Presidential painting auction starts today

September 20, 2008 12:57 am

— By Susan Redden
sredden@joplinglobe.com
CARTHAGE, Mo. — Political paintings by Carthage artist Andy Thomas go on the block today in an auction that, in some ways, may seem like the presidential election.
Potential buyers can “vote” with their bids on paintings of Republican and Democratic presidents gathered around a poker table.
The Republican version, called “Grand Ol’ Gang,” features party founder Abraham Lincoln, with Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
“True Blues” depicts Thomas Jefferson, along with Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, Bill Clinton, John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Carter and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
The paintings were completed in the spring of 2007. Thomas said the idea for the works came at the suggestion of Somerset Fine Arts, the Texas-based company that distributes his works to dealers.
The original paintings will be sold in an online auction by Greenhouse Gallery of Fine Art, San Antonio, Texas. Bidding will open at 11 a.m. today and end at 8 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 28.
Prints of the works have been on sale for a year, with the Republican version outselling the Democrats by a 3-to-1 margin, said Dina Thomas, the artist’s wife and business partner.
She said she’s not assigning any particular importance to that in trying to forecast the outcome of the November presidential election.
“I did ask the distributors if there were more galleries (selling the print) in Red states than Blue ones, and they said there was no difference,” she said.
“This whole process really made us a lot more interested in the election, and watching the primaries,” added Andy Thomas.
The paintings depict the presidents in a bipartisan way — those whose faces can be seen are all either smiling or laughing — though Thomas said it was difficult to find smiling images of some, especially former President Richard Nixon.
Thomas, already an historian by virtue of the research he puts into his paintings of the Civil War and other historic subjects, delved into the history of his presidential subjects by studying their backgrounds, backslides and accomplishments, and faces.
He compiled thick folders of research on each of the paintings, with much of the work drawn from online studies of presidential library compilations.
The paintings have been on display at the gallery since November 2007 and have garnered “a wealth of positive reaction,” said Jason Smith, network administrator who will supervise the online auction for the gallery.
“These are two phenomenal examples of the true genius of Andy Thomas,” Smith said. “He always spends an immense amount of time studying and gaining perspective before he ever lays anything to canvas. He’s a student of history and he strives for historical accuracy.”
Smith said the paintings also have attracted a few “very strong, very partisan” responses.
Dina Thomas said she got that reaction when she was with the paintings during an exhibit in Great Falls, Mont. She said she thinks she heard “every political joke” during the show, most laden with barbs aimed at the other party.
From Republican supporters, she said, came frequent questions about whether Monica Lewinski was under the poker table. And several Democrats said they believed that President George Bush “was trying to figure out who Abraham Lincoln was,” she said.
Thomas said the research he put into the paintings had caused him to moderate his views of the presidents.
“They’re all to be admired,” he said.
Though some of the prints have been purchased by local political groups and raffled off as fund-raisers, Dina said she would be surprised if the paintings’ buyers are in politics, even though the auction comes in the midst of the political season.
“I think they’ll be bought by art collectors, who are politically-minded,” she said.


Local sales
Reproductions of the works along with other art by Andy Thomas are available at Cherry’s Custom Framing, 310 Howard St., Carthage.

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