Arts Quarterly New Orleans Museum of Art
Spring 2017
DIRECTOR’S LETTE R
Susan M. Taylor
COVER Untitled (Autobiography), c. 1970, Photo-resist etching, 37 5⁄8 x 26 inches, Collection of Frances Swigart-Steg, © Jim Steg
Left Paul Storr (English, London, 1771–1844), Caryatid Centerpiece, 1810, Sterling silver, Gift of the Elinor Bright Richardson Foundation, 95.602
Over the course of more than a century, the holdings of the New Orleans Museum of Art have grown to almost 40,000 works of art spanning more than 5,000 years of the human experience. Within our galleries visitors will find the work of the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, along with religious, functional, and decorative objects from Africa, the Pacific Islands, Asia, and the Ancient Americas, and a survey of works by artists whose names constitute the Western artistic canon: Breugel, Tiepolo, Monet, Manet, Rodin, Degas, Pissaro, Renoir, Cassatt, Kandinsky, Picasso, and Warhol, to name but a few. While the museum is committed to serving as the preeminent repository of an essentially encyclopedic collection, we believe that the museum also serves a more immediate purpose showcasing the artistic output of New Orleans and the surrounding region, places that continue to contribute to the broader conversation about the role of the artist and his/her work in contemporary artistic practice. Several new exhibitions in the months ahead demonstrate this dual mission. In April we open the exhibition Jim Steg: New Work, a retrospective of works by a beloved, longtime art professor at Newcomb College whose legacy includes generations of artists who benefited from his teaching and support. Steg was a member of an earlier American generation who delayed or interrupted their formal educations to fight against the Axis powers in World War II. Steg’s youthful drawings from his unfinished coursework in Chicago open the exhibition which then reveals poignant sketches from the European battlefront before expanding into the work from a celebrated career as both a teacher and innovator in printmaking and draftsmanship. Our cover story includes a brief biography of this remarkable man and testimonies from his students who have also become recognized in their own time as significant contemporary artists. In the Japanese gallery, the works of local artist Regina Scully will be paired with that of Edo-period Japanese artists in an unconventional exhibition that is the result of a serendipitous series of events. Scully considers her work to be purely abstract, calligraphic work but during a illustrated talk in 2014 Curator Lisa Rotondo-McCord immediately saw compositional comparisons to Japanese landscape paintings of the 17th through 19th centuries. A collaboration between artist and curator will result in Regina Scully | Japanese Painting: Inner Journeys, an exhibition that encourages a questioning of influence and imitation across time and genres. Meanwhile, NEW at NOMA presents the work of both regional and nationally renowned contemporary artists, many of whom are at an inflection point in their careers and currently underrepresented in museums. Opening night ceremonies included a rousing musical set by members of the St. Augustine High School Marching 100 and the presence of Leah Chase, another much beloved figure in the city whose commitment to artists and long-standing association with the New Orleans Museum of Art gave impetus to an endowment fund established on the occasion of her 90th birthday with the purpose of acquiring works by African American artists. These acquisitions are joined by a significant selection of other new work and together demonstrate NOMA’s reach and aspirations for a truly diversified collection. Spring is a time of renewal, and we invite you to join us at NOMA in these glorious months to discover or perhaps rediscover your own inspiration.
Susan M. Taylor The Montine McDaniel Freeman Director
CONTENTS
Spring 2017
FEATURE
MUSEUM
10 Jim Steg: New Work
INSPIRED BY NOMA
Beloved Newcomb professor and innovative printmaker featured in a highly anticipated retrospective
4 The NOLA Project
EXHIBITIONS
5 Op Art Collection Travels to Slidell Cultural Center 6 Filmmaker John Waters talks art with Arthur Roger
7 Regina Scully | Japanese Landscape: Inner Journey
COLLECTIONS
8 Decorative Arts Return in a New Permanent Display
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OP ART COLLECTION TRAVELS TO SLIDELL CULTURAL CENTER
Page 10
JIM STEG: NEW WORK
Arts Quarterly New Orleans Museum of Art
Page 8
DECORATIVE ARTS RETURN
Page 18
SPRING PROGRAMS IN THE BESTHOFF SCULPTURE GARDEN
COMMUNITY VISIT
SUPPORT
14 Spring Events at NOMA
16 NOMA Donors 18 Launching a new year with friends and supporters
LEARN
15 Creative Careers Internships Expands 15 Poets for Art 15 Call for Docents
OPPOSITE LEFT John Clemmer, American, 1921-2014, Topographia IV-Cosmos II, 1971, Oil on canvas, New Orleans Museum of Art: Gift of Jonathon C. Clemmer, 97.823 © 3618 Studio, LLC OPPOSITE RIGHT James L. Steg (American, 1922-2001), Dulken Marsh, Germany, 1945, Watercolor on paper, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. P. Roussel Norman, 75.442 ABOVE LEFT Workshop of Thomas Affleck (American, b. Scotland, active Philadelphia, 1740–1795), “Chippendale style” Chest-on-chest, c. 1780–1790, Mahogany, mahogany veneer, oak, white cedar, poplar, brass mounts, Gift of the Rosemonde E. and Emile N. Kuntz Collection, 79.425 ABOVE RIGHT India Fest 2017
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INSPIR ED BY NOM A : THE NOL A PROJ ECT
P H OTO C O U R T ESY O F T H E N O L A P ROJ ECT
the summer breaks, between our school years. After we graduated, we moved to New Orleans full-time to continue the company, so we’ve been in operation now for 12 years.
