Art Controversy in the Obama White House: Performing Tensions of Race in the Visual Politics of the Presidency

In 2009, two works by African American artists selected for display in the White House produced controversy among critics of the president. Our analysis explores how media discussion involving a Charles Alston bust of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and an abstract painting by Alma Thomas unearthed cultural tensions involving the practice of imitation, the value of presence, and the role of Black art and artists. Such tensions shaped the debate about the art works chosen by the Obamas and raised the question of how to define and place a Black president in the first year of his first term.