Library Displays Artists’ Gifts to U.S. Presidents

Several artists turned the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum into a studio Saturday, showing off skills used to create gifts for Presidents Reagan, Bush and Clinton.

The daylong courtyard display featured six artists from the western United States. Bringing with them paintbrushes, carving knives, blowtorches and other tools, they chatted with visitors about how presidents can spur creative impulses.

Denver-based woodcarver Bill Potts, for instance, described his gift to the current president, a 2-foot-high wood-carving called “President of the U.S.A., Saxophonist Bill Clinton.” And painter Michele Weston Rolkin of Thousand Oaks talked about her depiction of the Clinton family cat, “Socks in the Oval Office.”

“They come with various motivations,” said Mark Hunt, director of the library and museum near Simi Valley. “I think, quite often, the gifts recognized respect and admiration for presidents. It’s a chance to have a link with an administration--they know their gifts will be preserved. And every once in awhile, there’s satire and negativity.”

For example, Hunt pointed to a satirical depiction of Lyndon Johnson dressed up as Uncle Sam, selling bonds to support the war in Vietnam. That painting was part of an indoor collection of gifts given to the last 12 U.S. presidents by heads of state, citizens and artists.

Hunt said the art exhibit was meant to demonstrate the diverse nature of the Reagan library and museum. In January, the museum will host an exhibit of Grandma Moses paintings.

“Typically, this isn’t the image people have of a presidential library,” Hunt said of Saturday’s event. “What we’re trying to do is bring new audiences up to the library.”