The Obama White House’s Plagiaristic, Silly Art
by Ben Shapiro**UPDATE 11/5** Obama drops painting, throws Alma Thomas under the bus.
Want to know the Obama Administration’s idea of what constitutes art? There’s no better place to look than the newly-reconstituted White House art collection. So what’s there? How about this gem:
Yes, it is boring and banal. It does look like your three-year-old’s recent construction paper cut-out from pre-school – the one she made with the rounded scissors. It’s Watusi (Hard Edge), by black painter Alma Thomas.
Now here’s Henri Matisse’s The Snail (1953).
Notice any similarities? How about now:
That’s right. It’s a direct copy of the Matisse picture rotated 90 degrees and the colors inverted. What magnificent art.
Sort of reminiscent of the Shepherd Fairey plagiaristic “art” poster for Obama, ripped off directly from an AP photo:
But let’s not assume that all Obama’s art is this bad. Let’s look at it. How about this masterpiece by Ed Ruscha, appropriately entitled “I Think I’ll…”:
Isn’t that magnificent? It certainly sums up Obama’s thinking process, which is based on considering all the options, then eating a cup of applesauce and taking a nap while waiting for mommy (read: Valerie Jarrett) to make a decision.
Or how about another Alma Thomas piece, “Sky Light,” which could more appropriately be titled “inverted ant races on your broken television set”:
Then there’s “Berkeley, No. 52,” by Richard Diebenkorn (1955), which aptly sums up how the world must have looked to Obama while attending a liberal college and doing cocaine:
And, in case we forgot that the Obama’s are black, the text of “Black Like Me” on a piece of canvas (Glenn Ligon’s “Black Like Me No. 2”):
It’s as though the Obamas decided to do a poll as to what Americans would least like to post in their living rooms, then adopted all the top choices, with special credit to black artists based on their race. No doubt, Malia and Sasha will have an entire wing of the White House dedicated to their Play-Doh sculptures. And the New York Times will praise their artistic flair.
In essence, the Obamas are elitists who think that the inscrutable is deep, and that the incompetent is profound. Sadly, President Obama’s presidency is the same as his art: something that outsiders assume has substance, even in the absence of substance.
[Ed update: first two images are now in the correct order.]
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426 Comments
I realize that art is subjective, but… wow. Has nobody said anything about the Matisse ripoff? Can you actually get away with that without breaking some sort of copyright law?
Is Obama going to use the Ruscha painting as his decision-making dartboard? Hanging that in the White House is a really bad idea.
I'll take that Churchill sculpture anyday.
I think you've got your first two images backward. The Alma Thomas piece has a blue border, and the piece with the orange border clearly has Matisse's signature on it.
Plagiarists, tax cheats, truthers and deviants; this was the hope &change the jugeared dolt in the White House was talking about.
3 years 3 months till this sick joke is over.
Those in the know have been quietly discussing the new Art decour at the White House. It is either sheer crassness, or simply poor taste, but it is telling, and certainly is a reflection.
Good call, Alice. I'll have them change it now. — Ben
[...] White House Art October 12, 2009 Posted by Cory Franklin in Uncategorized. trackback Here [...]
*ahem*
Going by Michelle Malkin's piece, the blue-bordered one is Alma Thomas', Matisse's is the orange-peach-ish bordered one, you got them flipped.
Yoo-hoo, editor who puts the pictures with the articles!
>Can you actually get away with that without breaking some sort of copyright law?
I don't have enough information to answer that. What color are you?
At least it's not a toilet.
I'm thinking that's intentional Alice! -Yet further evidence the "inscrutable" confuses! -Depressingly though, I paid for this stuff…
I actually like Duchamp's Fountain.
But yeah, the rest of that crap….Just goes to show that Art is what you can get away with.
Hi Frances,
I'm taking a break from painting-I checked out BH and there's a new post by a young guy I like for the most part-but-he's wasting time on the Obama's choice of art in the WH. Of course, you and I might disagree on "what art is", but I find this focus on a subject these people know absolutely nothing about-painful!
How was your anniversary weekend?
Hope everyone is fine,
Alvaro
The art a person chooses tells us a lot about him. It tells us how he thinks about the place in which it hangs.
Previous presidents have celebrated America in their choices. The Bushes and Reagan showed Frederick Remington, Winslow Homer, Albert Bierstadt, Childe Hassam, and others. Obama celebrates the superiority of the international elite.
