NOMA Magazine, Spring 2020

CREATING COMMUNITY

New Orleans Museum of Art

January – April 2020

DIRECTOR’S LETTE R

PHOTO: JOSH BRASTED

FRONT COVER

Ugo Rondinone (Swiss, b. 1963), The Sun, 2018, Bronze, stainless steel, and gold leaf, Gift of Sydney and Walda Besthoff, 2019.59

LEFT Alia Ali, Ochre Waves, FLUX Series, 2019, Pigment print mounted on aluminum dibond with UV laminate, 48 x 36 x 2 inches (framed), Courtesy of Galerie Peter Sillem, © Alia Ali, Photo by Alia Ali

Throughout the history of collecting in the United States, certain names are immediately identified with the accumulation of great art. Frick, Gardner, Getty, Guggenheim, and de Menil, are but a few who generously placed their private collections in the public trust through the building of museums or the donation of works to established cultural institutions. This spring, NOMA will host a highly respected collection of Asian art assembled by yet another historically well-known name in both business and art. Buddha and Shiva, Lotus and Dragon: Masterworks from the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection at Asia Society will be on view from March 13 to June 7, promising an awe-inspiring array of sacred and secular works from Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tibet, and Vietnam.

John D. Rockefeller 3rd was the direct descendant of America’s first billionaire, and heir to the Standard Oil empire that emerged in the late nineteenth century as electric lighting and automobiles replaced kerosene lanterns and horse-drawn carriages. By the 1920s, the influence of the Rockefellers was felt around the world, but Asia was of particular interest to a 23-year-old newly minted graduate of Princeton who carried both his grandfather’s name and a profound curiosity about other cultures. John D. Rockefeller 3rd’s journey across the continent in 1929 was a life-shaping experience, but his interest intensified after much of Asia was ravaged by a succession of wars in the decades that followed. He and his wife, Blanchette Ferry Hooker, visited Asia numerous times on business trips and humanitarian missions, purchasing art along the way.

In 1956 he founded Asia Society, based in New York, to not only house this art collection but, in his words, “contribute to broader and deeper understanding between the peoples of the United States and Asia.” With this goal in mind, Rockefeller described “understanding” as “the most subtle and delicate, difficult, and elusive bond that can link continents and nations and even men…it strikes deeper than mere tolerance; it reaches further than mere acquaintance or formal association; it is that quality of mind and spirit whose existence is essential to true peace.” His definition of understanding should serve as a model for all of us in these complicated times.

Central to Rockefeller’s aspiration of uniting mankind is the sharing of art, a goal that NOMA increasingly champions as our collection grows more diverse and we strive to fully represent the community we serve. We too owe a deep debt of gratitude to collectors who have trusted NOMA to share their works at our institution. Featured in this issue is the collection of Dr. Siddharth Bhansali, including Jain and Catholic art from India, which will complement the Rockefeller exhibition. Sydney and Walda Besthoff, whose vision and financial support made their namesake sculpture garden a reality, remain tireless advocates for this world-renowned outdoor art environment, including the addition of The Sun by Ugo Rondinone and featured on the cover. We recently acquired selections of twentieth-century industrial designs from the collection of George R. Kravis II of Tulsa, Oklahoma, which will form the core of a display about the role of aluminum in the decorative arts and eventually be the subject of its own exhibition.

The holiday gift-giving season has come and gone, but for the museum the reciprocation of private donation and public display is a year-round endeavor. We are grateful for those who place their works in the public trust, and those who support the museum through their membership and philanthropic donations. As we embark upon a new decade, we invite you to find that sometimes elusive but long-sought aim of “understanding” within the walls and grounds of our museum.

Susan M. Taylor The Montine McDaniel Freeman Director

CREATING COMMUNITY Selected highlights from January – April 2020

SEARCH SATURDAY, APRIL 4, 10 A.M. – 1 P.M.

& FA M I LY F E S T I V A L

Bring your family for a fun-filled day in the Besthoff Sculpture Garden (or in the museum in case of rain) featuring egg hunts, a petting zoo, face painting, crafts, activities, and more! (See page 28) SAVOR Nettie Young (Gee’s Bend, Alabama, 1916–2010), Stacked Bricks quilt, 1928. Cotton and corduroy; 82 1⁄4 x 67 3⁄4 in. Museum Purchase, and Gift of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation from the William S. Arnett Collection, 2017.167. © Estate of Nettie Young/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Image: Stephen Pitkin/Pitkin Studio/Art Resource, NY

STITCH SATURDAY, JANUARY 18, 10 A.M. – 3 P.M.

Beyond Gee’s Bend: A Community Quilting Workshop Join New Orleans community quiltmakers for a handquilting workshop inspired by The Quilts of Gee’s Bend exhibition. The program will include demonstrations and talks by textile artists and a music performance.

Tulane Law School’s Dr. Elizabeth Townsend Gard will speak on copyright issues, her provenance workbook project, and her podcast Just Wanna Quilt.

Advance registration requested: $35 members | $40 nonmembers (includes lunch).

Visit noma.org/quilting for more information and to register.

SATURDAY, MARCH 14, 10 A.M. – 4 P.M.

India Fest From Bollywood dancing to delicious food, the colorful breadth of Indian culture fills NOMA at this popular gathering cosponsored with the Indian Arts Council. Don’t miss tours of the Bhansali Collection and the new exhibition Buddha and Shiva, Lotus and Dragon: Masterworks from the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection at Asia Society.

General admission $10 | Members $5 | Ages 19 and under free

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New Orleans Museum of Art | NOMA Magazine

CONTENTS BREATHE IN

A CQUISITIONS

Art in Bloom THURSDAY, MARCH 26 – SUNDAY, MARCH 29 Art in Bloom, presented by IBERIABANK, showcases spectacular floral designs created by over 100 exhibitors that remain on display at NOMA for four days. For an additional fee, attend lectures, a luncheon, and fashion show on Thursday, March 26.

Visit noma.org/aib2020 for additional information and ticket sales. An upcharge of $5 to all admission fees will be added for all days of Art in Bloom. NOMA members receive free admission.

4 The Sun shines in the Besthoff Sculpture Garden 5 Namji Dolls: Fertility and Play 6 New acquisitions reshape past histories FEATURE

8 Buddha and Shiva, Lotus and Dragon: Masterworks from the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection at Asia Society EXHIBITIONS

LEARN

12 Highlights from the Bhansali Collection

On Collecting: Twentieth-Century Design

14 NOMA and New Photography

TUESDAYS, APRIL 28, MAY 5, 6 – 8 P.M. (OPTIONAL MAY 9 TRIP TO NEW YORK)

17 Inspired by NOMA: Del and Ginger Hall

Join a two-part evening series with Mel Buchanan, RosaMary Curator of Decorative Arts and Design, as she discusses NOMA’s twentieth-century decorative arts collection, focusing on current strengths and future goals. On Saturday, May 9, there will be an optional session in New York City (at attendee’s expense) to visit the TEFAF Spring Show of fine arts and antiques, along with events connected to NYCxDESIGN, an annual celebration of design.

Advance registration requested. Two sessions | $100 for members |$125 for nonmembers. Visit noma.org/oncollecting for more information or enroll.

18 Celebrating the Bauhaus Centennial 20 Atomic Number 13: Aluminum in 20th-Century Design 22 Alia Ali: FLUX 23 Torkwase Dyson: Black Compositional Thought 15 Paintings for the Plantationocene Nathalie Du Pasquier, (French), Memphis Design Group, (Italian),“Objects of the Electric Age” Fruit Bowl, 1984, Enameled and polished metal, laminate, stone, Museum purchase, William McDonald Boles and Eva Carol Boles Fund, 2017.198

LISTEN

Les Cenelles in concert SUNDAY, JANUARY 26 | 6 – 8 P.M. As Inventing Acadia: Painting and Place comes to a close, attend a concert by Les Cenelles, a band that plays a fusion of historic Creole and new compositions with various stringed instruments.

S UPPORT

24 Auditorium renovation will enhance museum experience LEARN

25 Teen Squad builds lasting connections 29 Camp Able connects with NOMA EVENTS

26 Events by date THANK YOU

30 NOMA Donors

Members $15 | $20 nonmembers Visit noma.org/lescenelles for tickets and information.

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Visit noma.org/magazine for exclusive online content.

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ACQUISITIONS

THE SUN SHINES IN THE BESTHOFF SCULPTURE GARDEN Ugo Rondinone’s gilded bronze sculpture The Sun is the latest addition to The Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden. The sculpture considers the relationship between humans and nature.

The sculpture creates a frame around the surrounding landscape, drawing attention to the place where earth and sky meet.

This creates a gilded aperture through which to view nature, highlighting the beauty of the surrounding landscape but also questioning our relationship to the natural world. Calling forth religious imagery as well as classical mythology, the circular shape of the work evokes cycles of birth and death, past

and present, decadence and decay, and urbanity and antiquity.

Based in New York, the Swiss-born Rondinone often creates mesmerizing architectural devices that challenge people’s relationship to the environment.

Cast in bronze, the work imparts a sense of surreal permanence to nature, with a gilded surface that transcends the sculpture’s earthly surroundings.

Appearing almost as a celesestial vision,

More than 150,000 visitors have strolled the pathways of the Besthoff Scultpure Garden since a 6.5-acre expansion doubled the size of this treasured outdoor art environment in May 2019. A number of naming opportunities remain for donors—including the garden’s amphitheater, pavilion, benches, sculpture bases, and landscape features. Gifts may be pledged over a number of years.

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fallen from the sky, the richness of the work reflects Rondinone’s belief in the transcendent power of nature. “Nature is a very important ingredient in my work,” Rondinone says, “because it has a universal appeal.” The artist has written, “Nature is my religion and my best friend.”

Rondinone creates deceptively simple forms that evoke strong responses from the public. As he says, “Because public sculpture is, for the most part, for the public, the first time they encounter art, it is important that it is a nonverbal encounter...something that they are just drawn and attracted to.”

Paris Willougby, Professional Pathways Intern

For more information, visit noma.org/expansion or contact Anne Baños, Deputy Director, at apbanos@noma.org or Jenni Daniel, Director of Development, at jdaniel@noma.org.

New Orleans Museum of Art | NOMA Magazine

NA MJ I DOLLS: FERTILIT Y A N D PL AY Wooden dolls created by blacksmiths in the Namji culture of northern Cameroon commonly serve as unadorned toys to prepare young girls for motherhood.

When decorated, these Namji dolls also serve as fertility amulets for women of childbearing age. Two Namji dolls were recently donated to NOMA’s African art collection by Dr. David Rilling of Philadelphia.

Most Namji dolls are recognizable by their proportionally small head and elongated neck. These dolls are usually strapped to the backs of girls the same way that mothers carry their infants, in role-playing preparation for the duties of childcare. The dolls can be bathed and fed as if they are a real child.

In a more mature capacity, women who want to ensure offspring utilize these dolls as a symbolic object. Used in this context, the dolls are decorated with beads, strings of pearls, cowrie shells, metal bells, ornaments, and leather straps, while some are embellished with two tiny colored beads to represent eyes. Women carry the dolls with them, tucked into their clothing, and care for them as they would a real child, projecting a readiness to become mothers within their community.

This use of fertility figures is prevalent in many African cultures.