A.J. Allegra serves as artistic director of The NOLA Project, an experimental theater company now in its twelfth season. Numerous plays have been presented in NOMA’s Great Hall and in the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden, where audiences will behold the world premiere of The Spider Queen starting on May 10. In this imaginative new play an adventurous teenage girl and a squeamish park ranger team up for a scavenger hunt, only to encounter a strange kingdom in peril—one filled with fantastical creatures, nefarious villains, and a giant spider who rules the land. How did The NOLA Project start? The NOLA Project is an ensemble theater company that formed while eight of us were students at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Our founding artistic director, Andrew Larimer, was from New Orleans, and he wanted to start a theater company back in his hometown, where he felt there was a glut of musical theater, but a lack of strong legitimate plays. So we came down here and formed an ensemble theater company, a group of theater artists — actors, writers, directors — who consistently work together on every show. So you’re seeing different plays, but you’re seeing the same faces over and over again onstage, playing different roles. We formed in 2005 while we were still in college. We came down during
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You’ve staged a number of plays in the Sculpture Garden. What is it about that space that has been particularly interesting to work with? The Sculpture Garden is fun. I particularly like it because it lacks a lot of straight lines. It has a very playful aesthetic to it. When you walk into it, you kind of feel young again, You feel kid-like. The first time I ever walked into the Sculpture Garden, it felt very Alice in Wonderland, to me, which eventually became one of the big hit shows that we produced there. It’s a place of discovery. The way the paths wind around, and you can take a different tour of the art every time you go in. We always thought that it would be a great venue to present our work, because so much theater is presented in big boxes that are indoors. The Sculpture Garden is such an environmentally strong setting, depending on where you stage the play, or how you move the audience through the space, you can give people a vastly different experience. There are very few times during the year where it’s perfectly pleasant to be outdoors for long periods in New Orleans. And so when we do it in May, right after Jazz Fest, it’s just quite ideal to watch the sun go down, and experience the dramatic daytime shift into night in the Sculpture Garden. What can we expect from the next production, The Spider Queen? The Spider Queen is an original adaptation that is really inspired by one of everyone’s favorite sculptures in the garden, the Louise Bourgeois
Spider statue. But that’s just kind of the starting point for the play. It’s a story about a girl and a park ranger who somehow stumble into another dimension. Very much like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, where they encounter this highly fantastical world of non-human creatures, and there’s a big battle for power. Because the kingdom is ruled by the Spider Queen, and we don’t exactly see her until the very end, which is ... It will be a very highly theatrical moment. The play will involve lots of mask work. We have a Portland artist named Tony Fuemmeler who’s designing all of the masks for the characters. We have artist Kenneth Thompson, who’s designing large-scale puppets for the production. And we’re staging this play in the round, for the first time. So those are three brand-new aspects that we’ve never brought to any Sculpture Garden production before. Needless to say, it’s going to be a high spectacle production. You have also staged plays in NOMA’s Great Hall. What does that space provide? In the Great Hall, we’ve staged three Shakespeare plays. We presented Romeo and Juliet, then we staged Twelfth Night, followed by The Winter’s Tale. It is truly a great hall. Of course that’s the name of it, but it’s a unique space to perform in, because of the grandiosity of it. You really can’t compete with the space, so there’s no point in ever really building much of a set there. You can add furniture, but you can’t add structure, because the structure is so grand, and it is what it is. You just get out of the way and let the space speak for itself. And for Romeo and Juliet it’s particularly excellent, because it has a wraparound balcony. The Spider Queen will be staged from May 10 – 28. For more information and to purchase advance tickets, visit nolaproject.com.
Arts Quarterly New Orleans Museum of Art
EXHIBITIONS
OP ART COLLECTION TRAVELS TO SLIDELL CULTURAL CENTER
Victor Vasarely, French, born Hungary, 1906-1997, HAT-III, 1969, printed 1974, Heliogravure, edition 313/340, New Orleans Museum of Art: Gift of Dr. and Mrs. J. William Rosenthal, 98.46.4 © Victor Vasarely/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris
Deceptive Space: Op Art from the New Orleans Museum of Art, on view at the Slidell Cultural Center March 18 - April 29, explores geometric abstraction and optical illusion through a selection of rarely-seen works from NOMA’s permanent collection. The exhibition considers Louisiana artists within the broader discourse of the international Op Art movement and its influence. For centuries, most visual art featured elements of illusion. The first illusion was one of content — the work of art figuratively depicting a person or a scene but not a literal representation. Another illusion was one of dimension. The development of linear perspective, attributed to the Italian Renaissance architect Filippo Brunelleschi in 1415, www.noma.org
created a highly realistic depiction of depth on a flat surface. From the ancient Greeks on, artists employed trompe l’oeil, translating as “deceive the eye,” rendering an element with such veracity that the viewer questions its material reality. In the late 19th century, techniques such as the postImpressionist Georges-Pierre Seurat’s pointillism were developed to further fool the eye as distinct dots of color were closely arranged in patterns to create an image. However, it wasn’t until the 1950s that the illusion itself became the artistic focus. Stripped of content and conceptual association, optical or retinal art explores illusion and perception through the careful manipulation
of color and shape. Influenced by the geometric abstraction of the Constructivists, graphic design, developments in technology and materials, optical artists of the 1960s and ‘70s were concerned with what was depicted and how the eye and the brain perceived it. In 1965, the Museum of Modern Art organized the seminal exhibition The Responsive Eye, which looked beyond “tendency, group, or country” to consider the recurrent themes seen in the work of artists from fifteen countries, focusing on perceptual abstraction and perceptual movement. Deceptive Space will showcase works by pivotal Op artists Victor Vasarely, Bridget Riley, Francis Celentano, and Arnold Schmidt, who were featured in The Responsive Eye, with the addition of work by renowned Louisiana artists Robert Gordy, John Clemmer, and Kendall Shaw. Immaculate precision and rigorous mathematics are the foundations that define these illusory spaces. Space appears to either fold in on itself or protrude out in Vasarely, Riley, and Clemmer’s work, an effect created purely through the juxtaposition of geometric shapes and shaded hues. The viewer’s eye is challenged by bright, contrasting colors of works by Celentano, Schmidt, and Shaw. The canvas appears to undulate under inspection. Though each artist had a unique approach and style, all were concerned with reality and perception, what was visible and how it was read, the physiological and psychological. Anne C. B. Roberts, Curatorial Assistant The Slidell Cultural Center is located at 2055 Second Street in Slidell, Louisiana. For more information, call 985.646.4375.