When the internationalist Left insisted on modernism, their taste diverged from that of most Americans. After 80 years of hearing what's good for us, we still aren't buying it. The biggest draws at American museums are still Wyeth, Hopper, and the European Impressionists.
I think that the art that Obama likes is as deep and meaningful as he, himself, is.
Hear, hear!
Whoops, you posted it first!
Well, they tried to get the National Endowment for the Arts to create some original art for them and got stopped ……. sheesh, what do you want from these people/lawyers/IvyLeague-educated leaders?
The international elite? These are all American artists. Or are they honorary Europeans because you don't like them? I'm sure the fine art fans here believe the only worthwhile art being produced today is by Thomas Kinkade, but really, don't you have anything better to worry yourselves about? You know you don't agree with Obama on anything — why should you share taste in art?
BHers may like my take (it works for any "art"):
http://www.americanartarchives.com/what_is_illust...
Hey, if you are color blind, drunk, and maybe even crossed eye, that might look nice. They are rocking that construction paper, kindergarden look, up top.
Didn't you guys know?
If it's written it's plagerism.
If it's art, its an homage!
; )
I'm surprised the Obama's didn't select a self-portrait (yes, that is Michelle on the right):
ObamaMan and sidekick
I think Pelosi has this one ornately framed in her boudoir:
<A href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gcA0ZuKGkI8/SoIvqO_zocI/AAAAAAAADEY/6jzRhQn7e5U/s1600-h/obama+plant.jpg">Heil to the Chief
I'm surprised the Obama's didn't select a self-portrait (yes, that is Michelle on the right):
ObamaMan and sidekick
I think Pelosi has this one ornately framed in her boudoir:
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gcA0ZuKGkI8/SoIvqO_zocI/AAAAAAAADEY/6jzRhQn7e5U/s1600-h/obama+plant.jpg">Heil to the Chief
Just wondering if Biden helped select the Thomas piece. We know how he feels about plagiarism.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Michael Chavez and Michael Ozman. Michael Ozman said: Big Hollywood: The Obama White House’s Plagiaristic, Silly Art http://bit.ly/Frqs6 #BC [...]
By the way, this "art" make children's finger paintings look like Picasso's.
By the way, this "art" makes children's finger paintings look like Picasso's.
I think you're mistaken, these look like drawings from his kids on the White House refrigerator.
Hey, I recognize that other Alma Thomas piece, "Sky Light." It is the "crackle" pattern of a fluorescent light "diffuser panel" aka lens for a standard 2 x 4 foot light used with a drop ceiling. You have likely seen it in an office setting. Without knowing the actual dimensions of the "painting," I see it has the same proportions. Actually, since the panels are textured, you could make your own "masterpiece" by putting paint on one and laying the canvas on top.
The text of "Black Like Me No. 2" repeats (in all caps) "All traces of the griffin I had been were wiped from existence." The full line, which can be read <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=Vv_ocJqva_kC&pg=PA252&lpg=PA252&dq=all+traces+of+the+griffin+had+been+wiped+from&source=bl&ots=1BlElzBL-5&sig=ocw8jfQnmyCi-1jmCaN6XgxLcLc&hl=en&ei=dFLTSvy6KpDelAev3LSpCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CCIQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=all%20traces%20of%20the%20griffin%20had%20been%20wiped%20from&f=false">here (carefully scroll down a bit) says "John Griffin" and comes from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Like_Me">Black Like Me, a 1961 book by John Howard Griffin, where he, a white person, impersonated a black man to see what it was like.
Ah, such irony for the First Black President who is half-white, raised white, and vacationed at Martha's Vineyard. Somehow I think it is more than "just a piece of African-American art" to him.
Hey, I recognize that other Alma Thomas piece, "Sky Light." It is the "crackle" pattern of a fluorescent light "diffuser panel" aka lens for a standard 2 x 4 foot light used with a drop ceiling. You have likely seen it in an office setting. Without knowing the actual dimensions of the "painting," I see it has the same proportions. Actually, since the panels are textured, you could make your own "masterpiece" by putting paint on one and laying the canvas on top.
The text of "Black Like Me No. 2" repeats (in all caps) "All traces of the griffin I had been were wiped from existence." The full line, which can be read <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=Vv_ocJqva_kC&pg=PA252&lpg=PA252&dq=all+traces+of+the+griffin+had+been+wiped+from&source=bl&ots=1BlElzBL-5&sig=ocw8jfQnmyCi-1jmCaN6XgxLcLc&hl=en&ei=dFLTSvy6KpDelAev3LSpCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CCIQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=all%20traces%20of%20the%20griffin%20had%20been%20wiped%20from&f=false">here (carefully scroll down a bit) says "John Griffin" and comes from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Like_Me">Black Like Me, a 1961 book by John Howard Griffin, where he, a white person, impersonated a black man to see what it was like.
