Ulysses Grant Dietz will discuss his newly published book, outlining America's most famous residence in the context of American house design and decoration.

While the White House may be one of the most famous buildings in the world, it was not always an iconic monument-it was first an American home. From 1800 until 1960, the president's house kept pace with changing ideals of the perfect American house and garden, and its interior reflected the cultural shifts from George Washington's dream of a country estate (though he never lived there), through the robber-baron fashions of the Gilded Age, to the middle-class taste of the 1950s. That all changed when Jacqueline Kennedy redecorated the White House with a décor scheme authentic to its original time. The authors will trace decades of interior renovation, rebuilding, and landscaping. Book signing will follow.

LACMA, Sponsored by the Decorative Arts Council

January 23, 2:00 PM
LACMA Bing Theater | Free, no reservations

http://www.lacma.org/programs/Lectures.aspx