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EXHIBITIONS
FILMM A K ER JOHN WATER S TA LK S A RT W ITH A RTH U R ROGER
From June 23 to September 3, 2017, NOMA will present Pride of Place: The Making of Contemporary Art in New Orleans, an exhibition that celebrates a remarkable selection of paintings, photographs and sculptures recently donated to NOMA by prominent New Orleans art collector and gallerist Arthur Roger. The exhibition’s catalogue will include an interview between Roger and famed American film director, artist, and art collector John Waters. In advance of the catalogue’s publication, Arts Quarterly offers an excerpt of their witty and provocative conversation. John Waters: You were born in New Orleans and your father drove the Desire streetcar...no wonder you ended up an art dealer! Now, it is just a bus named Desire, which is really pretty depressing! How did you decide to open the gallery? Arthur Roger: My father had died and I went on my own when I was very young. I found a job working at a print gallery on Royal Street in the French Quarter. I felt an immediate connection to working with artists, and realized almost immediately that I wanted to open my own gallery someday. At 20 years old, not realizing the risk involved, I presumed to ask my mother to mortgage her home in Chalmette so that I could open a small gallery on Magazine Street! JW: And now you’ve been an art dealer in both New York and New Orleans! You’ve talked about how when you opened your gallery in New Orleans, there were really only a few other serious galleries and very little interest in modern or contemporary art.
AR: At that time in New Orleans, it often felt as if art ended in the 1950s, and contemporary art didn’t exist. When I opened the gallery, it was a real battle to overcome the resistance to contemporary art, although there were a few artists who were starting to develop their own market and audience. Artwork made here was just not valued the same. JW: New Orleans has obviously gone through its share of upheaval, but somehow the art scene always seems to come out on top and survive. How many of your artists do you feel are distinctive to New Orleans? AR: Before Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans felt like an island that was disconnected from the rest of the country. The city has such a long cultural history, and there was truly something distinctive about the work being done here. There are few places that compare to New Orleans, and there’s still a quality to this place that draws artists here. JW: Do you have trouble showing and selling more difficult work? Being from the South, have you ever had censorship battles? AR: To the contrary. I’ve always felt support for the gallery to take on tough issues. Over the years, we have organized several exhibitions and panel discussions on gender, sexuality, and race, and hosted a lot of events. When I opened the gallery, female artists like Lin Emery and Ida Kohlmeyer had already started to develop a really strong presence in the New Orleans art scene, and the impact of African-American artists came a bit
John Waters and Arthur Roger, 2002
later in the gallery’s history. Ida was one of the first artists I approached to show at the gallery, and the other was Robert Gordy. At that time, Robert Gordy was reaching the pinnacle of his career, he was also dying from AIDS, and the gallery helped inaugurate the Art Against AIDS initiative. We also gave Robert Colescott, whose family is from New Orleans, his first New Orleans show in 1990. JW: You are giving a lot of your collection to a museum, which is what all good dealers want their collectors to do, but it is rarer and rarer these days that people actually do it. When you are selling work to clients, do you think about what they are going to do with their art, where it will end up someday? AR: I’ve been around long enough that I have seen too many good collections broken apart. In many cases I have played a role in building those collections, and there is something incredibly sad about it. I didn’t want that to happen to my collection.
Pride of Place: The Making of Contemporary Art in New Orleans will be on view from June 23 – September 3, 2017 in the Ella West Freeman Gallery. 6
Arts Quarterly New Orleans Museum of Art
R EGINA SCU LLY | JA PA N E SE L A N DSCA PE : IN N ER JOU R N EY
ABOVE American, b. 1975, Origin of Dreams, 2017, Acrylic on canvas, Collection of the artist RIGHT Uragami Gyokudo, Drunken Landscape, Ink on paper, 53 3⁄8 x 21 in., 94.334
The hybridized forms, distorted perspectives, and calligraphic line employed by Regina Scully (American, b. 1975) in her landscape paintings have prompted both critics and viewers to seek parallels with Chinese and Japanese antecedents. Although these formal resonances have been noted for well over a decade, Asian art exerted no direct influence on Scully’s practice. It has been only in the this past year that Scully had the opportunity to look closely at Japanese paintings, particularly landscapes created during the 18th and 19th centuries, in the collection of the New Orleans Museum of Art. In periodic sessions at NOMA, Scully and Lisa Rotondo-McCord, Curator of Asian Art, viewed a range of Japanese paintings created during the Edo period (1603-1868). They began by looking at the scrolls themselves—how they were made, the various types and densities of ink and/or color, and the www.noma.org
surfaces painted—paper, silk, or satin. Of particular interest were the varied types and styles of brushwork employed, as well as compositional structures and uses of interior space. Conceptually, Scully’s work is particularly close to Nanga (literati-style) paintings, wherein landscape served as a form of visual escape, the meandering paths and ambiguous spatial relationships conducive to an exploration of the mind. However, the works of artists working within different traditions during the dynamic Edo period were also explored. In this exhibition, paintings from throughout Scully’s career are presented with a selection of works from NOMA’s collection of Edo-period paintings. Deliberately grouped so as to avoid direct comparison, the presentation invites close examination and open questioning. Early works by Scully, including oilsketches created while a student at the Rhode Island School of Design, reveal her early and sure calligraphic style.
