Obama Presidential Center: Chicago’s New Museum to the Vain and Glorious

Tomorrow the Obama Presidential Center officially opens. Last week I wrote about the architecture of the museum and proselytizing building, which overall I liked, at the new center. Today, I’ll go from outside to inside. The art is very good and the production values are top-notch. The content? If I had a nickel for every false value, every ray of gas light, every guilt-trip moment, I’d be a multimillionaire.

The Obamas wanted a substantial, distinguished public-art component and got it. Mount Vernon and Monticello notwithstanding, the art bar at presidential sites has been low. How low can you go? Rhinestone campaign pins and Air Force One count as art. The Obama Center changes that for the better. I’ll start with Julie Mehretu’s 83-by-25 foot painted-glass window on the north façade that runs up the wall of the first few floors by the nicest escalators I’ve ever seen. It’s indoor/outdoor art in that it’s scrutable from the outside. The kind of granite is known as Tapestry because of its intricate patterns, like stone brocade, so Mehretu’s window works well with it. The title, Uprising of the Sun, makes me chuckle, given Obama’s pledge to lower the oceans and heal the planet. So he makes the sun uprise, too?

About the Author

Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

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Tomorrow the Obama Presidential Center officially opens. Last week I wrote about the architecture of the museum and proselytizing building, which overall I liked, at the new center. Today, I’ll go from outside to inside. The art is very good and the production values are top-notch. The content? If I had a nickel for every false value, every ray of gas light, every guilt-trip moment, I’d be a multimillionaire.

The Obamas wanted a substantial, distinguished public-art component and got it. Mount Vernon and Monticello notwithstanding, the art bar at presidential sites has been low. How low can you go? Rhinestone campaign pins and Air Force One count as art. The Obama Center changes that for the better. I’ll start with Julie Mehretu’s 83-by-25 foot painted-glass window on the north façade that runs up the wall of the first few floors by the nicest escalators I’ve ever seen. It’s indoor/outdoor art in that it’s scrutable from the outside. The kind of granite is known as Tapestry because of its intricate patterns, like stone brocade, so Mehretu’s window works well with it. The title, Uprising of the Sun, makes me chuckle, given Obama’s pledge to lower the oceans and heal the planet. So he makes the sun uprise, too?