CREATING COMMUNITY
New Orleans Museum of Art
January – April 2019
DIRECTOR’S LETTE R
Susan M. Taylor
FRONT COVER
Keith Sonnier (American, born 1941), Deux Pattes, 1981. Extruded aluminum, enamel, neon tubing, electrical wire, and transformer, 91 x 74 x 48 inches. Collection of the artist, Image courtesy Keith Sonnier, Photograph © 2018 Caterina Verde. © 2018 Keith Sonnier Studio/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York On view in Keith Sonnier: Until Today beginning March 15. See page 12.
LEFT Timothy Duffy (American, b. 1963), Ironing Board Sam, Super Spirit, Hillsboro, NC, 2015, Tintype, 7.5 x 9.25 in. Courtesy of the artist On view in Timothy Duffy: Blue Muse beginning April 25. See page 8.
A new year always allows for a moment of reflection. At NOMA we have wrapped up one of our most auspicious years to date. Our celebration of the New Orleans’ Tricentennial included a broad sweep of popular exhibitions that explored our city’s diverse heritage and artistic imprint, from its French-colonial founding to its rightful place among the world’s most culturally vibrant cities. If you have not already, be sure to visit—or revisit—The Orléans Collection, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to view the first-ever reunion of Old Master paintings that formed the most important collection in eighteenth-century Europe, that of Phillippe II, the Duke of Orléans and our city’s namesake. Originally housed in the Palais-Royal in Paris, it was the first such collection open for public visitation. On December 9, 2018, NOMA set its own record for visitation—we welcomed our 300,000th visitor—a goal for the three-hundredth anniversary of New Orleans. The exhibition closes on January 27, 2019, but guests interested in European art can delve even deeper into the study of these masterworks by attending a symposium of scholars from both Europe and the US on January 11 and 12. (Registration information can be found on page 27.) In March, NOMA will literally be electrified with a survey of works by contemporary artist Keith Sonnier, many of which incorporate neon as a material. Sonnier, a native son of the Cajun Prairie from the town of Mamou, became fascinated early in life by the glow of neon signs marking the dancehalls and roadhouses in that rural region and the halo-like luminescence created by the Gulf South’s humid climate. Sonnier has described his youth in Acadiana as a “swirling cultural aesthetic,” but by no means has a Louisiana upbringing been his only influence. Intrigued by new technologies, Sonnier partnered with NASA in 1977 to transmit art via satellite feed between New York and San Francisco. Visitors to Keith Sonnier: Until Today will encounter experimental film and sound installations, bamboo wall sculptures inspired by travels to India, and an otherworldly fluorescent-lit room—part of NOMA’s permanent collection—where even the viewer becomes imbued with ultraviolet colors. This spring our photography galleries will be filled with images that combine an old technology with contemporary subjects. The tintype emerged in the mid-nineteenth century as a new method of portraiture, only to be eclipsed by increasingly advanced methods of photography. For the past thirty-five years, photographer Timothy Duffy has returned to this medium as a means of visually recording blues artists, and the vintage aesthetic of the plates serves as an homage to previous generations of musicians who appear unidentified in early tintypes. For more than a year, NOMA has been humming with construction as we upgraded our HVAC system and installed a new foundation—the result of FEMA money that has allowed the museum to come full circle since Katrina. Meanwhile, our six-acre expansion of the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden, which will feature twenty-five new works by twenty-first-century artists, continues at a steady pace with an expected opening in late spring. A museum is not simply a physical space containing valuable art and artifacts hung on gallery walls and defined by others as valuable to civilization. It should also be a storehouse of the imagination and a source of inspiration and marvel. Ever evolving from an object-centric to a people-centric institution, NOMA’s upcoming exhibitions span a range of mediums that will showcase the daring creativity of artists unbound by convention. Each time you visit, we hope you will discover the wonder that is our collection and our campus.
Susan M. Taylor The Montine McDaniel Freeman Director
CREATING COMMUNITY Selected highlights from January – April 2019
E NLIGHTEN Arts and Letters: Edmund White in conversation with Thomas Beller FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 7 P.M. Edmund White, a pioneering figure in gay literature, will join acclaimed writer and Tulane professor Thomas Beller on stage in Stern Auditorium for a discussion about the evolution of White’s career. White coauthored The Joy of Gay Sex in 1977 and has written a trio of memoirs along with biographies of Jean Genet, Marcel Proust, and Arthur Rimbaud, among other subjects.
CELEBRATE FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 5 – 9 P.M.
A Night of India The Indian Arts Circle and NOMA host an evening of cultural immersion in the subcontinent. Sample food from local Indian restaurants, watch short films based on the writings of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, and listen to the IndoNew Orleans fusion music of Andrew McLean. See page 30. DISCOVER FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 6 P.M.
16th Annual Tulane Maya Symposium Jeremy A. Sabloff of the Santa Fe Institute will discuss the collapse of the Maya Empire in the eighth and ninth centuries. 2
Arts and Letters is funded by the Patrick F. Taylor Foundation with additional support from The Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival. See page 30.