Selections from later series, such as Navigation (2010) and Excavations (2009), manifest the core exploration of her mature work—how to understand and experience geographic and psychological space and grapple with new forms of space—virtual realities, outer space, and the ever-expanding boundaries of the mind. New works, created during the period of Scully’s more active engagement with Japanese painting are also presented. Tellingly entitled Mindscapes and The Origin of Dreams, they speak to the artist’s enduring concern with perception and reality, and reveal the complex intersections present and the past, space and perspective, and the abstract and the representational. Lisa Rotondo McCord, Curator for Asian Art
Regina Scully | Japanese Painting: Inner Journeys will be on view April 7 – October 1, 2017. 7
COLLECTIONS
DECOR ATIVE ARTS R ETUR N IN A NEW PER MANENT DISPLAY
Whimsical porcelain figures, enchanting miniature portraits, and a dazzling array of historical glass have been among NOMA’s visitor favorites for decades. The museum is pleased to announce that the Lupin Foundation Decorative Arts Galleries on the second floor are reopening with a reimagined installation. In a series of gallery unveilings through 2017 and 2018, and with the creation of the Elise M. Besthoff Foundation changing gallery, NOMA will celebrate its beloved collection of design, craft, and ornament. These new installations carry forward a curatorial initiative to integrate collections across material and culture, to provide layered interpretation, and to present the best of our Gulf region’s artistic expression in context with our encyclopedic collection covering ancient to contemporary arts.
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When the first of the Lupin Galleries opened on March 16, for the first time the finest of NOMA’s more than 10,000 pieces of ceramics, glass, furniture, silver, and portrait miniatures were installed together with fine arts. This new presentation highlights connections — between glass vessels and mahogany furniture, between European and American designs, and between tiny portrait miniatures and monumental silver centerpieces. With an installation that looks both deeply and broadly at 18th- and early 19th-century design and art in both America and Europe, the first of the Lupin Galleries focuses on NOMA’s foundational collections in the decorative arts — the Kuntz family collection gifted in 1979 and the Billups glass collection gifted in 1955.
In the mid-20th century, New Orleanian Felix Hurwig Kuntz (1890– 1971) amassed significant collections of American letters, ephemera, paintings, and antiques from the Colonial and early Federal periods. The manuscript collection went to the Tulane Library, and his heirs oversaw the donation of the Kuntz American decorative arts collection to NOMA in 1979. This new installation unites, for the first time, the finest of the Kuntz furniture collection with paintings by such American luminaries as John Singleton Copley and Benjamin West, alongside stylistic antecedents in superb European decorative arts and one of the nation’s most renowned collections of early American glass.
Arts Quarterly New Orleans Museum of Art
FACING PAGE American various makers, Group of Figured Flasks, 1825-1850. Mold blown glass. All gift of Melvin P. Billups in memory of his wife, Clarice Marston Billups.
P H OTO G R A P H Y BY RO M A N A LO K H IN
LEFT French National Porcelain Manufactory (Vincennes 1740–1756, Sèvres 1756 to present), Designed by Jean-Claude Duplessis (French, c. 1695– 1774), Painted by PierreJoseph Rosset (French, 1734–1799), Covered Tureen and Plate (Terrine du Roi), 1754–1755, Soft-paste porcelain, hand-painted and gilded, Museum purchase, William McDonald Boles and Eva Carol Boles Fund, 2000.53.a.–c.
Two Kuntz treasures on view poignantly show the transition from the natural motifs of the Rococo style to the stately Neoclassical, a style evolution contemporaneous with the American Revolution. A c. 1780 chest-on-chest made in Philadelphia, attributed to cabinet maker Thomas Affleck, has the proportions, columns and sharp, architectural pediment of the Classical style, but also a nod to the Rococo with its asymmetrical flower bouquet finial. James Claypoole Jr.’s 1774 painting Memorial to E.R. has romantic floral garlands in the Rococo taste, but its Grecian dress and urn make the painting a notably early example of the Neoclassical style in America. The new gallery places these transitional American artworks together with European examples of the Rococo and Neoclassical styles, including Meissen porcelain,
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a dramatic English pagoda-shaped silver epergne, and a large porcelain soup tureen made in 1754 in Vincennes, France, before the worldfamous French National Porcelain Manufactory moved to its longtime home at Sèvres in 1756. With a dazzling large display of glass vessels, this first gallery also highlights the Melvin P. Billups collection. Billups assembled one of America’s most important glass collections in the 1950s, amassing more than 1,000 pieces that cover three millennia of glass craft and technology. In 1955 Billups chose to honor his wife, New Orleans native Clarice Marston Billups, by donating the collection in her memory to NOMA. This first Lupin gallery exhibits deep and important examples from the Billups Collection of the glass industry’s flourishing in the early American Federal period.
Through the next two years, objects representing high Victorian styles, the turn-of-the-century ornamental revolution, and 20thcentury Modernism will join the conversation. Forthcoming are installations dedicated to New Orleans and aesthetic preferences of the American South — from Gorham’s luscious Art Nouveau Martelé silver to a large expression of French Art Glass and American Art Pottery — along with the museum’s latest efforts to bring our collection further into the 20th century and to engage with 21stcentury designers working in new craft and technology mediums.