Ah, such irony for the First Black President who is half-white, raised white, and vacationed at Martha's Vineyard. Somehow I think it is more than "just a piece of African-American art" to him.
Hey, I recognize that other Alma Thomas piece, "Sky Light." It is the "crackle" pattern of a fluorescent light "diffuser panel" aka lens for a standard 2 x 4 foot light used with a drop ceiling. You have likely seen it in an office setting. Without knowing the actual dimensions of the "painting," I see it has the same proportions. Actually, since the panels are textured, you could make your own "masterpiece" by putting paint on one and laying the canvas on top.
The text of "Black Like Me No. 2" repeats (in all caps) "All traces of the griffin I had been were wiped from existence." The full line, which can be read <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=Vv_ocJqva_kC&pg=PA252&lpg=PA252&dq=all+traces+of+the+griffin+had+been+wiped+from&source=bl&ots=1BlElzBL-5&sig=ocw8jfQnmyCi-1jmCaN6XgxLcLc&hl=en&ei=dFLTSvy6KpDelAev3LSpCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CCIQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=all%20traces%20of%20the%20griffin%20had%20been%20wiped%20from&f=false">here (carefully scroll down a bit) says "John Griffin" and comes from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Like_Me">Black Like Me, a 1961 book by John Howard Griffin, where he, a white person, impersonated a black man to see what it was like.
Ah, such irony for the First Black President who is half-white, raised white, and vacationed at Martha's Vineyard. Somehow I think it is more than "just a piece of African-American art" to him.
It's just like them. Not a clue.
test
<a href="http://www.google.com?id=a+b">test
These people? Or are those people left to ponder who they are?
<a href="http://www.google.com?id=a+b">test
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I have to say, from the bottom of my heart…..
Who the hell cares what crapola is hanging on their walls??? Is it that much of a slow news day we gotta rip their poor taste in art??
What nobody ever seems to notice about the Duchamp piece is that, from what I understand, it was consciously designed to be unusable. If you hung an identical urinal on a bathroom wall, it wouldn't actually work.
The Dada movement was essentially saying, hey, listen — Art doesn't really have any practical purpose anyway unless you're trying to make propaganda, so Art doesn't really need a lot of restrictions… you can point at anything in the world and say "Hey, look — Art."
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Hey, I recognize that other Alma Thomas piece, "Sky Light." It is the "crackle" pattern of a fluorescent light "diffuser panel" aka lens for a standard 2 x 4 foot light used with a drop ceiling. You have likely seen it in an office setting. Without knowing the actual dimensions of the "painting," I see it has the same proportions. Actually, since the panels are textured, you could make your own "masterpiece" by putting paint on one and laying the canvas on top.
The text of "Black Like Me No. 2" repeats (in all caps) "All traces of the griffin I had been were wiped from existence." The full line, which can be read here (carefully scroll down a bit) says "John Griffin" and comes from Black Like Me, a 1961 book by John Howard Griffin, where he, a white person, impersonated a black man to see what it was like.
Ah, such irony for the First Black President who is half-white, raised white, and vacationed at Martha's Vineyard. Somehow I think it is more than "just a piece of African-American art" to him.
To his credit, Mr. Shapiro did not showcase the selections of what I believe are called "primitive" style paintings. Not that there is anything wrong with that. Lack of artistic talent, that is.
as toilets tend to be white, that wouldn't fit their decorative motif. on the other hand, the portrayal of a white toilet as some sort of reverse racist statement might…
"It’s a direct copy of the Matisse picture rotated 90 degrees and the colors inverted."
I am sure that in itself is meant to be a comment on the state of something or other.
I think art like this is garbage (and I am someone who works in the arts), but I wouldn't call it plagiarism because it was a clear reference to the Matisse. Ward Churchill passed of copies of art as his own, but Thomas's' piece is like a cover version of a song. It is a recasting that is in "conversation," as it were, with the Matisse work.
If this is so-called art is hanging on the White House walls, what is on the White House fridge ?
Don't you think Barry's kids could have done a better job in their art classes ?
very insightful as to the pretentiousness of the First Family
Yes, it is a slow news day and yes, we can rip on the Obamas for their taste in art.