EXPERIENCE
I L LU M I N AT I O N S L O O K I N G W I T H I N A N D B E YO N D I N PA RT N E R S H I P W I T H
MARCH 28 – 31 One of the most anticipated springtime events in New Orleans, Art in Bloom showcases spectacular and aromatic floral designs created by over 100 exhibitors. The 2019 theme is inspired by the exhibition Keith Sonnier: Until Today with its many works of art incorporating neon. Guest speakers will include renowned floral designers Putnam & Putnam of New York and British interior designer Nicky Haslam. See page 29. New Orleans Museum of Art | NOMA Magazine
CONTENTS
SEARCH & FIND
COMPOSE Poets for Art SATURDAY, APRIL 6, 10 A.M. – 4 P.M. In celebration of National Poetry Month, NOMA is offering a free poetry workshop on Saturday, April 6, for students in grades 8–12, led by Louisiana Poet Laureate Jack B. Bedell. Workshop participants will tour the museum and select a work of art that inspires or engages them. Working with a professional writer, students will develop and write a poem. Poets at all levels of writing experience are invited to apply by March 31. For more information, visit noma.org/ poets-for-art or contact Sheila Cork, NOMA Librarian: scork@noma.org, 504.658.4117.
A CQUISITIONS
4 A Rediscovered Masterpiece by a New Orleanian Working in Paris 5 Geoffrey Mann’s “The Second Line” Cocktail Service COLLECTIONS
6 CT Scan Reveals Mysterious Figures in Malian Terracotta 7 Punch Bowl Depicts 18th Century International Trade EXHIBITIONS
8 Timothy Duffy: Blue Muse 10 Inspired by Nature: Japanese Paintings and Ceramics 11 Mildred Thompson: Against the Grain 16 Bondye: Between and Beyond FEATURE
NOMA Egg Hunt & Family Festival
12 Keith Sonnier: Until Today
SATURDAY, APRIL 13, 10 A.M. – 1 P.M.
LEARN
www.noma.org/egghunt | 504.658.4121
Bring the family for a fun-filled day featuring egg hunts, a petting zoo, face painting, space walks, painting, crafts, and more in the Besthoff Sculpture Garden. See page 29.
17 Inspired by NOMA: Cristina Molina
MEDITATE Mindfulness Classes with Dr. Jayashree Rao SELECT SATURDAYS, JANUARY 19 – MARCH 16, 10 – 11:30 AM On select Saturdays from January 19 through March 16, Dr. Jayashree Rao will conduct a series of eight mindfulness classes. Mindfulness is defined as experiencing the present moment with open curiosity, without judgment, and with a willingness to be with what is. Visit noma.org/wellness to register.
18 NOMA welcomes new Education Director and Curator 19 Professional Pathways SUPPORT
20 The Many Ways of Giving 22 Recent Events 23 NOMA Donors EVENTS
25 Julia Armstrong-Totten and The Orléans Collection CALENDAR
26 Events by Date 28 Spring 2019 Classes 30 Event Highlights Visit noma.org/magazine for exclusive online content.
www.noma.org
3
ACQUISITIONS
A R EDISCOV ER ED M A STER PIECE BY A N EW OR LE A NI A N WOR K ING IN PA R IS
Léopold Burthe’s Angelique is a recently rediscovered masterpiece by a native New Orleanian who lived and painted in Paris in the 1840s and ‘50s. Presented at the Paris Salon of 1852, Angelique depicts a scene from the sixteenth-century Tuscan poem The Song of Roland by Ludovico Ariosto, a story commonly represented in French painting in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Angelique has been chained to a rock and a sea monster threatens to attack just as the knight Roland, visible in the background astride a hippogriff, arrives to save his beloved. Burthe’s painting reworks a famous composition of 1819 by his friend Jean-Auguste Dominque Ingres (1780–1867), now in the collection of the Louvre, and as such aligns his art closely with Ingres’s style and reputation. Born in 1823 in New Orleans, Burthe appears to have been sent to France as an adolescent with his sister when yellow fever threatened the city. His father, Dominique François Burthe of Metz, France, came to Louisiana sometime before the 1803 Louisiana Purchase as an envoy of the Ministry of War. He married Louise Delord Sarpy, of prominent New Orleans parentage, in St. Louis Cathedral on May 8, 1805, and created a namesake Faubourg Burtheville settlement, presumably near present-day Burthe Street in the Uptown neighborhood of Carrollton. The couple also owned and lived for a period at 534 Howard Avenue, now lost. A graphite portrait drawing of Burthe by fellow artist Theodore Chassériau, preserved at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, presents an elegant young man. Burthe is a fascinating figure and subject of ongoing research. Following the Neo-Greek style of his Parisian teacher, Eugène Amaury-
4
Léopold Burthe (American, 1823–1860), Angelique, 1852, Oil on canvas, 46 x 39 1⁄3 in., Museum purchase with funds provided by Michael and Susie McLoughlin, 2018.27.1a
Duval, Burthe’s academic style focuses on single-figure tragic heroines staged in stylized, fixed poses silhouetted against stark backgrounds. A rocky outcropping foregrounds and positions Angelique, the saturated green sea luminous at her feet. The representation of Angelique from behind is an unusual choice and the pose a deft demonstration of skill, where the graceful lines of her torso, hip, and legs are counterbalanced by rounded shoulder blades, draped arms, and resting hands. The lapping, foamy waves and exuberant hair combine with the orange setting sun to heighten the dramatic tension. Only seven other paintings by Burthe are known, marking this rediscovery as a major event. Found by an art dealer in a small shop in the south of France several years ago, the dirt-coated painting was cleaned to glorious result and its condition is pristine, likely
because it may have remained with the same hands for generations. The lost masterpiece is proudly signed by Burthe and also identified by a lithograph reproduction of the 1852 Paris Salon. Newly installed in the Forgotston Gallery, the work has enhanced NOMA’s presentation of the art of this era. The work reorients the gallery to introduce the importance of the female nude as allegory in French academic painting and corresponds with three other works in the gallery that are later manifestations of and reactions to academicism. Formerly unknown to New Orleanians, Burthe’s talent has been brought into the spotlight by this superb, rare example of his art. Vanessa I. Schmid, Senior Research Curator for European Art
Read more about the donors of this painting, Michael and Susan McLoughlin, on page 20.
