All the President’s Art

Martin Puryear Damien Hirst Andy Warhol Edward Ruscha Jasper Johns Cy Twombly Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Dan Flavin

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“The other is Enrico Castellani, whom we are showing at Haunch of Venison in New York. His work is amazing and very closely linked to Manzoni, Fontana, and Yves Klein, but the prices are much lower. I think it has great potential.”
Anne Pasternak, president and artistic director, Creative Time

“A big mural by Kara Walker. In taking on American history, her cutouts are radical, unapologetic, historic, and profound.

“A big, black neon commissioned by Glenn Ligon for the White House. Glenn’s texts reference African-American writers and intellectuals — from the brilliant comic Richard Pryor to author James Baldwin — to comment on race, sexual identity, and representation. And they are always poetic and gorgeous.

“A shadow-puppet video by William Kentridge titled Shadow Procession, from 2001. His work is so much about politics and its ramifications on the poor and displaced. Not many artists show compassion as viscerally, poetically, and hauntingly.”
Simon Watson, co-founder, Scenic art advisory firm

“My first choice would be an installation by husband and wife Bradley McCallum and Jacqueline Tarry, an interracial couple whose work deals with race in America and an examination of how we get along. I would urge the Obamas instead of borrowing to buy a cycle by McCallum and Tarry titled ‘The Evidence of Things Not Seen,’ which are 104 portraits of all of the people arrested during the Montgomery bus boycott of 1956. It was the very first time Dr. King was arrested and probably the single most important boycott of all because it started the whole civil rights movement.

“My second choice would be a photograph by Mexican photographer Gonzalo Lebrija titled Entre la vida y la muerte (blanco y negro) (2008), which will appear on the cover of a monograph being published by Damien Hirst, who publishes groovy emerging-artist books. The piece is a black-and-white photograph of a car taking a nosedive into a lake. Lebrija had a crane holding a black Cadillac over a dead-still lake. When he dropped it, he took a high-speed photo of the car. It’s surreal. The car looks like it’s facing itself in a mirror, which is everything Obama has been doing for the last three months in dealing with the economic crisis and the world. It’s a haunting and beautiful photo of a disaster looking at itself.

“I think it would be fun to commission a portrait of Obama in his basketball outfit by Kehinde Wiley. And Michelle would look extraordinary in one of Mickalene Thomas’s fabulous Lichtenstein-like rhinestone paintings. The two artists together have a sense of glamour and now and streetness, and something to say about pleasure and Pop art that speaks to a broad, fun audience. Contemporary art is fun when it speaks to the art world, but in a bigger sense it’s inclusive in the same way that Obama’s White House is.”
Jerry Russo, independent curator

“As a tribute to Bo, the Obamas’ Portuguese water dog, how about Jeff Koons’s Puppy?

“Dorothea Lange’s poignant photo Migrant Mother, to remind the Obamas of the plight of the poor and forgotten in this country.

“And last, but not least, Ralph Eugene Meatyard’s image titled still life, mannequin. Meatyard was president of the Parent-Teacher Association, coached a Little League baseball team in his hometown of Lexington, Kentucky, and was an optician by trade. His work is some of the most disturbing imagery ever created with a camera — all the more reason to be hanging on a wall in the White House.”
Sima Familant, private curator and art adviser

“The first piece I would pick is Slavery! Slavery! Presenting a Grand and Lifelike Panoramic Journey into Picturesque Slavery or ‘Life at ‘Ol Virginny’s Hole’ (1997) by Kara Walker. An African-American woman, Walker is one of the most important artists of her generation, and her work is steeped in the subject of race as well as power — its transference, its possessors, and how it is used and/or abused. Walker’s narrative, fairy-tale-like constructions seduce the viewer, as she mixes historical material with slave narratives and romance novels. The results articulate a complex reading of history, both illuminating and terrifying.