Mel Buchanan, RosaMary Curator of Decorative Arts and Design
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Jim Steg: New Work BELOVED NEWCOMB PROFESSOR AND INNOVATIVE PRINTMAKER FEATURED IN A HIGHLY ANTICIPATED RETROSPECTIVE Jim Steg was the most influential printmaker to be based in New Orleans in the twentieth century. He arrived in New Orleans in the early 1950s to teach printmaking at Newcomb College, after serving in the United States Army in World War II and training with renowned printmaking professor Mauricio Lasanksy at the University of Iowa. Today, his work resides in major print collections across the country, and his technical achievements are preserved in various compendia and encyclopedias about printmaking and related materials. Jim Steg: New Work reveals the man as both an innovator in the field of printmaking and an artist at the forefront of several major twentieth-century movements. Etchings, woodcuts, drawings made during World War II, photo-resist etchings, Xerox toner works, and many other works that have never before been on public display are included in the artist’s first retrospective exhibition since a monographic show in 1978, which NOMA also presented. As the following comments from former students and acquaintances attest, Steg completely embodied his role as a mentor, selflessly giving of his time. Ceaselessly supportive and with a flair for adventure, he served as a model artist for all. If his own work is not as well known as it should be, it is very likely because he devoted much of the last thirty years of his life encouraging the work of others.
LYNDA BENGLIS (Newcomb College BFA, 1964) Jim Steg was a hands-on teacher who taught us about printmaking, both with and without acid-plate etching. We first learned that the acid was hazardous so instead he “invented” a different collage-based process using precut Masonite, acrylic glue, and brown rolled-paper cotton string. Using this process, we made James L. Steg (American, 1922-2001), In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is King, 1971, Color etching on paper, Courtesy of Frances Swigart-Steg, 2017.2.81, © Jim Steg
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ABOVE James L. Steg, Bacchanalian Group, after Mantegna, 1948, Engraving on paper, 17 ¼ x 27 ¾ in. (plate), Courtesy of Frances Swigart-Steg, 2017.2.105, © Jim Steg
our own collaged prints without resorting to metal plates, which required sharp tools and acid for etching — that would come later. We were quite limited in size and image with this process, but it worked and none of us got sick! His method kept us away from the dangerous materials in the beginning, but it also weeded out less seriously intentioned print makers until we had proven ourselves. Jim was well-liked and patiently mild-mannered in his approach to teaching. He was a really excellent printmaker and had a serious following of graduate students from around the country. He was considered ahead of his time in the field, and the students loved his inventiveness. His kind of teaching instilled in me and others a more playful perspective in the making of art.
JAN GILBERT (Tulane University MFA, 1982) What a trailblazer Jim Steg was! I went to Tulane Grad School to get on his trail. To me, he was fearless. His boundless curiosity, intense sense of immediacy, and utilization of unconventional materials and methods characterized his unique approach to printmaking. His works are simultaneously of-the-moment and timeless, and they present a keen sense of what it is to be human. He made prints of incredible surface richness and complexity. His love of process and patina are palpable. This touch of his made a lasting imprint on a large community of artists and art lovers. I’m grateful to count myself among that group. ILLUSTRATION Jim Steg by Jack Masey
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Arts Quarterly New Orleans Museum of Art
CAROL LEAKE (Newcomb College BFA, 1967) Having been Jim Steg’s student in the late 1960s was an opportunity that I find can only be assessed with hindsight, along with the added benefit of his friendship following my graduation from Newcomb College in 1967. I was aware then that Jim — or “Mr. Steg” as he was known to his students — was engaged in experimental techniques in printmaking, but an undergraduate’s perspective was insufficient to understanding the scope of that investigation. The overview of Jim’s life’s work reveals constant experimentation, from his innovations in the ’60s with collagraph and photo-resist printmaking techniques, to later forays into various applications of the possibilities of Xerox and more. But what is particularly striking to me, more than his tireless technical explorations, was Jim’s example as what is sometimes referred to as “the real deal,” or ‘the “genuine article.” For he was that: completely unengaged in self-promotion, absorbed in his expansive personal vision, and following that vision with complete unconcern for the shifting trends of the art world. I very much doubt that he cared a great deal about recognition as long as he could continue to make his work, which he never stopped doing. No one could have been less involved with the role of “being an artist.” He once described himself as looking not like an artist, but like an insurance actuary. Small wonder, as he was far too busy actually being an artist.
ABOVE LEFT James L. Steg, A Capturing View, 1976, Color etching, with marbling, on paper, 21 ¾ x 23 ¾ in. (plate, irregularly shaped), Courtesy of Frances Swigart-Steg, 2017.2.80, © Jim Steg
ABOVE RIGHT James L. Steg, American Culture No. #4 (Automobile), 1946, Color etching on paper, 16 x 9 ¾ in. (plate), Courtesy of Frances Swigart-Steg, 2017.2.71, © Jim Steg
BELOW James L. Steg, American Culture No. #4 (Automobile), 1946, Color etching on paper, 16 x 9 ¾ in. (plate), Courtesy of Frances Swigart-Steg, 2017.2.71, © Jim Steg
Russell Lord, Freeman Family Curator of Photography Jim Steg : New Work will be on view in the Templeman Galleries from April 7 – October 10, 2017.
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VISIT
SPR ING EV EN TS AT NOM A It’s that time of year again—the weather is beautiful, the flowers are blooming, and there’s no better time to enjoy the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden. Bring the entire family to NOMA this spring for film screenings, outdoor performances, and a festival. POETS FOR ART Saturday, April 8 | 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. The New Orleans Museum of Art, in celebration of National Poetry Month, is offering a FREE poetry workshop for students in grades 8 – 12, led by poet Brod Bagert. Workshop participants will tour the museum and select a work of art that inspires or engages them. Working with a professional writer, students will develop and write a poem. Students are invited to submit their completed poem to NOMA for publication in a soft-bound book which will be mailed to all participants. Experienced and novice poets are invited to apply.