New Orleans Museum of Art | NOMA Magazine
Geoffrey Mann (British, b. 1980), Jochen Holz, glassworker (German, active London, b. 1970), “The Second Line” Cocktail Service, 2017, Edition 1/1, Glass, 3D-printed nylon plated with gold, Museum purchase, William McDonald Boles and Eva Carol Boles Fund, 2016.23.a-.h
“ THE SECON D LIN E ” COCKTA IL SERV ICE The Scottish designer Geoffrey Mann works with both cutting-edge digital technologies and time-honored craft techniques, combining the capabilities of both to make thoughtful observations about materials, human connections, or even the passage of time. In “The Second Line” Cocktail Service Mann shows that ordinary objects can be shaped by extraordinary connections that happen in a fleeting moment. The undulating, dancing shapes of these drinking vessels and an accompanying animation video embody not only the cadence of jazz on New Orleans’s Frenchmen Street, but forever capture, in three-dimensional glass, a touching conversation between two strangers. For this unique commissioned artwork for NOMA, Mann began with a visit to New Orleans in November 2016. During an evening out on Frenchmen Street, he recorded the ambient sounds of revelry and a memorable conversation with band leader Aaron Blanks. As Blanks organized the young All Star Brass Musicians from the Treme neighborhood, he told the visiting Scottish artist not only of www.noma.org
the power of jazz and New Orleans’s second-line parading traditions, but how the teenagers’ brass instruments transcend music to become cultural symbols of history, diversity, equality, and hope. Through “The Second Line” Cocktail Service Mann captures these words not only literally, with the sound recording, but through the very shape of the New Orleans-inspired glass beverage set he created. Mann applied the sound waves of this recorded conversation to a 3D computer model of a cocktail service, one designed with traditional modern martini glasses and champagne coupes sitting on a bar cart decorated with fleurs-de-lis. When animated by the digital sound waves of the recorded music and the conversation with Aaron Blanks, the glass shapes ripple and dance boldly in sync with the vibrations of that fleeting moment in New Orleans. Hitting pause on this digital animation, Mann captured these split-second reactions in wildly beautiful deviations of well-known drinking glass forms. The mutated martini glass reflects a passing comment about a second line, while the
shimmy of a champagne coupe recalls a riff of trumpet. These unorthodox forms became Mann’s models for production. These undulating, unique digital shapes are made to be real physical objects through rapid 3D prototyping, also known as “3D printing,” in nylon plastic. From that plastic printed object, Mann worked with the skilled glassworker Jochen Holz to make precise copies in traditional flame-worked glass. “The Second Line” Cocktail Service presents the glasses and the animation video together, capturing forever that night on Frenchmen Street. The sounds of jazz and human connection are retained in the ripples of the goldplated lidded cocktail shaker, a glass champagne coupe, wine glass, martini glass, margarita glass, hurricane glass, and of course, in another nod to New Orleans’s culture, a glass version of the ubiquitous New Orleans plastic “go cup.” Mel Buchanan, RosaMary Curator of Decorative Arts and Design
“The Second Line” Cocktail Service is on view in the Elise M. Besthoff Charitable Foundation Gallery in the Lupin Foundation Center for Decorative Arts through May 2019.
5
COLLECTIONS
CT SCAN REVEALS MYSTERIOUS FIGURES IN MALIAN TERRACOTTA
Djenne artist, Architectural Model with Serpents, c. 11th – 17th century, Terracotta, Museum purchase, Robert P. Gordy Fund, 90.196. CT scans, at right, revealed the interior elements. Visit noma.org/magazine to view a video.
