Art World Speculates About Trump’s Artistic Tastes

President-elect Trump’s ‘brand’ is synonymous with flashy buildings and luxurious flourishes—an aesthetic that seems unlikely to prevail in the White House

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Donald Trump is known for speaking and tweeting what’s on his mind but hasn’t revealed much about his taste in art. That has museums, galleries and private collectors guessing what the president-elect will display in the White House.

Mr. Trump’s relationship to the art world is complex. On the one hand, the billionaire businessman’s brand is linked to luxurious flourishes and visual sumptuousness. Yet art dealers say Mr. Trump isn’t a fixture at high-end auctions or art fairs, and he doesn’t use the properties that bear his name to showcase contemporary artists such as Jeff Koons as some other developers do.

Magazine profiles of the Trumps’ $100 million New York penthouse indicate that the president-elect and his wife, Melania, favor 18th-century French style with gilded finishes and marble walls as well as painted ceilings and sculptures featuring mythological gods like Apollo, Eros and Psyche. Mrs. Trump’s home office recently displayed a reproduction of “Theater Box,” an 1874 portrait of a couple by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The original hangs in London’s Courtauld Gallery.

Mr. Trump’s older daughter, Ivanka, has worked with New York art adviser Alex Marshall to collect rising stars like Nate Lowman, who paints oversize, comic-book-style bullet holes, and Alex Israel, whose canvases resemble pastel skies.

Once Mr. Trump takes office, he and his Cabinet will be allowed to sift through the White House’s permanent collection or seek art loans from museums on the National Mall and beyond. The first couple also could hang up pieces from one of their homes.

The Trumps could affect the market values of artists they display—and at the same time send political messages with their choices. Bill Clinton earned praise for picking Simmie Knox, who is African-American, to paint the White House portraits of the president and first lady. President George W. Bush’s administration was hailed for acquiring “The Builders,” by African-American artist Jacob Lawrence, though some criticized the move because the painting depicts black men doing menial labor.

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