The US president has just rescinded an executive order from Trump that mandated realistic art in federal buildings.
Joe Biden had already canceled an executive order by Donald Trump last May which imposed classic architecture on federal buildings. His administration just rescinded another executive order that defined what kind of art could be commissioned for those same federal buildings.
"Build and Rebuild Monuments to American Heroes ," was the title of the Trump executive order in July 2020. It stated that artwork commissioned for federal buildings must depict "Americans or significant events in American history.", or illustrate the ideals on which the nation was founded", and especially that these representations were to be "realistic and not abstract or modernist representations".
The Art in Architecture program, which manages the commissioning of visual art in federal buildings, had to exclude many American artists.
The development of public art in the image of American diversity is now encouraged by the Biden administration. "Art is changing in different parts of the country and other communities, and now it allows us, in a federal building, to see art that reflects individuals within the local community and across the country said Krystal Brumfield, Administrator in the Office of Government Policy in the General Services Administration.
The executive order will take effect next Monday and will be officially published in the federal register on Wednesday. Seen in Le Journal des Arts, Julie Goy
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