Ed Ruscha should be smiling this morning. The word from the White House is that President Obama has given British Prime Minister David Cameron a gift of one of Ruscha’s signed color lithographs. Column With Speed Lines was reportedly chosen because it’s red, white and blue — the colors on both countries’ flags.
Not exactly a reason to choose art, perhaps, but we’ll take it.
Obama has not been very good at gift-giving, especially with the British. His gifts to former Prime Minister Gordon Brown (including a DVD of 25 American movie classics, which turned out to be incompatible with European players) and the Queen (an iPod) were ridiculed by the press and the public there. Critics weren’t happy with the glass art tree he selected for Summiteers in Pittsburgh last year either.
Cameron’s gift to the President also came in the form of visual art. He chose a painting by British graffiti artist Ben Eine, who donated the work: Twenty First Century City (above).
Press comment, so far, has been approving.
Now, what’ll this do for markets for work by these artists? Probably not much, but awareness counts. (Note: I could not find an image for the Ruscha print.)
According to the Daily Beast, here’s how the gift of the Ruscha — which seems to have been commandeered from the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies program came about:
It may have something to do with Michael Smith, the decorator whom the Obamas chose to appoint their White House. Smith is a Southern Californian himself, recruited back East after designing Santa Monica hotspots such as One Pico, the restaurant, and Shutters on the Beach, the resort. Smith, whose tastes sometimes appear more staid than would synch with the assertive work of Ruscha, placed one of the artist’s works in the Obamas’ White House living quarters last year, on loan from the National Gallery. And maybe Ruscha’s established support of Obama helped send “Column With Speed Lines” overseas. “I am 1,000% behind this administration,” Ruscha told the Los Angeles Times last October.
Here’s a link to the Beast story.
Photo Credit: Courtesy British Embassy