New case opened CP scribe Kriston Capps polices the whole Jacob Lawrence squabble and in the process comes up with an excellent point. According to Capps, "Betty Monkman, the curator of the White House, reveals that, while Lawrence’s painting isn’t the sole piece by a black artist in the executive mansion, it’s close to it — there are only two others." That's now three out of "an estimated 375 total in the White House’s art collection." 

Geez. 

That implies that Simmie Knox's portrait of Pres. Clinton is not considered part of the White House’s art collection, which doesn't make sense. Knox is a DC area artist by the way, and a brilliant painter. So let's take the first century and a half off the acquisition process, which probably just focused on American artists from one of the four races, and somewhat reverse my stand on segregating artists by race, rather than just artistic merit, and let me take the uncomfortable side of trying to ask the question "why aren't there more works by black artists in the White House collection?" 

Even if one ignores color, and just looks at the art and artistic achievement, there are plenty of great American artists, who happen to be black, that one suspect should be in the White House collection. Some art greats, by artistic default, I would think, would have to be Black, or Asian, or Native American, not just Caucasian artists - after all, all four races of mankind create art and all four and their many mixtures, live in America. 

 And let's say that the White House's collection is not exactly, ah... contemporary, which would eliminate a lot of good modern choices; and after all, the White House is not an art museum, but it sort of feels that it should be a classy arts conglomerate where all things say "America." 

Back in the 1980's, the great Jacob Lawrence was awarded the National Medal of Arts from Pres. George Bush The First. Why did it take 27 years for one of his paintings to become part of the White House's permanent collection? Capps identifies the other two paintings: "Henry Ossawa Tanner’s Sand Dunes at Sunset, Atlantic City (1885) also hangs in the Green Room, its home since 1996. And an 1892 painting by one “Bannister” (they likely mean Ed Bannister) acquired last year is currently undergoing conservation." 

So two of the three have been acquired by the Bushes, and before 1996 there wasn't a single work of art by any black artist in the President's home, in spite of the fact that artists such as Lawrence, Bearden, Gilliam, Puryear, and others are all just great American artists, period, and have even broken the National Gallery of Art code. 

Makes my head hurt.