Art and Soul in the West Wing

Last month, Norman Rockwell's painting "The Problem We All Live With" was installed in the West Wing of the White House. Politico carried an article about the installation, and Mediaite followed up with a slide show of other "controversial" art choices made by previous Presidents.

Rockwell's illustration was published in Look magazine in 1964 just two months after the assassination of John F. Kennedy and a month before the Civil Rights Act was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives.

The painting was based on the story of Ruby Bridges, a six-year-old girl who integrated William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans accompanied by U.S. Marshals sent in by President Eisenhower.

The White House posted this video of President Obama discussing the painting and the incident with Ruby Bridges.

The historic moment was also captured by John Steinbeck in Travels with Charley.

The show opened on time. Sound the sirens. Motorcycle cops. Then two big black cars filled with big men in blond felt hats pulled up in front of the school. The crowd seemed to hold its breath. Four big marshals got out of each car and from somewhere in the automobiles they extracted the littlest negro girl you ever saw, dressed in shining starchy white, with new white shoes on feet so little they were almost round. Her face and little legs were very black against the white. The big marshals stood her on the curb and a jangle of jeering shrieks went up from behind the barricades. The little girl did not look at the howling crowd, but from the side the whites of her eyes showed like those of a frightened fawn. The men turned her around like a doll and then the strange procession moved up the broad walk toward the school, and the child was even more a mite because the men were so big. Then the girl made a curious hop, and I think I know what it was. I think in her whole life she had not gone ten steps without skipping, but now in the middle of her first step, the weight bore her down and her little round feet took measured, reluctant steps between the tall guards. Slowly they climbed the steps and entered the school.

What luck for Rockwell that Steinbeck was on the scene. He drew the same picture with his words.

A feature on the Gao brothers from the LA Times:

Their weapons are brushes; their battlefields are canvases. And here in China, where political dissent often leads to prosecution, the works of avant-garde artists can sometimes appear as threatening as a mass protest.

Enter the Gao brothers, Qiang and Zhen, soft-spoken siblings who have long used startling images of Mao Tse-tung as a focal point for their sculptures, paintings and performance pieces.

The brothers' work will be at the Kemper Museum of Art in Kansas City starting September 17.

Drawing Fire for Drawing Mohammad

Seattle artist Molly Norris takes on the image of Mohammad and steps into all kinds of controversy.

Call Him Ishmael

Artist Matt Kish has a blog called One Drawing for Every Page of Moby Dick. And that's just what it is. His project is being turned into a book. For the best look at all the images (pages), visit his website.

Imperial Criminal

Crackdown on Chinese artists/activists: From the NY Times: Wu Yuren, an artist who helped lead an unusually bold public protest last winter over a land dispute, has been languishing in a Beijing jail for almost six weeks after having been beaten by police officers, his wife said on Thursday.

Look at and read about Wu Yuren's work.