African art objects often carry vital information concealed within, hidden details made by the artist for spiritual purposes that are not visible to the viewer. Recent research into a Malian terracotta architectural model by a Djenne artist, circled at the base with serpent figures and currently on view in NOMA’s François Billion Richardson Gallery of African art, provides an example of how science can enhance a deeper analysis of a piece of sculpture. The architectural model with serpents is a square structure with a conical roof that sits on a flat base. Two serpents decorated with an incised zig-zag motif wrap themselves around the base of the building. Their heads meet at the partially opened door from whence a human hand appears in relief on the side wall. However, the gap between the door and the serpents, as well as a wide crack at the bottom of the structure, reveal a large mass covered in 6
earth, probably “from prior burial inside the structure,” according to Kristina Van Dyke, an independent scholar and former curator at The Menil Collection in Houston. To pry open this mystery, NOMA sought a CT scan of the object from Scantix, a studio in Belgium that provides radiological scans of sculpture. Dr. Marc Ghysels digitally peeled away the layered clay obscuring the forms. The scan revealed a “fascinating scene of carnage,” according to Ghysels, of eight elongated female bodies lying side by side. All are headless, and one figure inside the door appears to be pregnant. Her arm extends through the door to the wall outside. Ghysel’s hypothesis of ritual human sacrifice was later strengthened by Van Dyke, who supported the interpretation by relating the scene to an oral account of ritual human sacrifice among the Bida people of Burkina Faso.
Even if we accept the elongated humanlike shapes inside the structure as human sacrifices, it is also plausible to construe them as young females in a “fattening room.” This practice was historically common in many African cultures, where young women are secluded in a building, abundantly fed, and trained to become wives before getting married. If the fattening room hypothesis is upheld, then the figure that looks like a pregnant woman in a childbearing pose may actually be correct. In this interpretation, she is a practical model used in educating the soon-to-be brides about childbearing. Further research will cast more light into the exact meaning of this fascinating composition. Ndubuisi C. Ezeluomba, Françoise Billion Richardson Curator of African Art
New Orleans Museum of Art | NOMA Magazine
PUNCH BOW L DEPICTS 18TH-CENTURY INTER NATIONA L TR A DE A newly acquired Punch Bowl with Cantonese “Hongs,”on display in the Lupin Gallery of Decorative Arts, reveals both the exquisite craftsmanship of Chinese porcelain and a window into international trade of the late eighteenth century. Enameled around the outside of the bowl is a continuous scene of a bustling waterfront along China’s Pearl River. Small river craft are being loaded with cargo as men in Eastern and Western dress scurry along the docks. Impressive buildings line the water’s edge, each distinguished with a national flag. The bustle of commercial activity shown is a rare depiction of the Chinese trading port of Canton (today’s city of Guangzhou), circa 1790, meticulously painted and fired onto porcelain. Export Chinese porcelain was highly in-demand among Europeans as early as the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), with trade occurring at first over land along the Silk Road, and then by sea beginning in the early sixteenth century. By the eighteenth century, both Europe and the Americas had intense desire for China’s white porcelain, along with Chinese tea, spices, and textiles. Imperial China, however, was officially considered a self-sufficient economy
that was closed to foreign access. Between 1757 and 1842 “The Canton System” allowed for only limited and highly regulated international trade from China’s major southern port at Canton. Foreign traders were confined to wharves along the Pearl River. Punch bowl with Cantonese “Hongs” details this area of riverfront “hongs,” or the combination warehouse, office, and living spaces for the international ship captains and tradesmen visiting China. The bowl shows the flags of Denmark, the Spanish Philippines, France, Sweden, Britain, The Netherlands, and the young United States. The presence of the US flag helps to date this bowl, as we know that America entered into direct trade with China in 1784 after the American Revolution. These bowls were likely made in China specifically as a souvenir of sorts for a Western captain of the commercial China trade. For one thing, punch drinking was not customary in China, so all large porcelain punch bowl forms were made specifically for the export to the West. A hong scene painted on porcelain is relatively rare—fewer than 100 are known—but the Canton waterfront became a revered scene
in paintings and prints by both Chinese and American artists. NOMA’s hong bowl is displayed next to yet another treasure of related interest—a gilt and enameled Automaton Clock manufactured in London, circa 1800. This musical timekeeping showpiece was likely made in England specifically for the Chinese market, as clocks were one of the few potential imported Western goods that were valued by the Chinese. China’s Emperor Qianlong, who reigned from 1711 to 1799, wrote in 1793 to England’s King George III: “Our Celestial Kingdom possess all things in abundance and wants for nothing within its frontiers. Hence there is no need to bring in the wares of barbarians.” Decidedly nonbarbaric exception were mechanical clocks and gadgets from London, which the Emperor and the Chinese elite valued as much as the Western elite valued their fine Chinese porcelain and tea. These two objects together reflect the long and complicated international trade relationships between the East and West. Mel Buchanan, RosaMary Curator of Decorative Arts and Design
Chinese, for Western market, Punch Bowl with Cantonese “Hongs,” 1788– 1790, Porcelain, enamel, 5 7/8 x 14 3/8 in diameter, Museum purchase, Elise Mayer Besthoff Fund, 2018.27.
