Painting of Trump hanging out with Republican presidents causes outcry
WASHINGTON: It could be any Republican president's fantasy: Chilling at a bar with conservative American leaders of years, decades- even centuries past.
For President Donald Trump, that fictional "happy hour" exists, in the form of a painting at the White House that caused an uproar on social media over the weekend, after it was shown in Mr Trump's interview on 60 Minutes that aired on Sunday.
Mr Trump's likeness has been ruthlessly disfigured by "high" and "low" artists alike, who have made no secret of their dislike of the President.
But in The Republican Club, a painting by Mr Andy Thomas, an uncharacteristically brawny Trump joins the likes of Abraham Lincoln, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Teddy Roosevelt and George W. Bush.
The group is chatting around a table and seems to be having a good time with drinks.
The fantasy creation was mercilessly mocked on social media.
One Twitter user wrote: "Neither Lincoln nor Teddy would be caught dead at this table."
"You could borrow stuff from the Smithsonian or the National Gallery of Art but, nope, you're gonna decorate the White House with crap from the Things Remembered kiosk at the mall," wrote another.
The Trump White House has a strained relationship with the art world. Its curator retired last year and has not been replaced.
And when the Trumps asked the Guggenheim Museum to borrow a Vincent van Gogh painting, they were instead offered a solid gold toilet by Maurizio Cattelan, a satirical, if fully functioning sculpture called America.
Mr Thomas, who specialises in paintings of cowboys, also made a Democratic presidents' version featuring Mr Barack Obama. - AFP
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