An artist who is actually a rip-off artist has had her work quietly removed from the walls of the White House.
Yes, the Obamas have ditched a painting by Alma W. Thomas that was to have adorned the wall of Michelle’s East Wing office.
“The reason why it was moved was because it didn’t fit the space right,” said Semonti Stephens, the first lady’s deputy press secretary.
Others, however, say the White House removed Thomas’s work because it is a blatant rip-off of “The Snail” by the French artist Henri Matisse? Is it really possible that Thomas’ creativity was limited to turning turning Matisse’s work 90 degrees and changing the colors a bit?
No, of course not. No way. Don’t be silly. That’s crazy talk.
The Washington Post quickly slipped into righteous indignation to defend Thomas’ work:
Stephens’s explanation makes sense because it is inconceivable that the White House’s art experts would imagine Thomas’s painting was fraudulent or a copy. From the time of its birth, it would have been clear that Thomas’s work was an homage; “The Snail” was extraordinarily famous when Thomas painted “Watusi.”
Thomas’s painting was first exhibited in the ’60s. At that time, you could no more plagiarize a Matisse collage such as “The Snail” than you could pass off the “Mona Lisa” as your own.
Elaborations on earlier artists’ work, even full appropriation, have been common practice in art for hundreds of years. Artists long learned their craft by copying the works of older masters; even among high artists, it was standard.
Yeah, right. And the work shown with this article is our own original creation, too. It’s not a rip-off, it’s an homage to Leonardo da Vinci.
Source: Washington Post