www.noma.org
7
EXHIBITIONS
TIMOTH Y DUFFY: BLUE MUSE
Timothy Duffy, Ironing Board Sam (Sammie Moore), 9th Wonder of the World, Hillsboro, NC, 2015, Tintype, 14 x 14 in., Courtesy of the artist
The tintype portraits of musicians by Timothy Duffy (American, b. 1963) are a thoroughly American enterprise: his choice of materials aligns with and challenges a distinctly American history of photography, while his subjects represent one of the most important musical legacies in the United States. Duffy’s photographs have a distinct “American-ness” and his choice of subjects represent the often overlooked but rightful creators, custodians, purveyors, and performers of American music. The tintype photograph was first patented in the United States in 1856, and its common name, “tintype,” was a popular adaptation of the more precise “ferrotype,” as the images are produced on sheets of iron, not tin. Perhaps most importantly, the tintype is a direct positive process, meaning that each image is unique, and is produced 8
directly inside the camera. It is also the first photographic medium in which African Americans appear in any great number. The New Orleans Museum of Art has almost sixty such tintypes. The rise in popularity of the tintype coincided with the Emancipation Proclamation and the end of the Civil War. Tintypes were inexpensive and they were often produced by itinerant makers who would briefly set up their wagon in a town, making it common to encounter the process in both urban and rural areas. The tintype, therefore, embodies particular visual histories of both class and race. It is also arguably the most anonymous form of photography in the nineteenth-century. Its quick mode of production left little time for fussy cases that might have identified the maker, and there was often no need to identify the person in the photograph.
Thus the vast archive of American tintypes produced between the late 1850s and the 1930s is a frustratingly silent visual census of a generation of American people: their shadows immortalized, but the substance of their stories notably absent. Whereas the story of the tintype was one of anonymity, Timothy Duffy seeks to make it about authorship. Not only are his pictures decidedly the products of an artist, they are also pictures of artists. For the past several years, Duffy has sought out the makers of American roots music, looking to set the record straight, or at least make sure the record exists. If the previous century of tintype image-making was a missed opportunity, Duffy is determined to record this history as it happens, producing a masterful set of tintypes which ensures that this generation will be able to speak to future ones. New Orleans Museum of Art | NOMA Magazine
Timothy Duffy, Lonnie Holley, White Man Stealing My Roots, Hillsboro, NC, 2017, Tintype, 14 x 14 in., Courtesy of the artist
In his years of making tintypes, Duffy has embraced their brilliance, their eccentricities, and even their faults. Much like the improvisational qualities of the music that his subjects play, the best tintypes often result from incidental effects of the process—drying too quickly, oversensitivity, slight ripples in the surface of the chemistry. Duffy welcomes these as flourishes or nuances that elevate the image beyond the realm of technical achievement. Each of Duffy’s tintypes was produced inside a large camera, which makes possible an incredible amount of detail, palpably tracing lines etched in skin. It is an intrusive level of detail, or at least would seem so if the musicians did not confront the camera as forcefully as it confronts them. Duffy is often quick to point out his subjects’ role in the production of these images, referring to them as collaborators. Indeed, they www.noma.org
often seem completely self-determined in the resulting images. Ironing Board Sam (opposite page) almost leaps off the plate, playing directly to the camera and by extension us as viewers, with his sparkling jacket made even more brilliant on the surface of the reflective metal plate. And Lonnie Holley (above) performs for the camera, glancing suspiciously to the side, and clutching his chest defensively against the threat of a “White Man Stealing My Roots,” as he asserts in the title. Holley’s tableau cuts to the heart of the issue that Duffy and his collaborators seek to address: despite the importance of these musicians, and the national legacy they represent, many remain little known, often outpaced by other popular performers who have built their own careers on top of the “roots” of these musicians and their ancestors. Duffy’s tintypes
give them a visible presence, but in his other endeavor, as Director of the Music Maker Relief Foundation, he also finds ways to provide support for them, both financial and promotional. In all aspects of his life, he is dedicated to the preservation of both the shadow and the substance of these figures. In making these photographs, in compelling us to look closer, know the faces, and learn the names, Duffy has enlisted one American tradition, the tintype, in the service of honoring another. Russell Lord, Freeman Family Curator of Photographs
On Saturday, January 19, Timothy Duffy will lead a workshop on the tintype process from 1 – 3 p.m. The event is free with museum admission. Visit noma.org/magazine for more information.
Timothy Duffy: Blue Muse will be on view in the Templemann Galleries from April 25 through July 28.
