson Administration who approved who and what the president saw during his illness and recovery.

First lady oil paintings are fascinating with the variety of styles and choices for what they want to project for the American People in the centuries to come. These portraits are waves from the past that reflect on style, culture, and the individual - the American way!

These three are My favorites

Helen (Nellie) Herron Taft (1909 - 1913) had the idea of the South Portico First in 1910 painted by Karl Bror Albert Kronstrand

(Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy (1961 -1963) Photo courtesy of Robin at Big Red Kitchen) Aaron Shikler completed Jackie's in 1970 and indeed, did the famous oil painting of President Kennedy that has pride of place just outside the State Dining Room. Seventeen years later he created new magic with Nancy Davis Reagan's (1981 - 1989) oil portrait

Which are your favorites?

Note: An official photograph is also issued with the advent of technology. Mrs. Obama in oil ought to be as spectacular as the full official photo.

Jazz Class at the White House

Michelle Obama - OK, her East Wing staff with a newbie Chief of Staff, is setting the stage for June 15th concert and class taught by members of premier talent in the Jazz genre, the Marsalis Family. It will be quite the scene at the East Gate tomorrow as students, bringing their instruments, line up to enter the People's House to learn the intricacies of jazz from some of the younger and elder statesman of bebop, horn-blowing, improv and post-humous Pulitzer Prize-winning Artiste, Coltrane. (There is even a church of Coltrane - no joke.) First Lady Michelle Obama will have one part of her heart envying her husband's destination on Monday, but not his activity - he will be in Chicago as she directs traffic in her day dedicated to a White House Jazz University or Lecture Series. President Obama and First lady Michelle Obama already had a successful White House Poetry Jam last month that was taped for HBO.

While the East Room in the building designed by James Hoban is meant for large functions or concerts, it still is not enough room for what the First Lady has in mind. The other end of the elegant Cross Hall on the West Side, the grand State Dining Room, will become a working classroom. In tribute to the body of work that encompassed Ragtime to Miles Davis and Thelonius Monk, and a presidential nod to the Newport Jazz Festival, President Jimmy Carter hosted the first significant White House Jazz concert in a major event on the South Lawn on June 18, 1978. That was an Event with Eubie Blank among other jazz royalty.

President Lydon Johnson first featured Jazz vocalist Pearl Bailey and the incomparable Sarah Vaughn. Scat rang out from the First Lady of Jazz, Ella Fitzgerald, in the jazzy aficionado Ford White House. Dizzie Gillepsie and Chick Corea added to Reagan White house entertainment repertoire. In 2004, a program titled A Salute to the NEA Jazz Masters showcasing the Billy Taylor Trio among others plus six students was held in the East Room courtesy of president and Mrs. Bush. Jackie Kennedy, as first lady, was known for her eclectic mix of guests and the cultural performances first introduced Jazz to the White House at a children's event with the performance by the Paul Winter Jazz sextet. (Photo by Vance Jacobs of President Bush at jazz event in East Room.)

Ellis Marsalis, courtesy Times-Picayune & Wynton Marsalis courtesy LA Times

The White House concert and classroom style instruction headlined by the Marsalis Family of New Orleans is the first leg of a three part series on music in the White house featuring Jazz. Another trumpeter, Sean Jones and saxophonist Todd Williams with vocalist Eli Yamin sport ties to Wynton Marsalis at the Lincoln Center. Professional music educator Stephen Massey will also be on hand as well as Cuban-American clarinetist Paquito D'Rivera. Country and Classical music will also do a star turn, tune and tap later this year to complete the three part series. Father, Ellis Marsalis, will tickle the ivories as his four sons, Jason, Branford, Delfeayo, and Wynton will bring percussion, a saxophone, trombone and trumpet to 150 students in the East Room of the White House.

Lincoln Center Art Director Wynton Marsalis last performed at the White House during a dramatic period in the Clinton presidency in 1998 for a Millenium Lecture as part of a series of concerts. But Monday night will be topped off, not at the White House, but at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts with members of the Marsalis Family and Harry Connick, Jr., in full smooth jazzy style. Wonder who get the tickets for the presidential box... (Obamas at Alvin Ailey Dance performance at Kennedy Center in February 2009)

(Maureen heavily contributed to this even while still being on the mend.)
UPDATE:

Live from the White House website at 12:30 PM today will be many first rate Jazz artists offering three break out sessions in the State Dining Room with large groups in the East Room.  The White House's timing is excellent as the Jazz Lecture Series comes after President Obama finishes his address to the AMA on healthcare.

