The Oval Office has gotten a makeover. Seems like ARTKABINETT art collectors social network are not the only saavy enthusiasts of design!
When President Obama addressed the American public on Iraq last night, he did so from newly redecorated digs.
The look, which includes new and reupholstered furniture and new paint and wallpaper, is more modern and tends toward neutral hues of brown and taupe, rather than the gold and yellow tones favored by his predecessor, George W. Bush.
Gone is the sunburst rug that Mr. Bush loved so much; designed by his wife, Laura, he used to say it evoked a spirit of optimism.
In its place is a more muted, mostly wheat and cream-colored carpet featuring the presidential seal in the center, and ringed on its edge with five quotations selected by Mr. Obama -- four from former presidents (Lincoln, Kennedy and both Roosevelts) and one from the Rev Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Previous yellow brocade couches -- photographed here at a conference between Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton -- have been replaced with two custom-made sofas of brown cotton that resembles velvet.
They face a boxy table, fashioned from American walnut and mica, that features a fruit bowl -- not flowers -- as its centerpiece. There is a lone navy blue pillow on one of the couches, which pulls in the blue from some new, modern table lamps.
The new wallpaper is striped, gold and yellow, but the pictures -- portraits of Lincoln and Washington -- have remained, as has the grandfather clock.
Mr. Obama reupholstered Mr. Bush's two mahogany chairs and kept the desk, called the Resolute, that every chief executive since Rutherford B. Hayes -- with the exception of Johnson, Nixon and Ford -- has used.
The White House is not saying how much the redesign cost, except to say that it was ëíin line withíí what Mr. Obama's two most recent predecessors spent. The rug was made and donated by the Scott Group, a carpet maker headquartered in Grand Rapids, Mich., that had made the rug designed for President Bill Clinton, the White House said.
But given the hard economic times facing the nation, Mr. Obama is bound to face questions about the redo.
When he arrived for work at the White House in January last year, he said he thought the office was fine and saw no need to redecorate.
These are the quotations the president chose for his rug:
"The Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself" -- President Franklin D. Roosevelt
"The Arc of the Moral Universe Is Long, But It Bends Towards Justice" --Martin Luther King Jr.
"Government of the People, By the People, For the People" -- President Abraham Lincoln
"No Problem of Human Destiny Is Beyond Human Beings" -- President John F. Kennedy
"The Welfare of Each of Us Is Dependent Fundamentally Upon the Welfare of All of Us"-- President Theodore Roosevelt
A tradition evolved in the latter part of the twentieth century of each new administration redecorating the office to the President's liking.
A new administration usually selects an oval carpet, new drapery, the paintings on the walls, and some furniture.
Most incoming presidents continue using the rug of their predecessor until their new one is installed.
The retired carpet -- see here during the Bush presidency -- very often is then moved to the presidential library of the president for whom it was made.
The redecoration of the Oval Office is usually coordinated by the First Lady's office in the East Wing, working with an interior designer and the White House Curator.
Art may be selected from the White House collection, or may be borrowed for the length of an administration.
President Clinton borrowed a bronze sculpture of "The Thinker" by Auguste Rodin from a museum. President George W. Bush borrowed two oil paintings, "A Charge to Keep" by W.H.D. Koerner (owned by Bush), and "Rio Grande" by Tom Lea (on loan from the El Paso Museum of Art).
Since President Barack Obama took office in 2009, these paintings have been removed to be replaced by the American impressionist Childe Hassam's painting from 1917, "Avenue in the Rain" (seen here) and Norman Rockwell's Statue of Liberty.
There are more modern works including a painting by Edward Corbett on loan from the Hirschorn Museum.Three subtle changes are the addition of a hand-carved wooden sculpture obtained by him on a 2006 trip to his ancestral home of Kenya. The figurine shows an egg placed gently into a human hand, symbolizing the fragility of power
He has also replaced the Laura Bush-inspired floral decorations with a bowl of wax apples and has replaced the decorative plates on the oval office bookshelves with books.
During the first week of the Presidency, Obama surveyed his new environs with a critical eye. "He looked around," said one of his guests, retired Rear Adm. John D. Hutson, "and said, 'Iíve got to do something about these plates. Iím not really a plates kind of guy.'"
www.whitehousemuseum.org/model/oval-office.htm