9
EXHIBITIONS
INSPIR ED BY NATUR E: JA PA NESE PAINTINGS A ND CER A MICS several centuries, the enduring relevance and resonance of the physical world to Japanese artists may be seen. One of the earliest works in the exhibition, Cypress and Wisteria, is a collaboration by two of the seventeenth century’s most celebrated artists: Hon’ami Koetsu and Tawaraya Sotatsu. Koetsu, a famed calligrapher, brushes a haunting verse over the gold and silver designs of cypress fronds, grasses, and wisteria, created by Sotatsu. The poem may be translated: The fields that I once again look over Are no longer the same There are no pines To witness my longing for the past
Hon’ami Koetsu (Japanese, 1558-1637) and Tawaraya Sotatsu (Japanese, d. 1643), Cypress and Wisteria, poem from the Kokin Wakashu, Ink on gold and silver decorated paper, Museum purchase, 82.94
The arts of Japan are inseparably associated with nature, whether through themes and motifs associated with seasonal change or through objects whose shape, materials, or decoration reference the natural world. In both Buddhism and Shinto, Japan’s major religious traditions, nature is imbued with sanctity, and early ritual objects contained numerous botanical and zoomorphic motifs. Elements of nature emerged as discrete subjects of painting by the mid-thirteenth century. Over the course of the next several hundred years, secular paintings of pure landscapes or those featuring birds, flowers, animals, and insects, came increasingly into the mainstream. Inspired by Nature, a new exhibition in the Art of Japan Galleries, juxtaposes paintings from the seventeenth through early twentieth centuries with ceramics, lacquers, and woodblock prints dating from the nineteenth century to today. By presenting works in various media and created across 10
Originally part of a longer hand-scroll of selections from an early thirteenth century imperial poetry collection, the Shin Kokin Wakashu (New Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern), this segment embodies the elegant tension between the calligraphic word and the painted image for which these artists are renowned. Sotatsu’s designs serve as both frame and counterpoint to the varying size, thickness, and tonality of Koetsu’s calligraphy. The most recent work in the exhibition is by the contemporary ceramicist Shinya Tanoue (b. 1976), who for the last decade has explored the concept of the cycle of human life through his shell-shaped works. In Coquille, 16.1 Tanoue creates a twisting womb-like form with a rough, scored exterior and bright blue interior. The tension of interior and exterior, protection and exposure, coarseness and refinement is paralleled in the artist’s use of glazed and unglazed material. For Tanoue, the use of shell form does not simply celebrate the beauty and wonder of nature, but serves as a proxy to explore the complexities of life itself. Lisa Rotondo-McCord, Curator for Asian Art
Drawn from the permanent collection, Inspired by Nature: Japanese Paintings and Ceramics will be on view in the third-floor Arts of Japan Gallery through May 2019. New Orleans Museum of Art | NOMA Magazine
MILDR ED THOMPSON: AGA INST THE GR A IN Against the Grain marks the first solo museum presentation in more than thirty years of the experimental works in wood by African American artist Mildred Thompson. An accomplished painter, sculptor, writer and musician, Thompson (1936–2003) created abstract work in wood that went against the grain of the more representational and overtly political art of her time. Located somewhere between painting, sculpture, and collage, Thompson’s wood works combine found and manipulated wood segments into sophisticated, expressive compositions. Exploring wood’s natural variations in texture, color, and form, Thompson rejected figuration to instead offer more subtle and evocative reflections on history, memory, and place. Treating wood as a measure of time and history, Thompson’s wood works poetically evoked the social and political issues that animated her time. Created at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Thompson located in wood both a formal and symbolic resonance:
its lines and circles, its grains and knots, made metaphorical connections to ideas of history and memory, individuality and universality. Often juxtaposing found wood sourced from forests with machine-cut wood segments—as well as found objects like broken clothespins—her work drew attention to the frequent disjuncture between nature’s rhythms and cycles and the very different pace of human history. Assembling wood segments that, in Thompson’s words, “do not fit together,” allowed the artist to create abstract compositions that proposed new ways that humanity might relate to the natural world as well as to one another. Despite the prevailing modes of figuration and narrative for artists of her generation, Thompson maintained her commitment to abstraction in the face of many obstacles—claiming her right to create a personally expressive and symbolic language, and exploring materiality, mark-making, color, and form as gestures of catharsis. In the context of her time and place, Thompson’s enduring belief in abstraction’s ability to speak to universal themes, while also serving as a balm for the complexities of her political moment, can itself be seen as an act of resistance. Through her art, she insisted on abstraction’s power as an oppositional tool: a means of countering the inflammatory nature of contemporary politics by evoking more universal concerns.
Mildred Thompson in Germany, c. 1964–75, Artwork © Karl Peters
Made during the artist’s self-imposed exile in Europe, Thompson’s wood pictures are only recently being rediscovered and presented in the United States. This exhibition includes three rare early wood pictures recently acquired by NOMA for its permanent collection alongside a selection of wood pictures and related prints from a private collection in New Orleans and the Mildred Thompson Estate and Galerie Lelong & Co, New York, all of which reflect Thompson’s deep commitment to the language of abstraction. The exhibition was curated by Katie A. Pfohl, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, with Allison Young, Mellon Curatorial Fellow of Modern and Contemporary Art, and Melissa Messina, Curator of the Mildred Thompson Estate
Mildred Thompson: Against the Grain is on view in the second-floor Stafford Focus Gallery through March 31, 2019.
Mildred Thompson, Wood Picture, c. 1972, Found wood and acrylic paint, 48 ¾ x 36 x 2 ½ inches, New Orleans Museum of Art, Museum Purchase, Leah Chase Fund, 2016.51
www.noma.org
11
EXHIBITIONS
Keith Sonnier: Until
Keith Sonnier: Until Today will be on view in the Ella West Freeman Gallery from March 15 through June 2, 2019.