The fate of a culture depends upon young women becoming married and bearing children. Societal expectations make it common to supplicate various deities for the blessing of fertility.

Beautifully carved figurines known as akua-ba in the Akan society of Ghana are commissioned by women experiencing difficulty conceiving.

Yoruba parents who have lost a child carve miniature wooden sculptures called ibeji, representing their deceased son or daughter. Upon the death of one twin child, the ibeji figure symbolically contains the soul of the departed and the object is tended as a child.

The blolo bla/bian miniature sculptures of the Baule people in Cote d'Ivoire are the spiritual spouses of living humans. When individuals are threatened by their spiritual spouses, the sculptures are used to trap the spirit.

Adorned with various beads, this Namji doll is attractive to behold. The peak at the top suggests a hairdo that drapes to cover the face. The neck is ringed in necklaces made of small beads, and strands of larger beads and cowrie shells are used to form the arms, hands, legs, and feet. Dolls are not commonly studied in African art, and the addition of the Namji dolls complements other doll-making cultures represented in NOMA's collection and serves as an example of art that suggests the Western idea of dolls, such as the popular Barbie.

Ndubuisi C. Ezeluomba, Francoise Billon Richardson Curator of African Art

Ezeluomba will lead a panel discussion and gallery talks about African art on Friday, February 7, at 6 p.m. during Friday Nights at NOMA.

Namji doll, late 19th to 20th century.

Wood, pigment, beads, cowrie shells, 4 1â „8 inches, Namji artist, Cameroon, Gift of Dr. David Rilling

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ACQUISITIONS

NEW ACQUISITIONS RESHAPE PAST HISTORIES Two recent contemporary art acquisitions reflect NOMA’s commitment to collecting work that resonates on a local level while also addressing global concerns. These artists explore histories of New Orleans and the broader region to create contemporary works that respond to larger social and political issues. Their art bridges perceived divides between past and present, local and global, and the personal and political. These artists work across many different media: painting, film, cartography, animation, and installation. These additions to the permanent collection reflect NOMA’s commitment to supporting artists who work across different media and forms to offer new perspectives on what it means to make and share contemporary art today.

FIRELEI BÁEZ is internationally recognized for fierce, often fantastical portraits of women. Báez’s newest body of work focuses on key chapters from New Orleans’s past. In these new paintings, Báez overlays figures, symbolic imagery, and calligraphic gestures onto architectural surveys from the 1930s-era Historic American Buildings Survey, a project of the Works Progress Administration, of significant sites across New Orleans.

Blurring the lines between past, present, and future, Báez paints new imagery upon these archival drawings, and in the process overwrites the often divisive history these older documents represent. Báez carries portraiture into a space where identity is rooted in history, but can likewise become untethered—and liberated—from it.

Baez’s the trace, whether we are attending to it or not (a space for each other’s breathing), which comes from this series, features a ciguapa—an elusive and cunning female creature from Dominican folklore—bending over an architectural plan of the Illinois Central Railroad trestle to unite both sides of the tracks. Historically, railroad lines have often delineated boundaries between communities, reinforcing racial and class stratification. Spanning a bridge, this ciguapa crosses historical lines of segregation, and also references the role of this railroad line—which runs between New Orleans and Chicago—in the history of the Great Migration. As the artist has shared about this painting’s protagonist, “She is quite literally bridging and forming space for communities to be able to carve out belonging and breathe.”

Firelei Báez, the trace, whether we are attending to it or not (a space for each other’s breathing), 2019, Acrylic, oil, and transfer on archival printed canvas, 90 x 114 3/8 inches, Museum purchase, Carmen Donaldson Fund, 2019.34, Courtesy of the artist and James Cohan, New York, Photo by Phoebe d’Heurle © Firelei Báez

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New Orleans Museum of Art | NOMA Magazine

Jamilah Sabur, Un chemin escarpé / A steep path, 2018, Five-channel video, Installation from the Hammer Museum, Color, sound, 10:27 min (Edition 1/2), Museum purchase, Carmen Donaldson Fund, 2019.35, Courtesy of the Artist and Nina Johnson, Miami. Photo by Jeff McLane © Jamilah Sabur

Un chemin escarpé / A steep path is a five-channel video installation in which JAMILAH SABUR draws upon metaphysics, geology, and familial ties to reframe the landscape and history of the Caribbean. Throughout the work, Sabur films herself as a shape-shifting figure that traverses and communes with various sites in the Caribbean to unlock hidden histories and reveal contemporary, physical realities of the islands.

Sabur’s title alludes to the geological form known as an escarpment, a steep cliff formed by erosion at sites where land meets sea. Adopting the role of explorer, Sabur reimagines a figure often associated with the violence of colonialism as a source for uncovering new histories.

Throughout the video installation, she carries a rhomboid object, a shape that comes from an architectural feature of her mother’s childhood home in Jamaica. This shape references Sabur’s own experience of migration from Jamaica to Miami, and her experience

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living in the U.S. as an undocumented immigrant for two decades. In the installation, the rhombus is a navigational tool that allows the artist to find her way through unknown territories.

In one sequence in the film, Sabur navigates an animation (created with found imagery that the artist animates) of the Vema Fracture Zone, an underwater mountain range that is of great interest to oceanographers. This site, which today is experiencing extreme sea-floor spread due to climate change, has long been the focus of historians interested in its role as one of the main arteries of the transatlantic slave trade. Sabur’s installation activates these connections between geology, environment, and history through a series of performances in which she reconfigures and reimagines these landscapes from within.

Katie A. Pfohl, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art

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New Orleans Museum of Art | NOMA Magazine

Buddha and Shiva, Lotus and Dragon MASTERWORKS FROM THE MR. AND MRS. JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER 3rd COLLECTION AT ASIA SOCIETY MY OWN EXPERIENCE TELLS ME THAT ANYONE WHO BECOMES ACQUAINTED WITH THE ARTS AND CULTURES OF ASIA ACQUIRES A GREATLY AUGMENTED SENSE OF APPRECIATION AND RESPECT FOR ITS PEOPLES. WE HOPE THAT THE COLLECTION, INTEGRATED INTO THE ASIA SOCIETY’S PROGRAMS, CAN HELP INSTILL IN ASIANAMERICAN RELATIONS AN ADDED SENSE OF IMPORTANCE AND OPPORTUNITY. —JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER 3RD John D. Rockefeller 3rd (1906-1978) never knew a world without Asian art. As the third-generation heir to his family’s industrial fortune and legacy for acquiring art, he was surrounded by great works from across the continent from an early age. His father’s cherished Chinese porcelain vases graced many of the family’s rooms, while Asian sculptures, prints, paintings, rugs, and hanging textiles adorned his mother’s fanciful “Buddha rooms.” Eventually, he and his wife, Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller (1909–1992), became brilliant and generous collectors whose bequest of nearly 300 works of art established the core permanent collection of Asia Society, New York.

Selections from that esteemed collection will be on view at NOMA from March 13 to June 7, 2020, in the exhibition Buddha and Shiva, Lotus and Dragon , co-organized by the American Federation of Arts and Asia Society Museum. The exhibition presents nearly seventy masterworks, including sculptures, bronzes, and ceramics that range in date from the late sixth century BCE to the early nineteenth century CE, and originate from Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tibet, and Vietnam. These works of art illuminate the cultures and history of Asia and simultaneously underscore art’s capacity to encourage cross-cultural dialogue and understanding.

Rockefeller’s upbringing gave him a familiarity with the arts of Asia; however, his lifelong engagement with the continent was shaped by both his professional and personal experiences

during and after World War II. After his release from active duty in 1945, Rockefeller joined the peace mission to Japan led by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. Rockefeller subsequently held various governmental appointments and philanthropic and business interests that necessitated frequent travels throughout the continent.

By the late 1940s, and certainly by the 1950s, the Rockefellers had begun to collect seriously and to see art, and its exhibition, as a means of cultural diplomacy. Over the course of next two decades, through nearly annual trips to Asia visiting archaeological sites, architectural treasures, museums, and private collections, the Rockefellers immersed themselves in the history and cultures of this expansive region. As they deepened their knowledge of Asian art, they came to recognize the enormity of what they had taken on.

By the 1950s, they were occasionally asking for advice from other collectors and U.S.-based specialists. Sherman E. Lee, an art historian renowned for his expertise in Asian art, and then director of the Cleveland Museum of Art, became the couple’s formal Asian art adviser in 1963; subsequently their collection grew significantly. Together they focused on acquiring top quality works from four principal cultures—Japanese, Chinese, Khmer, and the Indian subcontinent—and over the course of nearly two decades, succeeded in building one of the strongest collections of Asian art in the United States.

LEFT Made in Pakistan, Gandhara area, Head of Buddha, Kushan period, late 2nd–early 3rd century, Schistose phyllite, Asia Society, New York: Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection, 1979.2, Photograph by Synthescape, courtesy American Federation of Arts

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EXHIBITIONS

Made in Cambodia, Shiva, Angkor period, Baphuon style, 11th century, Sandstone, Asia Society, New York: Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection, 1979.64, Photograph by Synthescape, courtesy American Federation of Arts

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Buddha and Shiva, Lotus and Dragon reflects the strengths of the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection at Asia Society through a presentation in four sections: the international influence of Buddhist art; Hindu sculpture from the Indian sub-continent and Southeast Asia; and ceramics and metalwork from China and Japan. The transmission of Buddhism across the continent and the lasting impact of its associated artistic styles comprise the exhibition’s first section. The late second-to early third-century Head of Buddha (page 8) is a classic example of an early image of Shakyamuni, the founder of the faith. From Gandhara, an ancient kingdom situated along the Silk Route that connected Asia to Europe and the Middle East, the Head reveals Hellenistic influences in its finely modeled features and facial structure. Once part of a full figure, the Head exhibits a number of identifying features of the Buddha: the ushnisha (bump atop the head), signifying his cosmic openness as an enlightened being; the urna (the small circle on the forehead), symbolizing spiritual truth; and the elongated earlobes, denoting the Buddha’s early life as a prince. The Gandharan style radiated to Central Asia, the oasis towns of the Tarim Basin, and into China, and from there to Korea and Japan.

A number of striking works from the Indian subcontinent reveal the diversity of Hindu sculpture, including the remarkable Chola-period Shiva Nataraja (Shiva as Lord of the Dance), c. 970. Surrounded by a fiery aureole and wrapped in serpents, the Hindu god Shiva performs the dance of bliss with an energy that forces his matted hair outward. Entangled in his locks is the river goddess Ganga (representing the Ganges river).

In his upper hands, Shiva holds a drum, symbolizing the rhythm of creation, and fire, the destructive force of the universe. His open right palm signifies protection and his left hand points to his raised foot, signifying refuge and deliverance. Mushalagan, the dwarf demon of ignorance and illusion, lies prostrate below, vanquished.

A monumental eleventh-century four-armed Shiva, from the Angkor period of the Khmer empire (from the early ninth century to the first third of the fifteenth century) demonstrates not only the spread of Hinduism into Southeast Asia, but the complexities of history. While appearing to be a representation of the Hindu deity, with its multiple arms and third eye in the center of the forehead, close examination has revealed an abraded image of a stupa (or possibly a seated Buddha) at the center of the figure’s headdress.