They rip on us for our bitter clinging to religion and guns, so I think beating them up for their craptastic taste in art is more than fair.
LOL…..ok you convinced me….
I wonder in which room they have the jar of tinkle with a cross floating in it…..that's art, right??
Well, I for one think it's great that Obama is hanging an obvious piece of plagiarized art in the White House. I mean, Obama used Bill Ayers to write "Dreams of My Father", so why not just embrace the rip-off goodness?
I don't know art, but I know what I don't like. I should get my dogs to walk through paint, then across a canvass and offer it up as minority art. Only one of them is black but they are shih tsu's. The only true art in this White House is the artful lies Obama and his cult are feeding to their loyal, brainless ideologues. Now, a piece of excrement with HOPE under it, that's art. Oh wait, that picture is up there.
Right next to the Virgin Mary covered in Elephant poo.
Nothing surprises me anymore when it comes to these two. Distaste is 'da bes' taste in 'da world, when it comes down to these two specimens.
My dog already does that, except its mud instead of paint, and my kitchen floor instead of canvas.
I'm not impressed by Wolfie's (my dog) artistic merit.
I liked "Berkeley 52" better when DeKooning painted it.
That's amazing! Can't break a copyright law but will be interesting to see if the art world speaks up.
I actually LIKE Ed Ruscha (and Jasper Johns, some of whose work they also picked), so I have no problem with him being in the White house. But in all fairness, The Obamas also chose a bunch of George Catlins, who painted very traditional American Western art, as well as some Degas and Winslow Homer. I know it's fun here to slam them, and modern art certainly isn't to everyone's taste, but you can't just cherry pick the stuff you don't like and claim that it represents ALL their artistic taste. Personally I'd just have asked for all the O'Keeffe's, but that's just me.
It's spelled 'dope', dummy…
Hahaha. Good line, Val.
We can cherry pick on their tastes and we will.
Really, the idea that you'd hang an obvious copy-cat piece just because the artist is black is just the sort of racial tokenism Obama said he was going against. That's why it is annoying.
That and it really does look like a five year old made it out of scrap construction paper, Elmer's Glue and an ADHD diagnosis.
Gives new meaning to the term "artsy fartsy".
I just think they don't realize they have the thing hung on the wall sideways.
You're a professional, so for you Alvaro, perhaps it's a waste of your time…for me, I find this article very interesting, plus I am learning about things I would probably not have otherwise!
PS I hope everyone is fine also–Frances et al.
October 12, 2009
Edgar Degas never cast in bronze.
All so-called bronzes attributed to Edgar Degas are 2nd- to 3rd-generation-removed posthumous forgeries with counterfeit "Degas" signatures applied.
The dead don't cast, much less sculpt.
The Hirshhorn is a member of the Association of Art Museum Directors. The AAMD endorses the College Art Association's ethical guidelines on sculptural reproduction. In part, they state: "any transfer into new material unless specifically condoned by the artist is to be considered inauthentic or counterfeit and not acquired or exhibited as works of art."
The dead don't condone.
In closing, the Hirshhorn violates their own endorsed AAMD ethical guidelines on sculptural reproductions by exhibiting or displaying these -counterfeits- as works of art, much less loaning them to the people's White House.
We, as Americans, are being played as fools.
Gary Arseneau
artist, creator of original lithographs & scholar
Fernandina Beach, Florida
Wouldn't it be fair to say that the Matisse original kind of sucks, too?
Or does that just make me look unsophisticated?
I highly recommend the post by Harvey at IMAO discussing these and other White House art selections:
http://www.imao.us/index.php/2009/10/modern-art-q...
Gee, where's 'Zonk'??? Must be in the new Black Light Room.
And the winner of the 2010 Turner prize….. President Barack Obama!
(yeah yeah, it's awarded to Brits, but his father was a British subject…)
Diebenkorn was a great american artist ..but you would not know that..I'm right and you're …well…Just who you are!
I agree on the Matisse rip off..
Put an Obama bobble-head inside and call it "Flush".
A true work of art.
