Friday, October 9, 2009

Art In The White House, A Copycat Among Them





The other day many of us were treated to a good laugh at the painting the Obamas choose to hang in the White House called I Think I’ll…. The joke being that indecision describes Obama perfectly. 

Today the latest talk about the art chosen by the Obama’s centers around the work of black artist Alma Thomas “Watusi (Hard Edge)”.  The controversy here is that some people at Free Republic noticed that it is clearly a knock off of the Matisse painting called “L’Escargot” flipped on its side.

Michelle Malkin discovers that Alma Thomas did indeed make her own version of Matisse’s painting.  Now some folks are saying it is racist to suggest Thomas plagiarized.


Any fool with two eyes can plainly see that Thomas clearly copied the Matisse and simply changed the colors around. So for those people who are too squeamish about calling a black artist a plagiarist, call her a copycat instead.

A quick word on art: It maybe tempting to fault the Obamas on their choice of art to hang in the White House, but remember art is a subjective thing. Some people can be moved to tears by a simple drawing made by a child. For other only the work of the grand masters would do. That being said, it is the Obamas who have to look at their choices for the next 3 years so they might as well pick what they like.

Personally I did not see anything the Obamas picked that I liked.  That is because I am not a big fan of most contemporary art.  I find most contemporary artists spend way too much time trying to be controversial and way too little time on applying real skill. Randomly skewed shapes and wild colors do nothing for me.

To view more of the art picked by the Obamas, click here.

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