New Orleans Museum of Art | NOMA Magazine

Made in India, Tamil Nadu, Shiva as Lord of the Dance (Shiva Nataraja), Chola period, c. 970 Copper alloy, Asia Society, New York: Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection, 1979.20, Courtesy American Federation of Arts, photograph

by Synthescape

Made in China, Jiangxi Province, Flask, Ming period, early 15th century (probably Yongle era, 1403 – 1424), Porcelain painted with underglaze, cobalt blue (Jingdezhen ware), Asia Society, New York: Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection, 1979.160, Courtesy American Federation of Arts, photograph by Synthescape

The transformation, or “conversion,” of what may have been originally a Buddhist bodhisattva into a four-armed Shiva draws attention to the presence of both Hindu and Buddhist Angkor-period rulers and suggests that when a Hindu ruler assumed power, a Buddhist sculpture was “converted” into a Hindu god to align with the ruler’s faith.

While Buddhist sculptures from both China and Japan are presented within the exhibition, the focus is on the extraordinary achievements in both ceramics and metalwork from each of these countries. The Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection at Asia Society includes some of the finest porcelains ever produced in China, including an impressive blue-and-white fifteenthcentury flask decorated with three-clawed dragons prancing against a backdrop of a floating, scrolling lotus vine. In China, dragons are powerful, but benign, creatures associated with the emperor. During the Ming period (1368 – 1644) objects with three-or four-clawed dragons functioned as court gifts from the emperor both to his attendants and to foreign rulers and other dignitaries.

A masterwork of Japanese ceramic art is a centerpiece of the Japanese works on display, the Tea-leaf Jar by Nonomura Ninsei (active c. 1646 – 1677). Decorated with overglaze enamels over a warm white glaze, the composition unfolds across the entire exterior surface.

Mynahs stand on the ground, fly, and even squabble in the air. Ninsei employed silver, now tarnished, to add glimmer to the birds’ wings, and a spot of gold shimmers as part of the landscape next to the tail of the bird on the ground. www.noma.org

Nonomura Ninsei (active c. 1646 – 1677); made in Japan, Kyoto Prefecture, Tea-leaf Jar, Edo period, 1670s, Stoneware painted with overglaze enamels and silver (Kyoto ware), Asia Society, New York: Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection, 1979.251, Courtesy American Federation of Arts, photograph by Synthescape

The acquisition of this work by the Rockefellers required special permission as it had been classified as an Important Cultural Property, and thus unable to be exported. However, after a passionate appeal, including the importance of the American public’s having access to a first-class Japanese ceramic outside Japan, export papers were granted.

The circumstances surrounding the acquisitions of the Tea-leaf Jar underscore the Rockefellers’ commitment to employing art as a means to build bridges between cultures and countries. Throughout his life, John D. Rockefeller 3rd played an instrumental role in fostering cultural understanding and cooperation between America and Asia.

Together with Blanchette, he built an outstanding collection of Asian art, gifting it to the institution he helped found in 1956, Asia Society, so that it could serve as “a source for understanding” for Americans. NOMA is delighted to present this collection, continuing the Rockefellers’ mission.

Buddha, Shiva, Lotus and Dragon: Masterworks from the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection at Asia Society is co-organized by the American Federation of Arts and Asia Society. An accompanying fully illustrated catalogue by Adriana Proser, the John H. Foster Senior Curator of Traditional Asian Art at Asia Society, from which this article is based, is available in the Museum Shop. This project is supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The installation at NOMA is sponsored by Dr. Siddharth K. Bhansali, Virginia Eason Weinmann, Tim L. Fields, and Nuria Rowley.

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New Orleans Museum of Art | NOMA Magazine

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE BHANSALI COLLECTION In conjunction with Buddha and Shiva, Lotus and Dragon, NOMA will present The Pursuit of Salvation: Jain Art from India and Arte Sacra: Roman Catholic Art from Portuguese India, extraordinary assemblages of works of art from the collection of Dr. Siddharth Bhansali, a New Orleans physician, that focus on two lesser-known faith traditions in the Indian subcontinent.

The Jain faith has been continuously practiced in India since at least the sixth century BCE. Nonviolence, a respect for all living beings, and the belief in the existence of a permanent soul whose true nature is obscured by accumulated karma are core principles of Jainism.

As in Buddhism, the goal of Jain practice is to end the cycles of rebirth (samsara) and attain liberation from all suffering. This is accomplished through rigorous devotion to ascetic practices and the elimination of human passions and attachments.

Jains pay homage to the founders of their faith, the twenty-four Jinas (conquerers) the last of whom was Mahavira (c. 599–527 BCE). Over time, there came to be two primary sects in Jainism: the Shvetambaras, whose monks wear white robes, and the Digambaras, whose monks reject all possessions, including clothing.

Artists clearly identify the figure’s affiliation, and represent the Jinas in one of only two positions: seated in meditation, or standing in the kayotsarga (body abandonment) pose. The latter is a visualization of the Jina’s liberation from human attachments and emotion.

Created over a period of more than fifteen hundred years (second to nineteenth centuries) the sculptures, paintings, and manuscripts on view illuminate iconographic and stylistic change as well as regional variation.

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In the centuries following the arrival of Francis Xavier, a Catholic missionary, in 1542, Goa became the administrative and economic center of a Portuguese empire that extended west to Africa and east to Malaysia, China, and Japan. The vast trade networks established by the Portuguese and Spanish allowed not only for the spread of Christianity, but also an unprecedented artistic exchange within these colonial empires. Works of art and valuable materials traveled between Spain, Portugal, and their colonies, leading to the development of new visual traditions informed by European imagery and local idioms.

European missionaries brought with them paintings, sculpture, and devotional objects for use in their evangelization efforts. Sculptures of saints and apostles, the Virgin Mary, Christ, and angels, made of wood and ivory, such as those seen in Arte Sacra, were created by Goan artists from Hindu and convert families. Initially based upon European prototypes, over time many works came to marry Christian imagery and symbols with local traditions. These works not only graced the interiors of European-style churches in Goa, but were also exported to Europe for use in religious establishments and for private devotion.

This exhibition reveals both the global influence of European seventeenth and eighteenth century styles, as well as the transformation of these styles in the hands of local artists creating a new visual tradition.

LEFT Samavasarana, the Holy Assembly of Jinas, Karnataka, Mysore, India, c. 1825-75, Ink, opaque watercolor and gold on paper, 23 x 20 in., On loan from the collection Dr. Siddharth K. Bhansali ABOVE Our Lady of the Rosary, Goa, 18th century Wood, with polychrome and gilt, 36 inches, On loan from the collection Dr. Siddharth K. Bhansali

Lisa Rotondo-McCord, Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs/Curator of Asian Art

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EXHIBITIONS

NEW PHOTOGR A PH Y AT NOM A

This spring, NOMA’s Department of Photographs will present the work of four photographers who engage with the central issues in the making, understanding, and circulation of photography today.

Although the New Orleans Museum of Art built a world-class collection of photographs over the past fifty years, it has been presenting photographs in its exhibitions for far longer. While many of these exhibitions have taken the form of historical surveys, and focused presentations on past events, many have also been devoted to photography of the present moment. In fact, the very first photography exhibition at NOMA in 1918, as historic as it now seems, was a sprawling presentation of one hundred and three photographs by fifty-nine different photographers, all made during the previous decade. This landmark exhibition, curated by now acknowledged masters of photography Karl Struss and Clarence White, began a long, fruitful, and at times, ambitious relationship between NOMA and contemporary photography. As NOMA prepares to begin a new chapter in this relationship this spring, with an exhibition highlighting the work of four contemporary photographers, presented here are some key moments in NOMA’s history with contemporary photography, followed by a glimpse of what is to come later this year by introducing two of the four photographers.

The Present in the Past After the initial exhibition in 1918, both group and solo exhibitions of contemporary photography followed in the subsequent decades. In the 1930s, monographic exhibitions of Margaret Bourke-White (1932) and Clarence John Laughlin (1936) would join group exhibitions organized by the New Orleans Camera Club (1937) and a major multimedia exhibition, The Bauhaus:

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How It Worked (1939), conceived by the graphic designer and artist Herbert Bayer and coordinated by the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Although Bourke-White was only 27 when the Isaac Delgado Museum of Art (NOMA’s original name) held the exhibition of her work, she was a rising star. It was four years before her iconic image of the Fort Peck Dam would dominate the cover of the first issue of LIFE magazine, but she was already the lead photographer for Henry Luce’s Fortune magazine. She had traveled and photographed in the USSR, fulfilled several industrial commissions in Cleveland, and documented the construction of the Chrysler Building in Manhattan in the winter of 1929 to 1930. During that last project, she fell in love with the skyscraper—in particular its sixtyfirst floor, adorned with the famous stainless-steel gargoyles jutting out around it—and in late 1930, she moved her studio to that floor. When the Delgado Museum of Art (NOMA's predecessor) wanted to exhibit some of Bourke-White’s work, staff asked the Cincinnati Art Museum, which had presented her work in 1931, for her address. The museum’s reply, now archived in NOMA's collection, revealed the stature of both the photographer and the building where her studio was located: no street number or name needed, any inquiry should be addressed simply to “Miss Margaret Bourke-White, The Chrysler Building, New York City.”

In 1952, the Museum presented Memorable LIFE Photographs, an exhibition of 187 prints by sixty-four photographers from LIFE magazine,

curated by Edward Steichen, then the head of the Department of Photography at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Compiled only sixteen years after the founding of LIFE magazine, the exhibition was therefore a census of contemporary artful photojournalism. Writing in the accompanying catalog, Steichen explained the exhibition’s “overall focus…on the panorama of time and space, of an historical procession where wisdom and nonsense, the ornery and the holy, the poisons of hate and the selflessness of heroism are all written into the visual record of the world we live in.” Margaret BourkeWhite’s work was once again on display at the Delgado in this exhibition, as were prints by Henri CartierBresson, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Andreas Feininger, and W. Eugene Smith, all of whom are now represented in NOMA’s permanent collection.

In more recent decades, contemporary photographs have found their way in to various group exhibitions, especially in the New Orleans Art Triennial, which was originally conceived and organized by curators at NOMA. In 1992, the Triennial was devoted exclusively to contemporary photography, and its guest curator was one of the bestknown photography professionals in the world, John Szarkowski, then the Director Emeritus of the Department of Photographs at the Museum of Modern Art. The exhibition included the work of Debbie Fleming Caffery, Birney Imes, Ron Jude, Sally Mann, Maggie Taylor, and many others who are now established names in the field.

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Guanyu Xu (Chinese, b. 1993), Worlds Within Worlds, 2019, Archival pigment print, 40 x 50 in., Courtesy of the artist

The Here and Now This spring, NOMA’s Department of Photographs will present the work of four photographers who engage with central issues in the making, understanding, and circulation of photography today. The two introduced here are GUANYU XU (Chinese, born 1993), and ESTHER HOVERS (Dutch, born 1991). Both of these artists pose questions about what role the camera and photographs play in determining and articulating identity and behavior. The two remaining photographers will be featured in the next issue of this magazine.

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Born and raised in Beijing in a seventeenth-floor apartment of a military housing complex (his father has long worked for the army), Guanyu Xu came to the United States for graduate school at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Growing up, he was prohibited from hanging posters in his bedroom, so instead he collected, and surreptitiously admired, clippings from American magazines ranging from images of the new Captain America to classic Hollywood movie stars. Once in the United States, he both embraced and confronted his role as an outsider, producing images and projects about the relationship between his homeland

and this country, whose glitzy products he had been fascinated by for so long.