12
New Orleans Museum of Art | NOMA Magazine
NOMA MOUNTS THE FIRST COMPREHENSIVE MUSEUM SURVEY FOR A PIONEERING FIGURE IN CONCEPTUAL, POST-MINIMAL, VIDEO AND PERFORMANCE ART.
Today
Since the 1960s, Keith Sonnier’s work has blurred the boundaries between sculpture, drawing, and technology. Best known for his explorations of the physical and spatial properties of neon, Sonnier creates works that bring together an eclectic array of mixed media materials—from ephemeral materials like satin, latex, and neon to new media such as sound, video, and satellite communication. Keith Sonnier: Until Today, on view from March 15 to June 2, 2019, includes more than thirty key works created between 1967 and 2018, making it the first retrospective to consider the full arc of this artist’s achievement. The exhibition considers the impact of Sonnier’s upbringing in Louisiana’s Acadiana region as well as his expansive travels in Haiti, India, Japan, and beyond, while also exploring the artist’s connection to culture, place, and human communication. Sonnier was born in 1941 in Mamou, Louisiana, where his family owned farmland. After earning a degree in art and archaeology at the University of Southwestern Louisiana in 1963, Sonnier traveled abroad for a year and subsequently moved to New York, where he came into contact with avant-garde artists working in sculpture, performance, and video art. Sonnier’s exposure to what he calls the “swirling cultural aesthetic” of his Cajun homeland proved formative for his art, and this heritage set his work apart from the prevailing trend of minimalism. Although some of his works initially appear bare and abstract, they often conjure visions of the lush coastal prairie environment in which he was raised. The works in his Ba-O-Ba series, for instance, subtly evoke the dense, humid environment of Sonnier’s youth, from its rice ponds and sugar fields to the ersatz neon signage on Cajun honky-tonks and dancehalls. As he explained in a 1977 interview: These fluorescent light and glass pieces remind me a lot of driving in Louisiana. Coming back late at night, and in the distance seeing a club somewhere in the fog. About the most religious experience I’ve ever had in Louisiana: coming back from a dance late at night and driving over this flat land and, all of a sudden, seeing these waves of light going up and down in this thick fog. Just incredible! Throughout his career, Louisiana served as a key source of inspiration, causing Sonnier to embrace a broad range of cultural references drawn from the state’s unique admixture of African, Caribbean, and European cultures. In 2013, Sonnier cited “the movement of people over the land… [and] the richness of the environment, of the swamps, of the tides, the integration of multiple languages into the architecture and the culture [of Louisiana]” as integral to his artistic development. Trips to Haiti, India, Japan, and Indonesia also enriched his practice. The word Ba-O-Ba, for instance, comes from a Haitian expression for moonlight—a term he adopted because Haiti’s creolized language and culture reminded him so much of Louisiana. Sonnier had grown up around bamboo and sugarcane fields, but while in India, he was intrigued to see these materials employed in new ways, such as scaffolding, where the durable stalks have more of an architectural presence. After observing the Holi festival in India—a celebration where brightly dyed water and powders are thrown into the air, covering streets as well as revelers’ bodies—he began to experiment in new
LEFT Keith Sonnier, Fluorescent Room, 1970/2011, Site-specific installation: foam rubber, fluorescent pigment, ultraviolet light, variable dimensions, Gift of the artist, 2011.44
www.noma.org
13
EXHIBITIONS
SONNIER’S WORK OFTEN MERGES TRADITIONAL AND MODERN FORMS—AS WELL AS TECHNOLOGY AND CRAFT.
