WASHINGTON — You can’t see it, but there’s a quiet cultural revolution underway at the White House. The Obamas are decorating their private spaces with more modern and abstract artwork than has ever hung on the walls.
New pieces by contemporary African-American and Native American artists are on display. Bold colors, odd shapes and squiggly lines have arrived, as have some obscure artifacts — such as patent models for a gear cutter and a steamboat paddlewheel — that now sit in the Oval Office.
Alma Thomas’ “Watusi (Hard Edge)” hangs in the East Wing, where Michelle Obama has her offices. The acrylic shows geometric shapes in bright reds, blues and greens. Glenn Ligon’s “Black Like Me No. 2,” hanging in the Obamas’ living quarters, is a “text painting” with words from the 1961 book “Black Like Me,” a nonfiction account by a white man who disguised himself as a black man and traveled in the South.