He also began to fully visualize his own identity, making a series of portraits of nude men, many of whom he found through dating apps. In 2018, Xu printed out images from each of these series, rolled or folded them into his suitcase, and brought them back to his home in Beijing. When his parents left for the day, Xu carefully arranged these images throughout the apartment and meticulously re-photographed his temporary installation, working quickly and before his parents returned.

Although his parents had supported his work as a photographer from

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Esther Hovers (Dutch, b. 1991), False Positives installed at FOAM, Amsterdam, 2017 (works 2015–2016), Archival pigment prints, Courtesy of the artist

afar, he had been careful to share only the most innocuous images: landscapes, sunsets, and pictures of road signs. He doubts that they are aware of the depth of his cross-cultural critique, or even his sexual orientation.

The project, Temporarily Censored Home, allowed Xu to weave together an honest and multifaceted narrative, in pictures, about his own identity, desires, and his contentious relationship with his upbringing.

ESTHER HOVERS is fascinated by the now almost ubiquitous presence of cameras as surveillance tools. In working with technicians and psychologists during research for her False Positives project (her graduate thesis at the Royal Academy of Art in the Hague), she learned about eight different "anomalies" that surveillance cameras are designed to look for and record.

Perhaps not surprisingly, these anomalies are contradictory (standing still, moving too fast) and collectively cover almost the entire range of normal human activity. Hovers was thus struck by the incredibly formulaic method (these cameras are operating under the direction of various algorithms created for them) by which cameras are increasingly

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making judgments about what constitutes normal behavior. In an equally formulaic but human-driven way, Hovers set about sketching out these anomalies and planning how to effectively fabricate images that could masquerade as surveillance photographs. In NOMA’s exhibition, the final photographs— whose incredible detail and artful finish belie their “false” status as simple surveillance documents—are paired with preparatory figure sketches and aerial perspective schematics that Hovers produced for each photograph. The result is a series of works that both mimic and undermine the authority of the camera, reminding us of the danger in leaning too heavily on simple categories and visual data to determine human intent.

Russell Lord, Freeman Family Curator of Photography

Works by Guanyu Xu and Esther Hovers will be included in the exhibition New Photography at NOMA, on view in the Templemann Galleries from April 17 to September 20, 2020.

A panel discussion about the exhibition will take place on Saturday, April 18, at 2 p.m.

New Orleans Museum of Art | NOMA Magazine

INSPIR ED BY NOM A : DEL A N D GINGER H A LL

Del and Ginger Hall with Curator of Photography Russell Lord at the opening of the exhibition Best Seat in the House.

Del Hall’s career in broadcast and print media took him from his home in New Orleans around the world. As an Emmy Award-winning news cameraman and film editor for much of the second half of the twentieth century, Hall pioneered the use of moving images on television news, working first for WWL in New Orleans followed by national and international assignments for CBS, and he applied the same perceptive and sensitive vision to take still photographs. Selections from his lifelong portfolio were on view in the 2018 NOMA exhibition Del Hall: Best Seat in the House. This year, Del and his wife Ginger added another facet to their impact upon NOMA. To inspire future generations of photographers, they have established a major fund to support the museum’s photography department. The couple spoke about Del’s career, their relationship with NOMA, and their hopes for the Del and Ginger Hall Photography Fund.

Del: As a boy, I lived at 129 Rampart Street and across the street was Reiner’s Pawn Shop. That’s where I spotted my camera, around the time I was in high school, that started my whole love for working with photography.

Ginger: Yes, from a little boy to this day he never goes out without a camera. I’m sure I’ll have to tuck one into the grave.

Del: As far as photography goes, and I tell this to Ginger a lot, I just can’t help myself. I don’t know why I do it.

I just can’t stop. It’s a compulsion.

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Ginger: In his career at CBS, if anything around the world was happening, Del was there with Walter Cronkite. So if the United States was opening up relations with China, Del was there. When President Nixon went to Russia, Del was there. When Juan Perón took Evita’s body back to Argentina, Del was there. When the prisoners of war during the Vietnam War were released, Del was there in Manila. I think that’s why we have such a great marriage. He was never around!

Del was so busy, we never had time to examine what has now become his body of work, but we carried around a lot of his photos, including aerial shots of New Orleans from his days in the Air Force.

One day we decided to contact Richard Campanella, a Tulane professor who writes about New Orleans history, to see if he would be interested in these photographs. He said, “You’ve come to the right person.”

[Campanella would write The Photojournalism of Del Hall: New Orleans and Beyond, 1950s–2000s, published in 2015.]

Del: As I said, I grew up in New Orleans, and I always loved the art museum. One day I was covering a school tour, and I took two snapshots that I really loved. One was of two girls in their little skirts looking at a modern abstract painting, but the other was a boy in pants, just barely covering his socks, and he was taking a picture of a nude down in the lobby. To me, these pictures just said everything!

Ginger: One day, without any advance notice, we dropped by NOMA and told the front desk attendant that we had these two photographs and we’d like to show them to the director of photography. I was expecting a response along the lines of “He’s too busy right now,” or “He’s in a meeting,” but Russell Lord came upstairs.

Russell later told us that he always tries to meet with everyone because he never knows what he might find.

He formed a wonderful relationship with us. It just wasn’t, Oh boy, I’ve hooked a couple who look like they might have something to give to the museum! He nurtured a relationship that’s helped us grow and consider ways we might inspire others. …Not every child can take art lessons or buy oil paint, or even buy film like Del when he was a child.

But now they have access to cameras on phones, and they can think of themselves as practicing the art of photography if they just have a little nudge.

Russell, the director Susan Taylor, and the rest of the museum staff have come up with several ideas that we think would be a win-win. Although we know our gift will support every aspect of the museum's photography program, we are particularly excited that it might inspire a greater love for photography in New Orleans by allowing the museum to bring in established and emerging photographers and curators to speak at NOMA. We look forward to seeing all of this and more.

Visit noma.org/magazine to view selections of Del Hall’s photography.

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EXHIBITIONS

CELEBR ATING THE BAUH AUS CENTENNIA L

In 1919 German architect Walter Gropius founded an academy in Dessau, Germany, that sought to bridge the separate realms of fine art and applied art. In its fourteen years of operation, his Staatliches Bauhaus would heavily define the aesthetics of the twentieth century—in its philosophies, in its scope, and in its reach. An Ideal Unity: The Bauhaus and Beyond, on view through March 15, explores the artistic breadth of this innovative school of art and design.

A utopian experiment in equality, the Bauhaus sought to remove longstanding class distinctions by uniting craftspeople and artists on equal footing.

Men and women were enrolled in the same programs, and both masters and students were recruited from diverse disciplines, nationalities, and faiths.

All incoming students took the vorkurs, or foundation course, to study materials, color theory, and formal relationships, before choosing a specialized workshop that operated on a master-and-apprentice model. Over the years, workshops included carpentry/ joinery, ceramics, graphics/bookbinding, metalworking, photography, weaving, sculpture, stagecraft, stained glass, wall painting, architecture, and printing and advertising. The workshops produced items to sell, which helped financially support the institution.

Photography was an integral component of Bauhaus presentation and experimentation from its early days, though it was not added to the curriculum until 1929. Photography captured images of daily life at the Bauhaus, was used to advertise and sell Bauhaus products, and became a tool to explore new ways of seeing.

László Moholy-Nagy, a Bauhaus master from 1923 to 1929 who directed the foundations course and the metal workshop, promoted the idea that the camera could produce, and not

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Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (American, b. Hungary, 1894–1946), Advertisement for Schocken Department Store, 1927, Gelatin silver print with applied pigment, 8 1⁄4 x 6 ½, Museum purchase, Women’s Volunteer Committee Fund, 74.64

just reproduce, a photographic image.

He encouraged students to push the medium’s boundaries by exploring spatial relationships and technical possibilities. These explorations included using dynamic viewpoints, framing, cropping, enlarging and minimizing, as well as negative effects and double exposure. This approach to photography was applied

in other departments, particularly printing and advertising.

Moholy-Nagy created a photomontage (above) using photographic, printed, and drawn elements for this commercial advertisement, which reads “Stop! Have you been to the Schocken Department Store yet?” The minimalist approach established a clear message without

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sacrificing dynamism, generated by the manipulation of scale, bold typography, and the repeated position Marcel Breuer, a fellow Bauhäusler.

Breuer was known for his tubular metal chairs, seen in this worm’s-eye view by T. Lux Feininger (lower right), which captures the play of light in the Gropius-designed Bauhaus Dessau theater. The son of Lyonel Feininger, one of the first masters named by Gropius at the Bauhaus, Lux studied and worked at the Bauhaus after it moved to Dessau from 1926 to 1932, and is lauded for creating the largest photographic archive of daily life at the Bauhaus.

Gertrud Arndt also captured daily life, urban landscapes, portraits, and still lifes. A student at the Bauhaus from 1923 to 1927, she completed the foundations course under Moholy-Nagy before entering the weaving workshop.

While the Bauhaus was pioneering in its acceptance of female students, there was still a strong gender bias that directed most to the weaving workshop, with a few notable exceptions. Arndt returned to the Bauhaus in 1929 when her husband Alfred became

a master. During this period, she made 43 maskenselbstporträts, or masked self-portraits, in which she photographed herself as a series of female archetypes draped in lace, veils, and scarves—elements that alluded to the weaving workshop and highlighted the performative nature of gender decades before contemporary artists would employ similar investigations into gender identity.

In 1933, Adolf Hitler rose to power and the Nazi party closed the Bauhaus, which had relocated to Berlin in 1932. The party’s racist ideology and practices were at odds with the school’s inclusive and utopian mission. The theories, practices, and pedagogy of the Bauhaus spread around the world as former teachers and students returned home or fled Europe during World

War II. Though its duration was brief, the Bauhaus successfully connected masters and students, known collectively as Bauhäusler, from twenty-nine countries, each representing vastly different religious, philosophical, and political beliefs, to achieve an ideal unity between art and industry.

Supported by the A. Charlotte Mann and Joshua Mann Pailet Endowment, this exhibition will be presented in two rotations to present a broad scope of the artistic creations and fascinating characters who contributed to the Bauhaus. All of the works on view come from NOMA’s permanent collection, amassed through the generous donation of art and funds for acquisitions.

Anne C. B. Roberts, Assistant Curator

ABOVE T. Lux Feininger (American, born Germany, 1910-2011), Untitled (Bauhaus Theater Chairs), c. 1928, Gelatin silver print, 3 1⁄8 x 4 3⁄4 in., Gift of Diego Cortez, 2008.5.131

LEFT Gertrud Arndt (German, 1903–2000), Self Portrait, 1931, Gelatin silver print, 7 3⁄4 x 5 11⁄16 in., Museum purchase, General Acquisitions Fund, 81.154

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EXHIBITIONS

ATOMIC N U MBER 1 3: A LU MIN U M IN 20TH- CEN T U RY DE SIGN

Russel Wright (American, 1904–1976), “Saturn” punch service, c. 1935, Spun aluminum with lacquered wood handles, 12 x 20 inches, Museum Purchase, William McDonald Boles and Eva Carol Boles Fund, 2017.200.a-.o

Atomic Number 13: Aluminum in 20thCentury Design, opening April 3 in the Elise M. Besthoff Gallery, draws from NOMA’s permanent collection to explore the developing role of aluminum in the twentieth century.