First Ladies, Gowns & The Smithsonian Exhibit

First Ladies formal wear, part of the presidential inaugural festivities, extend their natural lives mounted behind glass at the National Museum of American History as part of the Smithsonian for visitors too ooh and ah over or recoil in fashion terror. Almost one hundred years ago, before women had the right to vote, the first donation for curating for an exhibition, "Collection of Period Costumes" focused on women, arrived from First Lady Helen Taft's 1909 inaugural debut. Better known as Nellie to intimates, she was a big social drinker - even during Prohibition and staunch guardian angel of her husband's political ambitions. Mrs. Taft rocked the nation by riding next to him in the inaugural parade. Her gift of gown aided the evolution of what is now known as the "First Ladies Collection" of which the gowns displayed are a mainstay, augmented with more relics, from White house china to bumper stickers, from a first lady's time in the White House. (Nellie Taft's White House portrait)
Lisa Kathleen Graddy is the current curator of the Smithsonian's First Ladies Exhibit, now entitled - after a December 2008 reopening in its third iteration - First Ladies at the Smithsonian. There were a flurry of anxious calls to the Smithsonian after the Obama inauguration to ascertain the exact date Michelle's dress would make its debut. Certainly the Smithsonian has written a formal request to the first lady for a particular list of items. At least two of the potential items are still in use by Michelle Obama, the Kelly green Jimmy Choo's and the cardigan she wore under the Isabel Toledo's lemon grass ensemble for the swearing in and walk along the parade route.

The now famous Jason Wu white gown will take a year or more before it is ready. Little/big/Oh My details have to be worked out. For one, the mannequins in the display cases feature custom made forms that are more white for featuring the dress. What do you do with Mrs. Obama's form - even if it is headless?

Meanwhile the Smithsonian is on a quest for something related to the Obama Inaugural. So far, the Queen of Soul has not yet felt a convincing argument to release the bow-tie crystal-encrusted wonder into the annals of hat history at the famed institution.

Aretha Franklin singing My Country Tis of Thee, Photo courtesy AP

The exhibition of First Lady doo dads and duds is arguably one of the most visited. What is fascinating is what happens during conservation of the gowns and other accouterments. Fans fluttered by some first ladies are rather ornate. Jewelry ranging from Jackie Kennedy's pearls to handbags and matching shoes have a place inside the display cases. Photos or letters describing the gowns or what happened to them are checked and verified in minute detail. Even the detail that Rosalynn Carter took austerity measures and wore a gown she unearthed from when her husband was sworn-in as Georgia's governor - twice before - shall not go unremarked.

Rosalynn Carter (1977) Hillary Clinton (1993)

Through the ages, many first lady gowns went to family members who repurposed them for wedding dresses or day wear. Mary Todd Lincoln's vertical striped dress with little purple flowers was updated for day wear by a family member and the lace collar removed compared to photographic evidence. Frances Cleveland's second inaugural dress became the family wedding dress and Martha Washington's silk frock had some fiddling done to the collar section. Practical Eleanor Roosevelt went synthetic with Arnold Constable designing the rayon crepe in a pinkish rose color. There may be something instructional here as Mrs. Obama's section is thought out because Eleanor Roosevelt height needed an adjustment to be made to her form to give it the right statuesque proportions to showcase the ensemble properly. Of course, Mamie Eisenhower wore her signature color - pink - in 1953 (pictured left). I must confess the only dress I remembered was the violet Susan Philip's gown Hillary Clinton wore because I liked it. (Photos courtesy of National Museum of American History)

In Elizabeth Mayo's curation for first lady gowns, the mannequin's featured heads. Because of the beaded lace work on some of the gowns many feature arms, but but not hands in the most recent edition on display. There are 14 gowns on display at any given time due to the need to preserve some of the more fragile ones that are unavailable for featuring permanently. Another interesting factoid is the gown the Smithsonian wants most is the one from the first inaugural. Should the president get re-elected the second gown is usually found at their presidential library for more modern presidents.