ITALIAN FILM SERIES CURATED BY UNO PROFESSOR LASZLO FULOP
In conjunction with the exhibition A Life of Sedcution: Venice in the 1700s, three films set in the fabled Italian city will be shown as part of Friday Nights at NOMA programming. Laszlo Fulop, associate professor at the University of New Orleans, will deliver a brief lecture in advance of the 7:30 p.m. screenings in the Stern Auditorium.
MARCH 24 | The Wings of the Dove (1997)
LOUISIANA RAINBOW IRIS FESTIVAL Horticulture lovers are invited to the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden for the annual Louisiana Rainbow Iris Festival, presented by NOMA and the Greater New Orleans Iris Society (GNOIS). Visitors will have the opportunity to purchase Louisiana irises, consult experts, and attend two lectures. For more information, call 504.658.4100.
Sunday, April 9
APRIL 21 | Don’t Look Now (1971)
10 a.m. – 4 p.m. | Iris sales
MAY 19 | Death in Venice (1973)
2 – 3 p.m. | “Though the Iris Judge’s Eyes,” lecture by M. J. Urist
(Rated R | 2 hours, 10 minutes)
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NOMA and The NOLA Project will present the world premiere of The Spider Queen in the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden from May 10 – 28. This is the third consecutive worldpremiere play by the NOLA Project produced in the sculpture garden. For more information and to purchase advance tickets, visit nolaproject.com or call 504.302.9117.
EDIBLE BOOK DAY CAKE CONTEST
(Rated R | 1 hour, 42 minutes)
(Rated PG | 2 hours, 10 minutes)
NOLA PROJECT STAGES THE SPIDER QUEEN
1 – 2 p.m. | “Arranging Irises Off the Cuff,” lecture by Dr. Jim DePrince
Professional and amateur bakers are invited to bake and decorate cakes inspired by books through the integration of text, literary inspiration or form. For additional information, contact NOMA Librarian Sheila Cork at scork@noma.org, 504.658.4117.
Friday, April 7 4:30 p.m. | Set-up of cakes in the elevator lobby outside Café NOMA. 5:30 p.m. | Judging and People’s Choice voting begins. 6 p.m.
| Café NOMA cakedecorating demonstration.
6:30 p.m. | People’s Choice voting ends. 7 p.m.
| Winners announced inside Café NOMA.
Arts Quarterly New Orleans Museum of Art
LEARN
CR EATIVE CAR EERS INTER NSHIPS EXPANDS
A LIFE OF SEDUCTION UPCOMING EVENTS In conjunction with the exhibition A Life of Seduction: Venice in the 1700s, on view through May 21, numerous lectures, special events, and workshops are open to the public.
LECTURES MARCH 31 | 6:30 PM Art, Music and Theater: Venice in the 1700s Peter Björn Kerber, Assistant Curator at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
APRIL 28 | 6 PM NOMA interns visit the The McKenna Museum of African American Art in July 2016.
Hidden Musicians of Venice: The Fascinating Story of Vivaldi’s All-Female Orchestra Kim Teter, author of Isabella’s Libretto
This summer, NOMA will expand its innovative Creative Careers Internship (CCI) job training program for teens. With continued funding from the Walton Family Foundation, NOMA will be able to double the number of participating students. This year, ten students from KIPP Renaissance High School will receive paid summer internships. The program is designed to encourage teens from diverse backgrounds to explore the museum field as a career option. CCI launched in summer of 2016 with a beginning cohort of five interns who shadowed museum staff to learn about the wide variety of professional careers within the museum, such as visitor services, curatorial affairs, graphic design, public programs, education, accounting, public relations, security, administration, development, human resources, and the museum shop. The five interns who participated in the program in 2016 will have the opportunity to return to the museum in 2017. This summer NOMA will team
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up with professionals from organizations around the city such as United Negro College Fund to provide mentoring sessions for interns. In addition to job shadowing and mentoring, first year students will visit local universities to talk with faculty and tour facilities. For the 2017 program expansion, we plan to add an excursion to Baton Rouge to visit Louisiana State University, as well trips to Xavier, Dillard, Tulane, and Loyola universities and the University of New Orleans. Each summer, interns work on a group project and make a final presentation to the museum staff. In 2016, interns developed a framework for teen programs at NOMA that became Teen Squad, a group of teens who meet each month to plan teen hangout events at the museum. This unique group works collaboratively with museum staff to develop programs at NOMA by teens, for teens. NOMA is delighted to be involved in training the future museum workforce through the Creative Careers Internship program.
EVENTS APRIL 8 | 11 AM – 3 PM YAYA Glassblowing Workshop Begin the day at NOMA for a private gallery talk about Venetian glass, then go to YAYA’s Creative Glass studio for lunch and a workshop where you will make your own paperweight. Register by April 3. Materials and lunch are included with the price: $100 for members and $125 for non-members. Email education@noma.org or call 504.658.4100 for more information.
APRIL 21 | 6 PM ARTIST PERSPECTIVE: Mitchell Gaudet The glass artist will discuss his craft.
MAY 12 | 5 PM Masquerade at NOMA NOMA will be open until midnight with exclusive programming beginning at 5 p.m. Pull out those favorite costumes!