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When chemists first successfully extracted aluminum from the earth in the mid-nineteenth century, the raw element was as precious as gold. Today we take this ubiquitous metal for granted, though aluminum advanced nearly every facet of modern life through uses in architecture, industry, transportation, and flight. Atomic Number 13: Aluminum in 20th-Century Design, opening April 3 in the Elise M. Besthoff Gallery, draws from NOMA’s permanent collection to explore the developing role of aluminum in the twentieth century.

While aluminum (Atomic #13) is the most abundant metallic element in the Earth’s crust, it does not exist in isolation. Natural aluminum is tightly locked together with other elements in compounds, such as rocks, clays, and gemstones. In the 1850s, chemists

isolated the element in a laboratory setting. In 1853 Parisian Henri Sainte-Claire Deville described its properties—silvery white, ductile, acid resistant, and remarkably lightweight.

One hundred years later, these unique properties propelled aluminum to be as ubiquitous as folding lawn chairs and as advanced as aerospace flight.

NOMA’s collection includes a pair of nineteenth-century French opera glasses with an aluminum body, enamel panels, and mother-of-pearl details. These elegant glasses represent the period—late 1850s into the 1870s—when aluminum was a rare and expensive material for making luxury goods. Legend has it that Napoleon III reserved aluminum cutlery for favored guests while all others made do with gold. A verifiable story is that when the Washington Monument was New Orleans Museum of Art | NOMA Magazine

completed in 1884, a nine-inch pyramid of expensive aluminum capped the top.

The year 1886 changed the trajectory for aluminum. Working independently, American inventor Charles M. Hall and French scientist Paul Héroult simultaneously discovered a process for using electricity to extract the pure element from mined material.

The Hall-Héroult Process of smelting (heating ore to extract a base metal) led to commercial aluminum production, like that manufactured locally at Kaiser Aluminum in Chalmette, Louisiana, from 1951 to 1983.

When Orville and Wilbur Wright pioneered human flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1903, it was partly thanks to their use of lightweight aluminum for the plane engine’s

crankcase. Aluminum became essential in aircraft design. NOMA’s exhibition includes the “Aero-art” Service Cart, a beverage trolley designed in aluminum and plastic for the DC-3 airplane. In 1935 the DC-3 made aviation history by offering comfortable commercial flights, allowing for profitable civilian airplane travel.

Following the establishment of aluminum as the utilitarian cookware standard during the 1910s and '20s, designer Russel Wright and his marketsavvy wife Mary Einstein developed spun aluminum products that were unequivocally modern in style and use.

Wright’s “Saturn” punch service (c.

1935) has a bold yet simple spherical form that conjures up space age living.

Wright and Einstein’s aluminum “tidbit

stands” for “midnight snacks” playfully departed from earlier era’s entertaining standards, represented by the versatile and lightweight modern metal.

Before World War II, Pittsburgh’s Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA) was the only significant aluminum producer in the United States. One of the great photographers of the 1920s and ‘30s, Margaret BourkeWhite (1904–1971) turned her lens to ALCOA’s factories for an important body of work that juxtaposes human labor with powerful machines. Atomic Number 13 includes two 1939 images from this series, taken while BourkeWhite was a staff photographer at LIFE magazine documenting the industrial transformation of America.

In the mid-twentieth century, ALCOA sought to expand the use of aluminum beyond cookware and airplanes. The corporation engaged design leaders like Ray and Charles Eames, Florence Knoll, and Isamu Noguchi to make the material a key part of the Modernist aesthetic. The design for NOMA’s “Maximilian” Lounge Chair (1958) was published in the first volume of ALCOA’s Design Forecast, alongside aluminum wares in everything from toys to women’s ball gowns. Atomic Number 13: Aluminum in 20th-Century Design follows the arc of aluminum from a rare element available in small precious quantities, through its heyday as a go-to material for cocktail shakers and staplers, and its eventual establishment as a durable medium for sculptural works of art. Visitors can further explore aluminum throughout the NOMA campus, from Lynda Benglis’s cast aluminum Wing (1970) in the Contemporary Galleries, to beloved outdoor sculptures by Claes Oldenburg, Lin Emery, and Robert Indiana.

Mel Buchanan, RosaMary Curator of Decorative Arts and Design

Frantz Industries (Los Angeles),”Aero-art” Service Cart for Douglas DC3 Aircraft, 1938 design, Aluminum, Bakelite, and rubber tires, 37 x 15 x 32 in., Gift of Dr. Ronald Swartz and Ellen Johnson, 2018.52

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EXHIBITIONS

A LI A A LI: FLU X Working with textiles as her primary medium, Yemeni-Bosnian artist Alia Ali explores cultures at geographic crossroads. By showing how fabric both unites and divides us, her work considers how politics, economics, and histories collide in fabric patterns and techniques.

Focusing on wax print fabric—a form with roots in Indian, Japanese, Chinese, Javanese, Dutch, and African traditions— FLUX captures the way textiles move and migrate across different cultures. This series of shifting photographic portraits present people who are at once concealed and highly visible, their silhouettes warped by textile patterns, and faces covered over by vibrantly colored fabrics.

Surrounded by textile-upholstered frames, these portraits convey both the intimacy of fabric—a material worn close to the body—and the way its seductive colors and prints often obscure the violent colonial histories and exploitative global economies of which it is a part.

Reflecting on how wax print came into existence across borders on land and water, FLUX reveals how these histories are woven into the very processes and production of the wax print. The resultant portraits evoke the cultural flux resulting from today’s mass migrations and increasing geopolitical instability around the world.

Presented in the museum’s neoclassical entrance lobby, known as the Great Hall, the exhibition, on view from February 21 to August 2, draws attention to the space itself as a crossroads: a transitory space that represents the coming together of the many different cultures represented in the museum’s collection.

Katie A. Pfohl, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art

Alia Ali will discuss FLUX on Friday, March 13, at 6 p.m. during Friday Nights at NOMA. Alia Ali, Orange Palms, FLUX Series, 2019, Pigment print mounted on aluminum dibond with UV laminate, 48 x 36 x 2 inches (framed), Courtesy of Galerie Peter Sillem, © Alia Ali, 2019, Photo by Alia Ali

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New Orleans Museum of Art | NOMA Magazine

TOR K WA SE DYSON: BL ACK COMPOSITIONA L THOUGHT 15 PA INTING S FOR THE PL A NTATIONOCENE

Torkwase Dyson, Up South 3 (Water Table) and Up South 4 (Water Table), 2018, Acrylic on canvas, 60 inches (diameter), Photo by Art Evans, Courtesy of the artist

Torkwase Dyson employs abstract shapes and forms as a means of exploring the intersections of environmental liberation, movement, and architecture. Within her work, she has developed a unique vocabulary of abstract lines, forms, shapes, and edges informed by her own evolving theory of Black Compositional Thought.

This working term considers how waterways, architecture, objects, and geographies are composed and inhabited by black bodies, and how the properties of energy, space, and scale can form networks of liberation.

Produced for the New Orleans Museum of Art, Torkwase Dyson: Black Compositional Thought | 15 Paintings for the Plantationocene, a solo exhibition on view from January 24 through April 19, will feature fifteen paintings about composition. These works are inspired by the design systems of architecture, water infrastructure, the oil and gas industry, and the physical impact of global

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warming. The exhibition also examines the legacy of plantation economies and their relationship to the environmental and infrastructural issues of our current age, which many characterize as the “plantationocene.” Injecting these spatial constructions with a sense of precarity and emancipatory possibility, Dyson asserts new perspectives on geography, imagination, and belonging. As she states: “Environmental liberation is an ongoing practice, and, as a painter, I’m committed to a language of shape that thinks of our work as spatial and haunting; liquid and mountains; bird and lava. And in this moment of climate change, I am certain that the beauty in black world-building will continue to be guided by the poetry of our own hands. So as an artist, I am committed to praising black spatial genius through my work.”

Dyson draws a connection between the abstract forms of her art, and the networks of industrialized white supremacist power that shape

our political landscape: histories of spatial segregation, policing, and vagrancy laws, and other “exclusions of subjectivity” that often hide in the abstractions of machines, maps, and data. Her practice takes up abstraction as a tool for reshaping our current political landscape, and reimagining these systems from within. As she has written, “I am interested in how the illusion of space pushes up against real space on a two-dimensional surface … and how the compression of the two produces something indeterminate, modular, poetic, haptic, and unsteady.”

Torkwase Dyson will speak about her work on Friday, January 24, at 7:45 pm as part of Friday Nights at NOMA.

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SUPPORT

AUDITORIUM R ENOVATION WILL ENHANCE MUSEUM EXPERIENCE

The renovated auditorium will be a flexible space for hosting multidisciplinary arts experiences.

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In its effort to further serve as a multifaceted cultural convener for all audiences, NOMA will begin construction on renovations to its auditorium complex in early January.

The museum is committed to offering innovative experiences for learning and interpretation, and uniting, inspiring, and engaging diverse communities and cultures. Key to NOMA’s ability to fully realize this ambition is a renovation of the museum auditorium. Built in the 1970s, the existing auditorium, which seats 220, has outgrown its usefulness. However, its position adjacent to NOMA’s Great Hall and café courtyard make it perfectly positioned to support a range of programs and events, including films, lectures, symposia, broadcast events, festivals, music, dance and other performances, and special commemorations. The auditorium complex renovation will also enable NOMA to expand the museum’s current community partnerships, as well as create opportunity for new partnerships, advancing the museum’s position as a point of intersection for the arts in New Orleans.

The auditorium complex renovation will create a flat-floored, modern space with surround sound and theatrical lighting. Flexible and contemporary, the space will serve in multiple capacities, from theater in the round to a banquet space, lecture hall, and more. The renovation will allow for seating for up to 360 people, providing NOMA with a state-of-the-art platform for interdisciplinary arts experiences. It will also connect the current auditorium more effectively with adjacent spaces.

“This undertaking will be truly transformative for both the museum, and the city of New Orleans,” said Susan Taylor, Montine McDaniel Freeman Director of NOMA. “NOMA will be able to provide our community with a flexible, 21st century auditorium space, allowing us to expand our diverse offerings.”

The Zemurray Foundation has generously provided the lead gift to support the auditorium complex renovation. The Foundation’s significant contribution to this effort is the latest in a long line of generous gifts from the organization, dating back nearly 60 years.

The foundation has supported everything from capital projects, to conservation and acquisition efforts, to funding curatorial positions and exhibitions. Notably, in 2017, NOMA created the Zemurray Fund for Curatorial and Scholarly Advancement, an endowment that supports research by the Doris Zemurray Stone Curatorial Fellow, and advances scholarship on topics related to NOMA’s permanent collection. The fund supports the research activity of emerging scholars and adjunct curators, with a special focus on collaborations with local and regional institutions of higher education.

For more information about supporting the auditorium renovation, visit noma.org/auditorium, or email Anne Baños, Deputy Director, at apbanos@noma.org.