Here are some more suspicious White House art pieces: http://optoons.blogspot.com/2009/10/abstract-art-... (parody)
It was intended by the artist as a comment on Matisse using African art as inspiration:
A good place to begin thinking about Alma Thomas's ravishing late work might be the moment in 1964 when, close to paralysis and bedridden, the 73-year-old artist found herself staring at the hollyhock shadows she had known her entire life and calculating how to use them in her paintings. A year earlier, she had seen the late Matisse cutouts at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Matisse's work had prompted her to paint an acrylic-on-canvas version of his collage The Snail (1953), in which nearly all the original colors were reversed. Thomas named her painting Watusi (Hard Edge), after Chubby Checker's dance hit "The Watusi." As well as marrying high modernism with the popular culture of black America–then entering the American mainstream–the title she chose noted Matisse's debt to African art.
Between the bashing of abstract art , fears of communism , and anger at black people , it seems like you guys are headed back to the 50s. And now that I think about it , Glenn Beck already has a flat top haircut, hmmmmmm.
Art and color coordination is obviously not Obama's strong suit. So what is? Transparency? Bipartisanship? Economy? Healthcare? Foreign Policy? Crisis Decisions? Religion? Race Relations? Military Strategy? Oops, none of the aforementioned, I fear. Socialism! Yeah! That's it!
Shepard Fairey's plagiarism goes far beyond stealing from an AP photo:
http://www.art-for-a-change.com/Obey/index.htm
From the sound of it, he's incapable of creating ANYTHING on his own.
"….Sadly, President Obama’s presidency is the same as his art: something that outsiders assume has substance, even in the absence of substance."
Great commentary. I especially liked the last line!
What do you want to bet that you'll be seeing copies of the above "art pieces" on walls of yours and my lib friends in the near future. . .monkeys see, monkeys do. But it will take some time, since they won't realize they like this "art" until Barbara Walters, 48 hours(or the likes) or the MSM does a special on it; then watch the link to Amazon.com crash!
Angry at black people? Pfffffft.
Nobody gives a rat's behind what color that fool in the Oval Office is, if he was white as Betty White he'd still be a fool.
Uh huh , well how about these 2 comments from above :
". I should get my dogs to walk through paint, then across a canvass and offer it up as minority art. Only one of them is black but they are shih tsu's. "
"Nothing surprises me anymore when it comes to these two. Distaste is 'da bes' taste in 'da world, when it comes down to these two specimens."
Do they have anything to do with Obama being black?
I know, I know, art is subjective, but this is just awful.
The thing about the Matisse is that when Matisse did it, nobody had ever thought of doing anything like that before. I mean, odd colored shapes? Why? What is it? For somebody to copy it in today's time and pass if off as art is just a con job.
The "Russia" sorry could not help myself is perfect and sums up Obama perfectly.
Cheap fakes passing themselves off as something special…just about sums it all up.
Looks like shit
Probably, but that's because the dems make EVERYTHING about him being black. We disagree, it's not because he's a naive, clueless, incompetent moron, it's because he's black and we're racist. We're done. They want to play the race card everyday…works for me, I've got a good hand and I'm goin' all in.
Amazing the verbose justifications invented to excuse refrigerator doodles.
Great link. Thanks.
I thought the choice of the text of "Black Like Me" was an interesting one, too. I learned about that book in high school some time ago, and the irony of the situation wasn't lost on me.
It's not one of his better works, no.
When Sarah Palin takes America back for Americans she will hang art by John McNaughton in The White House.
http://www.mcnaughtonart.com/artwork/view_zoom/?a...
Yes!
No!
Ha!
I'm surprised the Obama's didn't select a self-portrait (yes, that is Michelle on the right):
ObamaMan and sidekick
I think Pelosi has this one ornately framed in her boudoir:
Heil to the Chief
Heil to the Chief
I'm surprised the Obama's didn't select a family portrait (yes, that is Michelle on the right):
ObamaMan and sidekick
I think Pelosi has this one ornately framed in her boudoir:
Heil to the Chief
Amen! Reminds me of a huge canvas I saw in the new MOMA in San Francisco right after it opened. It was all white. Stark white. Nothing on it but white paint. And did I mention it was huge??!! Scratched my head and decided dim sum was much more interesting so went and had some!
Hey, I recognize that other Alma Thomas piece, "Sky Light." It is the "crackle" pattern of a fluorescent light "diffuser panel" aka lens for a standard 2 x 4 foot light used with a drop ceiling. You have likely seen it in an office setting. Without knowing the actual dimensions of the "painting," I see it has the same proportions. Actually, since the panels are textured, you could make your own "masterpiece" by putting paint on one and laying the canvas on top.
