What art should hang in the White House?

Check this out! My good buddy Henry Thaggert got to tell the Wall Street Journal what art should hang in the White House. Keeping pretty good company too!

A White House Wish List

What kind of art should hang in the White House? Recommendations for the White House walls from artists, collectors and curators.

Agnes Gund

New York collector and president emerita of the Museum of Modern Art

Lee Krasner, 1908-1984, abstract expressionist painter married to Jackson Pollock

Kiki Smith, 1954-, New York sculptor known for her chalky sculptures of women

By adding contemporary artists, the Obamas show “that art is not so obscure or hard to understand,” Ms. Gund says.

Toni Morrison

Author, collector of African-American art

Faith Ringgold, 1930-, New York artist known for her late 1960s murals of African-American life painted onto quilts.

“Her work would look really nice in the White House,” Ms. Morrison says.

Joy Simmons

Los Angeles radiologist and former trustee of the Santa Monica Museum of Art

Kehinde Wiley, 1977-, New York artist known for painting urban African-American men in Old Master-style poses (see page W2)

“Wiley should paint the family portrait, Ms. Simmons says. “That would be beyond fly.”

Philip Brookman

Chief curator and head of research of the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington

Sam Gilliam, 1933-, Washington-based abstract expressionist and lyrical abstractionist

William Christenberry, 1936-, Washington-based photographer, painter and sculptor

Choosing a Gilliam or Christenberry work would send a signal that the Obamas are “incorporating contemporary ideas from the Washington art community,” Mr. Brookman says.

Fred Wilson

Bronx artist collected by MoMA and High Museum in Atlanta, known for slyly pairing historical artifacts with decorative objects

“Uncle Tom’s Cabin” memorabilia in the Lincoln Bedroom

Daguerreotypes of Native American chiefs next to presidential portraits

“I think the White House landscapes can stay, but how are the works playing off each other to offer a fuller view of American history?” Mr. Wilson says.

Isabel Stewart

Chicago collector, chair of the Art Institute of Chicago’s leadership advisory committee

Martin Puryear, 1941-, sculptor who began making his iconic series of wooden-ring sculptures while living in Illinois in the 1970s

Kerry James Marshall, 1955-, Chicago-based painter known for his idyllic scenes of African-American suburbia

“We’re in the Obamas’ hometown, so to have our artists on the national scene would be wonderful,” Ms. Stewart says.

Henry Thaggert

Washington collector, member of Corcoran’s acquisitions council

“American Gothic” by Gordon Parks, 1912-2006, photographer known for his photo series for Life magazine

“That photo has the power to stop busy White House staffers in their tracks,” Mr. Thaggert says.