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LEARN

CAMP ABLE CONNECTS WITH NOMA

In the fall of 2018, Taylor Cheek was employed as a special-needs tutor, home-schooling Duke, “a super bright, very smart boy, but very misunderstood.”

Even at the age of eight, Cheek could tell “he had already been demonized.

He did have some extreme behaviors.”

Cheek felt that time spent outdoors in a stimulating environment would be instructive for Duke. “For too many kids like him, life consists of school, therapy, and home. You learn how to behave in a clinic, but outside of that room, you can’t.”

The Besthoff Sculpture Garden seemed an ideal fit as a make-do classroom where bottled-up energy and creativity could be released.

“This is a free public area where a kid can explore. Exploratory learning is how kids like Duke learn.”

Grateful for this newfound opportunity, Cheek shared her experience in an email to Gabrielle Wyrick, NOMA’s Deputy Director of Learning and Engagement. This led to a meeting where Cheek expressed an interest in bringing teenagers and young adults to NOMA from Camp Able, a ministry of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in New Orleans that is dedicated to the development, execution, and growth of dignity-driven programs for the benefit of neurodiverse individuals and their families.

“It’s my job to make sure that the museum is accessible and a resource for all audiences,” said Wyrick. “To me, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to reach out to someone who was working with an audience that we could do more for. Like all audiences, it required learning about their background and their goals for visiting the museum and making it a positive resource.”

In late summer of 2019, Tracy Kennan, Curator of Education, and Connor Kilian, Learning and Engagement Assistant, met with Cheek and members of Camp Able to design a tour.

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Members of Camp Able, a program for young adults on teh autism spectrum, learned about works such as Frank Gehry's Bear With Us in the Besthoff Sculpture Garden on a tour with NOMA staff in November 2019.

“We worked closely with Taylor and the students to create museum experiences that would reflect the interests of the students in hopes that they will find inspiration, wonder, solace, and most of all, a welcoming space,” said Kennan. “Camp Able participants had stimulating conversations and made inquisitive observations about the works of art and then responded with their own creations.”

The success of that initial visit led to a follow-up field trip in November to the expansion of the Besthoff Sculpture Garden. Camp Able’s participants learned about sculptures by artists primarily working in the twenty-first century and the environmental sensitivity that went into the garden’s landscape design.

In addition to lessons focusing on art and nature, Cheek sees other perhaps less evident lessons being taught.

“In order for our gang to be full fledged members of society—which means that they contribute, they work, they communicate and they behave— they have to have places,

a variety of places where they can practice communicating, behaving, participating, and contributing," she said.

“If they don’t have a variety of places, they can’t learn those skills. And they sometimes need more than one or ten chances to practice those skills. So things like going to the museum and the sculpture garden gives them a chance to practice effective communication, real participation, and whatever the appropriate behavior is for that setting."

Cheek believes "community is for all of us—community for them, community for us. When we have communities that reflect the full population of humanity, I think those communities are stronger.”

NOMA offers a variety of tours and programs that can be catered to the interest of groups of all ages and backgrounds. Special group tours can be arranged with two-weeks advance notice. Call the Learning and Engagement Department at (504) 658-4100 or email grouptours@noma.org.

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SEPTEMBER – DECEMBER, 2019 • EVENTS AT NOMA BY DATE • noma.org/events

CALENDAR

Dates and events are subject to change. Visit noma.org/events to subscribe to NOMA’s weekly e-newsletter.

YOGA IN THE GARDEN

TAI CHI

GUIDED TOURS

SCULPTURE GARDEN TOURS

Every Saturday at 8 a.m. in the Besthoff Sculpture Garden

Every Monday at 6 p.m. in NOMA’s Great Hall

Join us for guided tours of the collection daily at 1 p.m.

Fridays, Saturdays, and Mondays at noon

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8

SUNDAY, JANUARY 26

SATURDAY, MARCH 7

SATURDAY, APRIL 4

12 p.m. GALLERY TALK with Russell Lord on Tina Freeman: Lamentations

6 p.m. CLOSING CONCERT for Inventing Acadia: Painting and Place in Louisiana with Les Cenelles, a fusion of historic Creole and original compositions $15 members | $20 non-members

12 p.m. GALLERY TALK with Allison Young, Assistant Professor of Contemporary Art, Louisiana State University, on Torkwase Dyson: Black Compositional Thought

10 a.m. – 1 p.m.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 29

FRIDAY, MARCH 13

12 p.m. GALLERY TALK with Mel Buchanan, Curator of Decorative Arts and Design, on the Greenwood parlor

Friday Nights at NOMA

FRIDAY, JANUARY 10 Friday Nights at NOMA 5 – 8 p.m. ART ON THE SPOT 5:30 p.m. MUSIC Susanne Ortner & Catherine Bent 6 p.m. EXHIBITION WALKTHROUGH Inventing Acadia with Curator Katie Pfohl 7 p.m. GALLERY TALK on Inventing Acadia with Curator Nic Aziz 7:30 p.m. GALLERY TALK on Inventing Acadia, with artist and Project Coordinator Dorthy Ray of the 1811 Slave Rebellion Reenactment

SATURDAY, JANUARY 11 12 p.m. GALLERY TALK with Jeffery Darensbourg on Inventing Acadia 2 p.m. FILM SERIES Fragmented Landscapes: Stories and Place

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15 12 p.m. GALLERY TALK on Ancestors in Stone with Ndubuisi Ezeluomba 6 p.m. ARTIST TALK Teresita Fernández FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

FRIDAY, JANUARY 17 Friday Nights at NOMA

FRIDAY, JANUARY 31 Friday Nights at NOMA ROBERTS BURNS NIGHT, in partnership with the NOLA Project, offers a Scottish celebration of poetry, music, food and drink in celebration of one of the world’s greatest poets.

5 – 8 p.m. ART ON THE SPOT 6 p.m. ARTIST TALK Alia Ali 7 p.m. GALLERY TALK with Lisa Rotondo-McCord on Buddha and Shiva, Lotus and Dragon: Masterworks from the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection at Asia Society

SATURDAY, MARCH 14 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

INDIA FEST in partnership with the Indian Arts Circle (see page ?)

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5 12 p.m. ARTIST PERSPECTIVE Ben Depp, artist and National Geographic Society Explorer on Tina Freeman: Lamentations

FRIDAY, MARCH 20 Friday Nights at NOMA 5 – 8 p.m. ART ON THE SPOT 6 p.m. ARTIST TALK Sean Scully

5:30 p.m. MUSIC Shawn Williams Band

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25

6:30 p.m. ARTS AND LETTERS Conversation and book signing with Nathaniel Rich, author of Losing Earth

12 p.m. GALLERY TALK with artist Tina Freeman on Lamentations

12 p.m. GALLERY TALK with Ndubuisi Ezeluomba, Curator of African Art, on Ancestors in Stone

SATURDAY, JANUARY 18 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. BEYOND GEE’S BEND: A COMMUNITY QUILTING WORKSHOP in collaboration with Just Wanna Quilt.

Registration: noma.org/quilting (see pg. 2 for more information) 2 p.m. FILM SERIES Fragmented Landscapes: The Louisiana Landscape

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 22 12 p.m. GALLERY TALK Inventing Acadia with Curator Katie Pfohl

FRIDAY, JANUARY 24 Friday Nights at NOMA 5 – 8 p.m. ART ON THE SPOT 5:30 – 8 p.m. MUSIC Phil Cramer and Will Bowling

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14 Friday Nights at NOMA

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25 – FRIDAY, MARCH 27

5 – 9 p.m. Celebrate Valentine’s Day at NOMA!

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19 12 p.m. GALLERY TALK with Community Engagement Curator, Nic Aziz on Torkwase Dyson: Black Compositional Thought

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15 12 p.m. GALLERY TALK with Lisa Rotondo-McCord on The Pursuit of Salvation: Jain Art from India and Arte Sacra: Early Modern Catholic Art from the Missions in Goa

5 – 8 p.m. ART ON THE SPOT

5:30 p.m. MUSIC Bamboula 2000

5 – 8 p.m. ART ON THE SPOT

10 a.m. – 4 p.m. LOUISIANA RAINBOW IRIS FESTIVAL

Friday Nights at NOMA

Friday Nights at NOMA 6 p.m. PANEL DISCUSSION and GALLERY TALKS with NOMA African Art Curator, Ndubuisi Ezeluomba and contemporary artists

SUNDAY, APRIL 5

FRIDAY, APRIL 17

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7

5 – 8 p.m. ART ON THE SPOT

& FA M I LY F E S T I V A L

7 p.m. LECTURE with Adriana Proser, John H. Foster Curator of Traditional Asian Art at Asia Society, on Buddha and Shiva, Lotus and Dragon: Masterworks from the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection at Asia Society

SATURDAY, APRIL 18 2 p.m. PANEL DISCUSSION New Photography at NOMA with artists and exhibition curators Russell Lord, Curator

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22 12 p.m. GALLERY TALK with Mel Buchanan, Curator of Decorative Arts and Design on Aluminum in 20th Century Design

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29 B E A U T Y, I N G E N U I T Y A N D T R A D I T I O N P R ES E N T E D BY

12 p.m. GALLERY TALK with Brian Piper, Assistant Curator of Photographs, on New Photography at NOMA

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4 12 p.m. LECTURE Ben Benus, Associate Professor of Art and Design History at Loyola University, on twentieth-century art and design in Central Europe in the years between the world wars, in conjunction with An Ideal Unity: The Bauhaus and Beyond.

6 p.m. ARTIST PERSPECTIVE Hannah Chalew

FRIDAY, MARCH 6

7 p.m. TALK Southerly Gold book signing

6 – 9 p.m.

LOUISIANA RAINBOW IRIS FESTIVAL Gardening enthusiasts are invited to the Besthoff Sculpture Garden for the annual Louisiana Rainbow Iris Festival on Sunday, April 5, from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., presented by NOMA and the Greater New Orleans Iris Society (louisianas.org). Entry to the festival is free and open to the public. Irises submitted for judging will be on view in the Sculpture Garden Pavilion from 12 – 4 p.m, Saturday, April 4. For more information, call (504) 658.4100.

7:45 p.m. GALLERY TALK Torkwase Dyson 8 p.m. MUSIC Serpentine Choir

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New Orleans Museum of Art | NOMA Magazine

FRIDAY NIGHTS AT NOMA is supported in part by grant funds from the Azby Fund; Ruby K. Worner Charitable Trust; New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Foundation; and the Louisiana Division of the Arts, Office of Cultural Development, Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, in cooperation with the Louisiana State Arts Council.

HIGHLIGHTS Nathaniel Rich discusses Losing Earth

As NOMA hosts two exhibitions that spark conversations about the environment, New Orleans-based novelist and essayist Nathaniel Rich will discuss his book Losing Earth: A Recent History (2019) during Friday Nights at NOMA on January 17 at 6:30 p.m. In 1979, the global scientific community knew climate change was a growing threat. Over the next decade, a handful of scientists, politicians, and strategists, led by two unlikely heroes, risked their careers in a desperate campaign to convince the world to act before it was too late. Losing Earth is their story, and ours.

Celebrate Robert Burns Born in January of 1759, Robert Burns is the best loved Scottish poet, admired not only for his verse and love songs, but also for his fun-loving character and high spirits. Pull out your kilt and tartan and celebrate this Bard of the Highlands with a night of poetry, music, food, and drink for the entire New Orleans community in a special Friday Nights at NOMA cosponsored with The NOLA Project on January 31 from 5 to 9 p.m.