The text of "Black Like Me No. 2" repeats (in all caps) "All traces of the griffin I had been were wiped from existence." The full line, which can be read here (carefully scroll down a bit) says "John Griffin" and comes from Black Like Me, a 1961 book by John Howard Griffin, where he, a white person, impersonated a black man to see what it was like.
Ah, such irony for the First Black President who is half-white, raised white, and vacationed at Martha's Vineyard. Somehow I think it is more than "just a piece of African-American art" to him.
AS AN ART COLLECTOR, THEIR PICKS MAKE ME PUKE… IS THIS REALLY THE STUFF THAT SHOULD BE IN THE WHITEHOUSE??? THE STRAIGHT UP PLAGARISM OF MATISSE IS STUNNING, I HAD NO IDEA ANY ARTIST WHO COPIED SOMEONE ELSE COULD EVEN BE CONSIDERED, "GOOD" OR "INFLUENTIAL" IN GUESS THAT'S WHY NO ONE HAD EVER HEARD OF HER… WHAT A FRAUD, JUST LIKE THE COUPLE WHO SELECTED IT….
YOUR LAST PARAGRAPH IS DEAD ON THE MARK!!! DEAD ON, HOW WELL WRITTEN!!! LIKE THEIR ART, THEY ARE NOTHING MORE THAN EMPTY VESSELS PRETENDING TO BE PROFOUND FOR WHAT THEY ARE OUTWARDLY, NOT WHAT THEY BELEIVE ON THE INSIDE!!!!
Our tax dollars hardly working!
Can we all agree that nothing is more aggravating than listening to a self righteous liberal speak of something about which he knows nothing? The worst is when the topic of his self-indulgent bloviation is conservatism, or libertarianism, or, any issue he thinks he understands well enough to disagree with. Listen to a liberal talk about Republicans, and you'll hear all your favorite straw-man canards: they're racist, they're capitalists because they hate poor people, they're ignorant, petty, conniving, they'll do anything to kill Palestinian babies etc.
I'm a conservative, and a rather obstinate one at that. Plus, like Mr. Shapiro, I was once a voice crying out in the wilderness at a ridiculously–almost satirically–leftist, elitist university (Brown, my alma mater, was recently–and justly–ranked #1 on Esquire magazine's "Douchiest Colleges in America" list, four spots above Harvard). I want to muster all the conservative cred I've earned through years of iconoclasm to encourage Mr. Shapiro to not be that guy. That guy who spouts off about a topic totally foreign to him, in this case American art. Much of this art is dreck, but some of it is actually really fantastic, if you take the time to understand it. Richard Diebenkorn was an amazing painter, and could not have been less of an "international elite." In fact, abstract expressionism is as American as apple pie and jazz. So much so that many liberals complain that it was used by the CIA as a cultural weapon during the cold war. Diebenkorn's art was in diametric opposition to the European/Soviet socialist treacle that leftist critics couldn't get enough of during the last century (Diego Rivera, Pablo Picasso etc.) Abstract expressionism was the art of American cowboy badass individualists, and it's biggest champions were art critics who had publicly renounced the childishness of socially liberal "Message oriented art". Diebenkorn was a US Marine during WWII! and his favorite painter was Edward Hopper! I think Obama is literally pathetic. I honestly feel kind of bad for the guy because he's such an idiot and is in so, so far over his head. All that said, he made the right move hanging a Diebenkorn on the wall. It'll probably be the only thing I'll ever agree with him on, except for the fact that Kanye West is a jackass. My overall point is that we conservatives, Mr. Shapiro included, should do our best to avoid making assumptions and sweeping generalizations about stuff we are ignorant of. We end up looking like bigots, and we give the left all the ammunition they need to slander us in the press as cultural illiterates and anti-intellectuals. If we want to attract the best young minds to our cause, we have to start doing our homework before we put our feet in our mouth. If you want to learn about art from some of the finest conservative thinkers in the world, check out "The New Criterion" (It's a cultural journal, and a brilliant one at that).
I don't think it actually affects our tax dollars–it's stuff borrowed from museums, and all the presidents get to do it. After Air Force One, I think it's the only thing I really covet that presidents get.
It does affect our tax dollars.
They are printing thousand and thousand of these Obama love documents.
Obama has proven that he knows how to waste money!
Like they say. A fool and his money make a great date!
It does affect our tax dollars.
They are printing thousand and thousand of these Obama love documents.
Obama has proven that he knows how to waste money!
Like they say. A fool and his money make a great date! The bad part is the fool is the taxpayer for letting this happen.
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