NOONTIME TALKS with Vanessa Schmid, Senior Research Curator for European Art
MARCH 29 | NOON MAY 10 | NOON
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SUPPORT
DONORS
NOMA BUSINESS COUNCIL
The New Orleans Museum of Art gratefully acknowledges our donors, who make our exhibitions, programming, and daily operations possible. We appreciate your continued support of NOMA and its mission. Thank you!
Platinum
Bronze
Superior Energy Services
First NBC Bank
Foundation and Government Support
Gold
$500,000 and above
$20,000 – $49,999
Collins C. Diboll Private Foundation
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$200,000 – $499,999
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The Azby Fund Charitable Lead Annuity Trust Under the Will of Louis Feil City of New Orleans The Elise M. Besthoff Charitable Foundation
Louisiana Division of the Arts The RosaMary Foundation
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International-Matex Tank Terminals
Boh Bros. Construction Company, LLC
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$10,000 – $19,999
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$150,000 – $199,999
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City of New Orleans
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Silver Bellwether Technology Corporate Realty NOLA.com | The TimesPicayune
Laitram, LLC Neal Auction Company New Orleans Auction Galleries Regions Bank
The Garden Study Club of New Orleans
$100,000 – $149,000
Goldring Family Foundation
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The GPOA Foundation J. Edgar Monroe Foundation
$50,000 – $99,999
John Burton Harter Charitable Trust
Eugenie and Joseph Jones Family Foundation
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The Harry T. Howard III Foundation
Ruby K. Worner Charitable Trust
New Orleans Theater Association
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Corporate and Individual Support
ISA AC DELGADO SOCIETY
$500,000 and above
$20,000 – $49,999
Sydney and Walda Besthoff
Joseph and Sue Ellen Canizaro Chevron
$200,000 – $499,999
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Honorable Steven R. Bordner
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Tina Rathborne and Philip De Normandie
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$100,000 and above
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$10,000 – $19,000
The New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau
Anonymous
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$50,000 – $99,999
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For information about supporting NOMA, contact the museum’s Department for Development by calling (504) 658-4127.
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Tia and Jimmy Roddy SKYY Vodka Liz and Poco Sloss Jane and Rodney Steiner
Arts Quarterly New Orleans Museum of Art
SAVE THE DATE
NOMA CIRCLES President’s Circle
Patron’s Circle
Mr. and Mrs. John D. Bertuzzi
Dr. Siddharth K. Bhansali
Mr. and Mrs. Ralph O. Brenan
Mr. and Mrs. James J. Frischhertz
Mr. and Mrs. David F. Edwards
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Gardiner
Mrs. Lawrence D. Garvey
Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Heebe
Ms. Adrea D. Heebe and Mr. Dominick A. Russo, Jr.
Ms. Sharon Jacobs and Mr. Leonard A. Davis
Mr. and Mrs. Charles B. Mayer
Mr. and Mrs. Keene Kelley
Mrs. Robert Nims
Dr. Edward D. Levy, Jr.
Mrs. Patrick F. Taylor
Mr. and Mrs. J. Thomas Lewis Ms. Josie McNamara
Director’s Circle Mr. and Mrs. Robert H. Boh Mr. and Mrs. Daryl G. Byrd Mrs. Isidore Cohn, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas B. Coleman Dr. and Mrs. Scott S. Cowen Mr. Robert Hinckley Mr. and Mrs. Thomas B. Lemann Mr. and Mrs. William Monaghan Mr. and Mrs. Robert J. Patrick Dr. and Mrs. James F. Pierce
Mrs. Louise H. Moffett
LOVE IN THE GARDEN
Drs. Joy D. and Howard Osofsky Mr. and Mrs. James C. Roddy
September 22, 2017
Mr. and Mrs. Brian A. Schneider Mr. David P. Schulingkamp
NOMA’s annual fall soiree in the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden is sponsored by Whitney Bank. Join us for a night of dining and dancing under the stars and oaks.
Mr. and Mrs. Edward Shearer Mrs. Frederick M. Stafford Mr. Stephen F. Stumpf, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. James L. Taylor Ms. Catherine Burns Tremaine Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Brent Wood
Dr. Elisabeth H. Rareshide and Dr. Ronald G. Amedee Mrs. Charles S. Reily, Jr.
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Mr. and Mrs. James J. Reiss, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin M. Rosen Jolie and Robert Shelton Mr. and Mrs. Stephen C. Sherrill Mr. and Mrs. Michael J. Siegel Mr. and Mrs. Lynes R. Sloss Mr. and Mrs. Bruce L. Soltis Mr. and Mrs. Robert M. Steeg Mr. and Mrs. Robert E. Thomas Ms. Susan Zackin
ODYSSEY 2017
November 4, 2017
The 51st annual gala event presented by IBERIABANK raises funds for world-class exhibitions and museum programming. Art patrons gather for one of the year’s most elegant social occasions in a festive setting guaranteed to wow.
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NOMA welcomed the Rex Organization on January 31 for a media preview of the Mardi Gras krewe’s 2017 parade, themed “Carnival Fêtes and Feasts.” Rex members and both print and broadcast journalists were given an advance preview of the exhibition A Life of Seduction: Venice in the 1700s by Vanessa Schmid, Senior Research Curator for European Art, as the artworks were being installed. Upon the opening of the Venetian exhibition, Lelong Drive was lined with Italian masterpieces of another sort on February 18 as NOMA hosted New Orleans’ first Concorso d’Eleganza, a car show of new and vintage Ferraris.