Studio KIDS!

Baby Arts Play

Ages 5 – 10

Ages 0 – 3

Select Saturdays, 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.

Select Saturdays, 10:30 – 11 a.m.

This spring, Studio KIDS! presents a dynamic range of art workshops for kids. Perfect for students ages 5 – 10 who want to get creative and learn art-making techniques. Studio KIDS! explore art in NOMA’s galleries or the Besthoff Sculpture Garden as inspiration for an art project they complete in each session.

Instill a love of art at a young age through a guided, hands-on gallery experience for children ages 0 to 3 and their caregivers.

Each class features different media and techniques. Register for one class or the entire series. Please register in advance to ensure your spot at noma.org/studiokids.

Learn how to integrate music, movement, and drama into everyday playtime to foster children’s developmental growth with sessions led by teaching artists from Young Audiences Wolf Trap.

Free and open to the public with RSVP! Funded by The Helis Foundation. Visit noma.org/ babyartsplay for more information.

Call (504) 658-4128 or email education@noma.org to register or for more information.

January 25 | Waterways

March 7 | Deco Imprints

Explore Louisiana’s waterways, including the bends of the Mississippi River that wind through the Crescent City using water-based paints.

Look closely at ornate ceramic and metal objects in the museum and make your own decorative imprints in clay.

February 1 | Swamp Stories Craft a Louisiana-inspired landscape on cardboard and explore the possibilities of creative reuse and recyclable materials.

February 8 | Winged Beings Discover winged beings in the museum from cherubs, to griffins, in Italian Renaissance artworks through the medium of printmaking.

www.noma.org

March 21 | Sculptural Minis Venture into 3D design by constructing a miniature chair with structural cardboard and collaged fabric elements inspired by NOMA’s collection.

April 18 | Searching for Symbolism Uncover hidden messages in ordinary objects in the Italian and Dutch galleries. Bring your curious eyes and minds for looking, learning, and drawing all about symbols in the museum!

Newborns/Infants, ages 0 – 3: 10:30 – 11 a.m.

Toddlers, ages 3 – 4: 11:25 – 11:45 a.m.

April 4 | April 11 April 18 | April 25 May 2 | May 9

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CALENDAR HIGHLIGHTS • SAVE THE DATE

CALENDAR

B E A U T Y, I N G E N U I T Y A N D T R A D I T I O N P R ES E N T E D BY

ART IN BLOOM CO-CHAIRS Julie Habetz and Malise Kearney

MARCH 25 | Patron Party 6 p.m. | Preview Party 7 p.m.

MARCH 26 | LECTURES & LUNCHEON 9:30 a.m. | Tanya Taylor of Tanya Taylor Clothing | NOMA 10:45 a.m. | Lewis Miller of Lewis Miller Design | NOMA 12:30 p.m. | Luncheon & Fashion Show | Pavilion of the Two Sisters | City Park The fashion show will feature looks from Tanya Taylor’s collection presented by Tanya Taylor Clothing and SOSUSU.

Alexis Walter, Perspective Developed, 2019, Mixed media on canvas, 48" x 60"

MARCH 26 – 29 | DISPLAYS ON VIEW TO THE PUBLIC On Thursday, March 26, the museum will open to the public at 1 p.m.

Visit noma.org/AIB2020 for additional information and ticket sales.

Funds raised at Art in Bloom provide critical resources for NOMA’s educational initiatives and exhibitions and The Garden Study Club of New Orleans’ community projects.

& FA M I LY F E S T I V A L EGG HUNT CO-CHAIRS Catherine Lemoine, Cara Ogg and Annie Orillac Thibodeaux NOMA VOLUNTEER COMMITTEE CHAIR Carla Adams

SATURDAY, APRIL 4 | 10 A.M. – 1 P.M. | SYDNEY AND WALDA BESTHOFF SCULPTURE GARDEN Bring your family for a fun-filled day featuring egg hunts, petting zoo and face painting, crafts, activities and more!

For additional information and ticket sales, visit noma.org/egghunt2020 or call (504) 658-4121.

Funds raised at Egg Hunt provide support for NOMA’s education and exhibition programs.

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New Orleans Museum of Art | NOMA Magazine

LEARN

NOM A’S TEEN SQUA D BU ILDS L A STING CON N ECTIONS

Artist Fred Wilson (far left) shared his memories of visiting museums as a teenager with members of the Teen Squad in advance of his talk at NOMA in October.

According to recent census numbers, nearly 90,000 teens live in New Orleans.

Annually, over the course of a school year, NOMA’s Teen Squad works to make the museum a more welcoming space for this vital audience.

The Teen Squad is a diverse group of creative high school students from across the city who serve as leaders and ambassadors for the museum. Teen Squad members meet on a weekly basis throughout the school year to engage in arts immersion programming of all kinds: interviews with contemporary artists, meetings and tours with NOMA staff, art-making workshops, field trips to arts organizations, and planning and implementation of teen events at the museum.

Youth Programs Coordinator and Teen Squad program lead Danielle Rives, who joined NOMA in August 2019, credits the course of her career path to a teen program at the Walters Art Museum in her hometown of Baltimore, Maryland. “I never would have known this work existed unless I had the experience I did on a museum teen council,” she said.

“I did not regularly visit museums with my family, so my exposure was primarily through school visits, which began to peter out in high school, until I learned to seek it out on my own. Leading NOMA’s Teen Squad has allowed me to come full circle.”

www.noma.org

The Teen Squad’s year began with a focus on getting to know the museum and getting comfortable looking at and talking about art in the galleries with an emphasis on Visual Thinking Strategies—a process of facilitating conversations through personal observations, and connecting comments with visual evidence. Guided by a central theme of water, the Teen Squad worked with Curator Ndubuisi Ezeluomba and Professional Pathways intern Kyle Salandy from Xavier University to learn about water-related figures in African and Haitian traditions.

Students also examined contemporary works that address both the lifegiving and destructive relationship of Louisiana to its aqueous terrain.

During a field trip to the Newcomb Art Museum at Tulane University, the Teen Squad toured an exhibition of works by activist and photographer Latoya Ruby Frazier on the Flint water crisis in Michigan and another focusing on a long-litigated superfund site in New Orleans. A senior student from Tulane explained how he and other university students from the Critical Visualization Media Lab worked with residents at Gordon Plaza, a neighborhood built atop a reclaimed toxic landfill in New Orleans Upper Ninth Ward, to create an exhibition that gives voice to their plight.

Eco-sensitivity and environmental justice were also central to discussions with Regina Agu, an artist whose

panoramic photo installation Passage in NOMA’s Great Hall conveys both the natural splendor and exploitation of wetlands in the Mississippi River delta. Agu discussed her practice and encouraged Teen Squad members to offer their viewpoints on this contemporary installation and works by nineteenthcentury artists whose idealized landscapes were on view in Inventing Acadia: Painting and Place in Louisiana.

The Teen Squad’s year will culminate in a Teen Night on March 6—an evening designed by and for teens. Teen Squad members will determine the choice of music, art-making activities, and lead tours after participating in a series of tour-training sessions on facilitation techniques and art interpretation.

“I hope students will come to experience NOMA as an active place for coming together and being creative, where they can feel comfortable, where they can connect with artworks” Rives said. “Of course it’s for them to grow, identify goals for their futures, and expand their ways of thinking—but it’s also incredibly valuable for us to make space for them here so that they can help shape the museum experience for young people and their communities” For more information on NOMA’s Teen Squad, including how to apply for the program, visit noma.org/teensquad.

Teen Squad is supported by the Diversifying Art Museum Leadership Initiative of the Walton Family Foundation and Ford Foundation.

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PROGR AMMATIC SUPPORT

NOMA CIRCLES

NOMA gratefully acknowledges our donors who make exhibitions, programming and daily operations possible.

NOMA’s highest levels of membership, Circles members support the museum’s exhibitions, programs, and operations through their membership gifts.

$500,000 and above

$20,000 – $49,999

President’s Circle

Patron’s Circle

Succession of H. Russell Albright

Jay and Andree Batt

Mr. and Mrs. Sydney J. Besthoff, III

Dr. Siddharth K. Bhansali

Sydney and Walda Besthoff

Bryan Batt and Tom Cianfichi

Mr. and Mrs. Ralph O. Brennan

The Sydney and Walda Besthoff Foundation

E. John Bullard

Mr. and Mrs. David F. Edwards

Ms. Susan Carruth and Mr. Dennis Ryan

Michael and Carolyn Christovich

Virginia Besthoff

Mrs. Marla Garvey

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas B. Coleman

Stephen W. Clayton

Charitable Lead Annuity Trust Under the Will of Louis Feil

Dr. and Mrs. Scott S. Cowen

Julie and Ted George

Mr. and Mrs. Charles B. Mayer

Dathel and John Georges

Mr. and Mrs. James J. Frischhertz

Director’s Circle

Ms. Anne Gauthier

Adrea D. Heebe and Dominick A. Russo, Jr.

Mr. and Mrs. John D. Bertuzzi

Mr. and Mrs. G. Anthony Gelderman

Estate of Mrs. S. Herbert Hirsch

Mrs. Katherine Boh

Louisiana Division of the Arts

Mr. and Mrs. Murray Calhoun

Ms. Lucy Burnett and Mr. Gregory Holt

The Marcus Foundation

Mrs. Isidore Cohn, Jr.

Cammie and Charles Mayer Al and Carol Merlin

Ms. Adrea D. Heebe and Mr. Dominick A. Russo, Jr.

Elizabeth and Willy Monaghan

Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Heymann

Mr. and Mrs. Michael McLoughlin

Roger Ogden and Ken Barnes

Mr. and Mrs. Hunter G. Hill

Ms. Josie McNamara

$100,000 – $499,999

Dr. James and Mrs. Cherye Pierce

Mr. and Mrs. Robert Hinckley

Mr. and Mrs. Harvey Orth

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Mr. and Mrs. Gray S. Parker

Nuria R. Rowley

The Azby Fund

Ms. Sharon Jacobs and Mr. Leonard A. Davis

Jacki and Brian Schneider

Carey Bond and Henry Lambert

Mrs. and Mr. Joseph Jaeger, Jr.

Aimée Farnet Siegel and Michael J. Siegel

Mr. and Mrs. William Ryan

Phillip Y. DeNormandie

Catherine Burns Tremaine

Dathel and Tommy Coleman Collins C. Diboll Private Foundation Ella West Freeman Foundation Donna Perret Rosen and Benjamin M. Rosen The Benjamin M. Rosen Family Foundation The Frank B. Stewart, Jr. Foundation Patrick F. Taylor Foundation Zemurray Foundation

Bill and Martha Gunther

The RosaMary Foundation

Goldring Family Foundation Hancock Whitney

$10,000 – $19,999

Ms. Louise H. Moffett Drs. Joy D. and Howard Osofsky Dr. and Mrs. James F. Pierce

A Friend of NOMA

Dr. Elisabeth H. Rareshide and Dr. Ronald G. Amedee

John Abajian and Scott Simmons

Mr. and Mrs. James J. Reiss, Jr.

