Trump made an arts commission all White, all male and almost entirely mediocre
Philip Kennicott, The Washington Post
Feb. 11, 2021
FacebookTwitterEmail
The Commission of Fine Arts, c. 1915. Clockwise from left: Charles Moore, Peirce Anderson, Edwin Blashfield, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., Daniel Chester French, Colonel William Harts , Thomas Hastings and Cass Gilbert.Commission of Fine Arts
A photograph taken a few years after the 1910 founding of the Commission of Fine Arts shows its seven members and the commission secretary at a moment when the capital of the United States was being radically redesigned as a grand, monumental city. All of the members are White men and all are dressed in suits and ties. Among them is Daniel Chester French, the sculptor who created the giant statue of the 16th president that commands the inner sanctum of the Lincoln Memorial; Cass Gilbert, the architect who designed the Supreme Court building; and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., a landscape designer