THE BACK PAGE
the Modern
White House
By Sandy McLendon
y
, photo by Harold Knudsen.
It’s supposed to be the most traditional house in the land, but the White
House has always had a modern side. Each age has imposed its tech-
nology and taste on the mansion, so it’s not surprising to find modernist
influences among the antiques.
. Kennedy Librar
As the house of the president, the White House has always been John F
treated to the latest conveniences, from gas lights to computers that
Above Jacqueline Kennedy wears Hollywood designer Oleg
would probably make HAL 9000 look intellectually challenged. The Cassini’s interpretation of Givenchy style.
house itself is modern underneath its façade: a 1950 structural renova-
Below An up-to-the-minute car in the driveway put a modern
tion during the Truman administration demolished its wooden frame face on an older house.
and replaced it with a system of steel girders. For good measure,
Truman threw in central air-conditioning, beginning the transformation
at Mount Vernon for the president of Pakistan. As she led the
of Washington, D.C., from a Southern backwater that closed for the
famous televised tour of her restoration work, she wore a trend-
summer into a year-round city.
setting Oleg Cassini-designed cerise wool dress. Jackie actually
Truman’s renovations turned a warren of obsolete servant’s rooms
favored French couture, like Hubert de Givenchy’s clothes for
into a solarium for the First Family, with handsome midcentury bamboo
Audrey Hepburn, but to avoid offending American manufactur-
furnishings from B. Altman. When the Eisenhowers swept in, Mamie
ers, Cassini was hired to channel Givenchy, transforming Jackie
brought in ‘50s pastels, including her favorite pink, and deployed a lot
into one of the best-designed midcentury objets ever. Her pill-
of department-store chi-chi among the antiques, including gold paper
box hats, simple A-line shifts and jewel-like colors for evening
fans in the fireplaces, which she forbade anyone to use.
wear became the signature look of the decade.
The 1960 election ushered the White House into the Space Age. Under
Not to be outdone, John F. Kennedy prevailed upon the
the Kennedys, the mansion became historically correct and up-to-date at
Lincoln Division of Ford Motor Company to create a new White
the same time. Jacqueline Kennedy famously brought the house up to
House limousine in a Lincoln color ironically named Empress
historic preservation standards, banishing fusty damasks and re-imposing
Blue. Based on the Elwood Engel-designed 1961 Lincoln
the Federalist simplicity of the mansion’s original design.
Continental, the most modern-looking car in production, the
She got Tiffany and Company to donate early-‘60s décor, with bright
limousine was a total departure from the Cadillac-inspired tail-
yellow-striped tents and wrought-iron furniture, for an outdoor dinner
fins and chrome of the ‘50s. Predicting Everyman’s cell-phone
future, it even boasted a radiotelephone system capable of
reaching any phone in the world.
This limousine was the setting for one of the great tragedies
of the midcentury era — Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas,
Texas — and the promise of his administration drifted away into
the quagmire of Vietnam. But small doses of modernism con-
tinued to be applied to the White House. In the 1970s, Henry
Kissinger had a Mark Rothko painting in his office and Nancy
Reagan hired Ted Graber, protégé of modernist designer Billy
Haines, to decorate the family quarters in the 1980s, bringing a
touch of California casual to Ms. Reagan’s regal red walls.
In the ’90s, Hillary Clinton banished the redecoration that
had obliterated much of Jackie’s simplicity, and hung a Willem
de Kooning abstract. Her interest in 20th-century sculpture
y
, photo by Harold Knudsen.
became the impetus for an unprecedented exhibit in the man-
sion’s gardens.
Whatever changes the White House’s newest political incar-
nation brings, the house itself will likely remain what it has
. Kennedy Librar
always been: a place where our past is celebrated, but tomor-
John F row puts in ever-hopeful appearances. n
96
www.modernismmagazine.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124