Be-Be and Ken Adatto

Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin M. Rosen

Sara and David Kelso

AOS Interior Environments

Mr. and Mrs. Edward Shearer

Lois and Lloyd Hawkins Jr. Foundation

Ms. Lois W. Brupbacher

Mr. and Mrs. Stephen C. Sherrill

Janice Parmelee and Bill Hammack

Evelyn L. Burkenroad Foundation

Nancy Rathborne

Caroline and Murray Calhoun

Rathborne Land Company

Dr. and Mrs. Isidore Cohn, Jr. Supporting Foundation of the Jewish Endowment Foundation

The Helis Foundation Tina and Robert Hinckley Institute of Museum and Library Services

Pixie and Jimmy Reiss

$50,000 – $99,999

Ms. Susan Zackin

Sam and Cindy Farnet

Marjorie and Scott Cowen

Tim L. Fields, Esq.

Eugenie and Joseph Jones Family Foundation

Peggy and Timber Floyd

Katherine and Tony Gelderman

The Gayle and Tom Benson Charitable Foundation

The Lupin Foundation

Jennifer and Fred Heebe

Robert and Mary Lupo

J. Edgar Monroe Foundation

National Endowment for the Arts

Drs. Rupa and Tarun Jolly

New Orleans and Company

Steven Montgomery and Brian Weatherford

Palmisano Mrs. Charles S. Reily, Jr. Liz and Poco Sloss Susu and Andrew Stall Robert and Pamela Steeg The Walton Family Foundation Robert J.A. and Norris S.L. Williams

New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation Drs. Joy and Howard Osofsky Anne and Edmund Redd Carol and Thomas Reese Janet and David Rice Sally E. Richards The Robert E. Zetzmann Family Foundation The Ruby K. Worner Charitable Trust

This list includes donors who made gifts between December 1, 2018 and December 1, 2019. If you have any questions, or would like information about supporting NOMA, contact NOMA’s Development Department by calling (504) 658-4127.

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Mr. and Mrs. Brian A. Schneider Mr. and Mrs. Robert Shelton Mr. and Mrs. Frank B. Stewart, Jr. Mr. Stephen F. Stumpf, Jr. Ms. Catherine Burns Tremaine Ms. Celia Weatherhead Mr. and Mrs. D. Brent Wood Dr. Zannie Giraud Voss and Dr. Glenn B. Voss

The Garden Study Club of New Orleans, Inc.

IBERIABANK

New Orleans Theatre Association

Mr. and Mrs. James C. Roddy

Mr. and Mrs. Robert M. Steeg Mr. and Mrs. Robert E. Thomas

City of New Orleans

Mr. and Mrs. J. Thomas Lewis

Mr. and Mrs. Bruce L. Soltis

Pia and Malcolm Ehrhardt Entergy

Dr. Edward D. Levy, Jr.

Mr. and Mrs. Lynes R. Sloss

Catherine and David Edwards

Cathy and Morris Bart

The Ford Foundation

Mr. and Mrs. Michael J. Siegel

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas B. Lemann

NOMA CORPOR ATE MEMBERS

Gold ($10,000)

Green ($1,500)

AOS Interior Environments

Crescent Capital Consulting, LLC

Hyatt Regency New Orleans

Gulf Coast Bank and Trust

International-Matex Tank Terminals

Neal Auction Company Regions Bank

New Orleans and Company

Bronze ($2,500) Christie’s Hotel Monteleone Laitram, LLC

Samuel H. Kress Foundation Mimi Moyse-Schlesinger and Claude Schlesinger Kitty and Stephen Sherrill Kevie Yang

New Orleans Museum of Art | NOMA Magazine

2020 BOARD OF TRUSTEES

FUNDR AISERS

Janice Parmelee, President

Marshall Hevron, At-Large

Lynes R. (Poco) Sloss, First Vice-President

James J. (Jimmy) Reiss, Jr., At-Large

Sydney J. Besthoff III, Vice-President

Michael J. Siegel, Immediate Past President

Stephanie Feoli, Vice-President

Rob Steeg, Appointed

Leonard A. Davis, Secretary

Susu Stall, Appointed

Hunter G. Hill, Treasurer

Suzanne Thomas, Appointed

Dathel Coleman Georges, At-Large

MEMBERS Jay Batt

Tim L. Fields

Howard J. Osofsky

Gayle M. Benson

Tony Gelderman

Thomas F. Reese

Elizabeth Boh

Julie Livaudais George

Garner Robinson

Elizabeth Boone

Juli Miller Hart

Pamela Reynolds Ryan

Caroline Calhoun

Adrea D. Heebe

Jane B. Steiner

Edgar (Dook) Chase IV

Liz Hefler

Catherine Burns Tremaine

Michael Christovich

Joseph Jaeger, Jr.

Zannie Voss

Henry Coaxum

Tarun (TJ) Jolly, M.D.

Brent Wood

Scott S. Cowen

David Kelso

Philip S. DeNormandie

Henry M. Lambert

The Honorable LaToya Cantrell, Mayor

Margo DuBos

Louis J. Lupin

R. Foster Duncan

Robert E. Smith Lupo

David Edwards

Cammie Mayer

Gregory C. Feirn

Kenya LeNoir Messer

Hundreds of patrons were entertained at Odyssey 2019 Mystére Louisiane, presented

by IBERIABANK on November 15, 2019. Funds received at Odyssey provide critical support for NOMA’s education and exhibition programs.

Joe Giarrusso, New Orleans City Council Member Carla Adams, NVC Chairman

NATIONAL TRUSTEES Joseph Baillio

Jerry Heymann

Mrs. James (Cherye) Pierce

Mrs. Carmel (Babette) Cohen

Herbert Kaufman, M.D.

Mrs. Billie Milam Weisman

Mrs. Mason (Kim) Granger

HONOR ARY LIFE MEMBERS Prescott N. Dunbar

Mr. J. Thomas Lewis

Mrs. Harold H. (Matilda) Stream

Sandra Draughn Freeman

Mrs. J. Frederick (Beverley) Muller

Mrs. James L. (Jean) Taylor

Kurt A. Gitter, M.D.

Mrs. Robert (Jeri) Nims

Mrs. John N. (Joel) Weinstock

Mrs. Erik (Barbara) Johnsen

Mrs. Charles S. (Banana) Reily, Jr.

Richard W. Levy, M.D.

Harry C. Stahel

LEFT TO RIGHT Suzanne Thomas, Executive Vice President of Hancock Whitney, presented a check to Susan Taylor, NOMA Director, and Anne Baños, NOMA Deputy Director, along with Elizabeth Hefler, Senior Vice President of Hancock Whitney in support of LOVE in the Garden Presented by Hancock Whitney. This corporate support funds programs at NOMA and allows the Besthoff Sculpture Garden to remain free and open to the public seven days a week.

ISA AC DELGADO SOCIETY Thank you to those who have remembered NOMA in their estate plans or have made a planned gift to the museum.

Wayne Amedee

Sandra D. Freeman

Jeri Nims

Larry W. Anderson

Sarah and Richard Freeman

Judith Young Oudt

Honorable Steven R. Bordner

Mrs. Charles S. Reily, Jr.

E. John Bullard

Tina Freeman and Philip Woollam

Joseph and Sue Ellen Canizaro

Dana and Steve Hansel

Polly and Edward Renwick

Mrs. Carmel Cohen

Abba J. Kastin, M.D.

Donna and Benjamin M. Rosen

Folwell Dunbar

Lee Ledbetter and Douglas Meffert

Brian Sands

Prescott N. Dunbar Lin Emery William A. Fagaly Randy Fertel Lyn and John Fischbach Tim and Ashley Francis

Pixie and Jimmy Reiss

Jolie and Robert Shelton

Thomas B. Lemann

Margaret and Bruce Soltis

Dr. Edward D. Levy, Jr.

Nancy Stern

John and Tania Messina

Suzanne and Robert Thomas

Anne and King Milling

Mrs. John N. Weinstock

William Monsted

Mercedes Whitecloud

James A. Mounger

ACCREDITATION

NOMA Magazine (ISSN 0740-9214) is published by the New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA 70124

The New Orleans Museum of Art is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.

EDITOR

David Johnson

ART DIRECTOR

Mary Degnan

STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS

Roman Alohkin Sesthasak Boonchai www.noma.org

Susan Taylor (center) honors Sydney and Walda Besthoff at LOVE in the Garden, presented by Hancock Whitney, on September 27, 2019. As two of New Orleans’ most dedicated patrons of the arts, the Besthoffs’ generosity toward NOMA resulted in the realization of the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden, which doubled in size in 2019.

© 2020, New Orleans Museum of Art. All rights reserved.

No part of this magazine may be reproduced or reprinted without permission of the publisher.

Every effort has been made to acknowledge correct copyright of images where applicable. Any errors or omissions are unintentional and should be notified to NOMA’s Publications Department, who will arrange for corrections to appear in any reprints or online editions.

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THE M USEU M SHOP Decision-making is never solely black and white — but it can be among the stylish and practical items found in NOMA’s Museum Shop.

KREWE SUNGLASSES Monroe Nylon + Black Crystal

$255

MY DREAMS CHILDREN’S BOOK

ST. CLAUDE JEWELRY The Roland Gumball Necklace

$12.99

$185

POLAROID ONESTEP + INSTANT CAMERA $185 BISTRO BOWL $14

GRAF LANZ “FRANKIE” TOTE $395

Find additional merchandise at noma.org/shop

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NOMA members receive a 10-percent discount (some restrictions apply).

New Orleans Museum of Art | NOMA Magazine

COMING IN FALL 2020 Dawn DeDeaux: The Space Between Worlds, opening October 16, is the first comprehensive museum exhibition for the pioneering multimedia artist Dawn DeDeaux. Since the 1970s, DeDeaux’s practice has spanned video, performance, photography, and installation to create art that exists at the edge of the Anthropocene. Anticipating a future imperiled by the runaway population growth, breakneck industrial development, and the looming threat of climate change, DeDeaux has long worked between worlds of the present and the future.

From early projects like CB Radio Booths, which linked underserved communities across New Orleans via radio and satellite, to more recent works from her MotherShip series, which plots an escape from a ruined earth, her art creates shared connections across seemingly impossible divides.

One of the first American artists to connect questions about social justice to emerging environmental concerns, she creates spaces for community, collectivity, and critique that aim to counter present inequality and forestall future social strife. In the face of the existential threats we all face, her art is a lifeline that presents us with a limited-timeonly opportunity to come together and coexist.

Dawn DeDeaux, One Drop (Stills from video installation), 2010, Collection of the Artist, Š Dawn DeDeaux

www.noma.org

N O N - P RO FIT U.S . P OSTAG E PAI D N E W O RL E A N S P ERM IT # 10 8

P.O. Box 19123 New Orleans, LA 70179-0123 Follow us! @NewOrleansMuseumofArt NOMA1910

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE. AND A GRAND SETTING.

Enchant your guests with a magical ceremony underneath a canopy of Spanish moss amid works of contemporary sculpture.

Or picture yourself on the sweeping stairway in the majesty of the Great Hall when you say “I do.”

Contact us to plan your special day. | events@noma.org | 504.658.4139

P H OTO BY SA P P H IRE E V EN TS

Ever since you first imagined your special day, you’ve always pictured it in a special place.

Make it the New Orleans Museum of Art and the Besthoff Sculpture Garden.