Ferrari of Houston and the local Ferrari Club participated, contributing their cars to the lineup. Isidore Newman School hosted an exhibition of loaned artworks from NOMA featuring flora and fauna. Titled Animalia, the temporary, monthlong exhibition was intended to inspire students at all grade levels to create their own animal-themed art. An opening reception was held in the school’s Reynolds Ryan Gallery on February 2. The third biannual India Fest brought the sights, sounds, and flavors of the Indian subcontinent to NOMA and the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture
Arts Quarterly New Orleans Museum of Art
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Garden on April 5. Sponsored by the Indian Arts Circle of New Orleans, events included classical and Bollywood-style dancing, lectures, yoga and meditation sessions, food and craft booths, and a cricket demonstration. The opening of NEW at NOMA brought artists and museum members together to celebrate contemporary art. New Orleans chef and civil-rights activist Leah Chase was among the guests of honor as many of the displayed works were purchased by way of a new fund named in her honor. Members of the St. Augustine Marching 100 performed a crowd-pleasing musical set.
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1. Dominic Massa and Arthur Hardy at the Rex preview luncheon. 2. Broadcast media professionals Scott Walker, Adrianna Hopkins, Beth Utterback, Nancy Parker, Karen Swensen. 3. Susan Taylor addresses the Rex Organization at the media luncheon. 4. Michael Taylor, Susan Taylor, Christy Brown 5. Mary and Robert Lupo, Anne Baños 6. A rare LaFerrari was parked at NOMA’s entrance during the Concorso d’Eleganza. 7. Representing JPMorgan Chase & Co. at the opening of the Life of Seduction exhibition: Brett and Lizette Terral, Wendell and Katie LeGardeur 8. Michael J. and Aimee Siegel 9. Senior Research Curator Vanessa Schmid (far right) leads a tour of the exhibition A Life of Seduction: Venice in the 1700s for members of the Rex Organization and local media.
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10. Newman School student Eden Paige Elizardi shows off her original art at the Animalia exhibition opening. 11. Anne C. Roberts, Tracy E. Kennan, Kayleigh Gillies, Jenna de Boisblanc, Kathryn Scurlock, Andrew Rodgers, Sheila Connolly 12. Monique McClesky, Andrew Rodgers. 13. Lisa Rotondo-McCord offered a tour of the Indian Art Gallery during India Fest. 14. India Fest audiences enjoyed traditional dances by students of the Nyrita School of Dance in Houston, Texas. 15. Bollywood-style dancing was performed by a dance group from Hammond, Louisiana. 16. Leah Chase (seated) was serenaded by the St. Augustine HIgh School Marching 100 at the opening of NEW at NOMA. 17. McArthur Binion poses with his collage DNA: Black Painting V. 18. Sabine McCalla was the model for Sabine by Gina Phillips.
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2017 BOARD OF TRUSTEES
ACCREDITATION
Michael J. Siegel, President
Susu Stall
Sydney J. Besthoff III, Vice-President
Frank Stewart
Stephanie Feoli, Vice-President
Melanee Gaudin Usdin
Suzanne Thomas, Vice-President
Brent Wood
Elizabeth Monaghan, Secretary
The Honorable Mayor Mitch J. Landrieu
Janice Parmelee, Treasurer Rob Steeg, At-Large
Susan G. Guidry, New Orleans City Council Member
Lynes R. (Poco) Sloss, At-Large
Lynda Warshauer, NVC Chairman
Julie Livaudais George, Immediate Past President
MEMBERS Herschel L. Abbott, Jr. Justin T. Augustine III Gayle M. Benson Elizabeth Boone Daryl Byrd Caroline Calhoun Scott Cowen Margo DuBos Penny Francis Adrea D. Heebe Juli Miller Hart Russ Herman Marshall Hevron Robert Hinckley David Kelso Dennis Lauscha Kenya LeNoir Messer Louis J. Lupin Cammie Mayer Brenda Moffitt Howard Osofsky J. Stephen Perry Thomas F. Reese James J. Reiss, Jr. Britton Sanderford Jolie Shelton Kitty Duncan Sherrill Michael Smith
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The New Orleans Museum of Art is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.
NATIONAL TRUSTEES Joseph Baillio Mrs. Carmel (Babette) Cohen Mrs. Mason (Kim) Granger Jerry Heymann Herbert Kaufman, M.D. Mrs. James (Cherye) Pierce
Arts Quarterly New Orleans Museum of Art EDITOR
David Johnson ART DIRECTOR
Mary Degnan
Mrs. Billie Milam Weisman
HONOR ARY LIFE MEMBERS H. Russell Albright, MD Mrs. Edgar L. Chase Jr. Prescott N. Dunbar S. Stewart Farnet
Arts Quarterly (ISSN 0740-9214) is published by the New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA 70124 © 2017, New Orleans Museum of Art. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced or reprinted without permission of the publisher.
Sandra Draughn Freeman Kurt A. Gitter, MD Mrs. Erik Johnsen Richard W. Levy, MD Mr. J. Thomas Lewis Mrs. Paula L. Maher Mrs. J. Frederick Muller Mrs. Robert Nims Mrs. Charles S. Reily Jr.
Facing page Regina Scully, American, b. 1975, Navigation 6, 2010, Acrylic on canvas, Collection of the Artist © Regina Scully Back cover Toyin Ojih Odutola, Nigerian, b. 1985, The Garden Party, 2016, Charcoal, pastel, and pencil on paper, Proposed Museum Purchase, E-2017-10.1 © Toyin Ojih Odutola. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
R. Randolph Richmond Jr. Mrs. Frederick M. Stafford Harry C. Stahel Mrs. Harold H. Stream Mrs. James L. Taylor Mrs. John N. Weinstock
Arts Quarterly New Orleans Museum of Art
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Arts Quarterly New Orleans Museum of Art P.O. Box 19123 New Orleans, LA 70179-0123 Follow us!