14
ways with color and pigment. Titling a series of works after Hindu gods such as Kali, Sarasvati, and Ganesh, he sought to express the way that sexuality, art, music, religion, and modern life commingled in the cultures of many of the places to which he traveled, which in turn reminded him of the culture of the place he was from. Sonnier’s work often merges traditional and modern forms—as well as technology and craft—to create a sense of circuitry between different cultures and communities across the world. In the 1970s, he began creating what he called “communication work,” experimenting with new media technologies like radio, satellite, and television, to create works that contemplate the cultural impact of globally networked communication. In 1970, Sonnier created a sound work for the Indian Triennial in New Delhi at which speakers and live microphones positioned within a museum’s archways created a direct flow of communication across the boundaries between indoors and out. This technological theme continued in works such as Quad Scan (1975) which employed a ship-to-shore communication system as a means of broadcasting offshore radio conversations directly into art galleries. In
Air to Air (1973) and New York-LA Hookup (1975), he moved past the immediate confines of the art gallery to link art spaces in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco via phone and satellite. In 1977, Sonnier created a two-room installation at NOMA in which he placed a Ba-O-Ba neon work created specifically for New Orleans directly alongside a long-distance sound work that brought a live radio transmission into NOMA’s gallery space. Sonnier often fuses neon with more organic materials, producing composites of fluorescence, media hardware, found objects, and organic materials like bamboo, while also incorporating radios and loudspeakers that project radio transmissions and broadcasts in real time. He also works with materials that stand in stark contrast to the sleek, contemporary look and feel of neon, incorporating bamboo and exotic woods like Chinese quince and cedar, or taking inspiration from Chinese calligraphy and pictographic writing. In works such as Propeller Spinner (1990), Sonnier reflects on the discordant communication between generations of information technology, evoking antiquated receivers—once essential for receiving televised transmission in the home—as New Orleans Museum of Art | NOMA Magazine
well as material and immaterial forms such as sound waves, microwaves, and electronic cables. Syzygy Transmitter (1995), for instance, resembles a satellite, positioned high on the wall as if optimally poised to send and receive signals. Works such as Sitting Abri—which takes the form of an elevated hunters’ deer blind rendered in aluminum—reflect the architecture and landscape of Louisiana, as well as older, more ancient forms of communication, evoking the way people once communed across long distances before the advent of satellites, cellphones, and the internet. In addition to works in video, neon, and sculpture, Keith Sonnier: Until Today includes the artist’s site-specific installation Fluorescent Room, which was originally exhibited in 1970 and recreated specifically for NOMA in 2011. Created from foam shapes covered in raw, fluorescent pigment, which are black-lit to illuminate the dominant hues of green and orange, this work is deeply informed by Sonnier’s transformative experiences with light and color both at home and abroad. This installation, like so much of Sonnier’s art, seeks to dissolve the boundaries www.noma.org
between audience and artwork, material and experience, and culture and place. In works such as Catahoula (1994) and Los La Butte (1990), which signify a return to the aesthetics of Sonnier’s Louisiana upbringing, he integrates “relics” of everyday life— aluminum farm caging, empty plastic bottles of soap, and detritus scavenged from barns throughout his family’s property—with wrapped neon tubing, creating a poetic interplay of light and form, as well as environment, technology, and industry. Incorporating everything from neon and satellites to soap bottles and a hunter’s perch, Sonnier’s art pictures a world in which distances collapse and cultures collide into dizzying arrays of color, light, and form. Keith Sonnier: Until Today explores the artist’s defining role in pushing the boundaries of what constitutes sculpture over the last half-century, as well as the profound way his art engages with the poetics and politics of the information age. Katie A. Pfohl, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, and Allison Young, Mellon Curatorial Fellow of Modern and Contemporary Art
OPPOSITE PAGE Keith Sonnier, Ba-O-Ba I (Ba-O-Ba Series), 1969, Plate glass, neon tubing, electrical wire, and transformer, 84 x 204 x 18 in., Courtesy of the artist and Maccarone Gallery, New York/ Los Angeles
TOP LEFT Keith Sonnier, Syzygy Transmitter (Antenna Series), 1992, Wire grid, aluminum, neon tubing, paint, electrical wire, and transformer, 29 x 19 x 26 in., Collection of the artist
TOP RIGHT Keith Sonnier, New Blatt Cinema (Blatt Series), 2016, Neon tubing, corrugated aluminum, rubber discs, electrical wire, and transformer, 62 x 25 x 2 1⁄4 in., Collection of Dawn DeDeaux, New Orleans
ABOVE Keith Sonnier, SHMOO—O.G.V., 2013, Neon tubing, acrylic, aluminum, electrical wire, and transformer, 131 x 92 1⁄2 x 4 in., Courtesy of the artist and Pace Gallery, New York
15
EXHIBITIONS
BONDYE: BETWEEN AND BEYOND
Tina Girouard, Agoue, (detail), 1992, Fabric, beads, and sequins, 43 x 72 in., Courtesy of the artist, ©Tina Girouard
Bondye: Between and Beyond, opening January 25 and on view in the Great Hall through October 13, features twelve sequined prayer flags created by the Louisiana-born artist Tina Girouard in collaboration with artists in Haiti. During the 1990s, Girouard maintained a studio in Port-au-Prince, where she helped create these collective artworks. Sequined prayer flags are at the center of Haitian Vodou, playing an important part in communal gatherings, offerings, and rituals. Practiced throughout the world, Vodou today finds expression in ceremonies and rites ranging from All Saints Day in France to the celebration of Mardi Gras in New Orleans and Kanaval in Haiti. These flags celebrate the religion’s multicultural roots, illustrating its melding of West African, Catholic, and Haitian spiritual practices. After thousands of enslaved people were brought to Haiti from West Africa in the sixteenth century, they were not allowed to openly practice their diverse religions and thus were forced to blend their customs with the Catholic beliefs of French and Spanish slave owners. Following the path of slavery and 16
colonialism, this spiritual amalgam has helped form religious practices in places across the globe, including New Orleans. Much like Vodou itself, these flags represent a coming together of different cultures, communities, and planes of existence. Each flag pays tribute to a different spirit of Haitian Vodou, called the “loa,” or “invisibles,” in Haitian Creole. These unseen entities stand at the spiritual and cultural crossroads: existing between the human and spirit world, they also move between many different nations and cultures, and are believed to speak all human languages. In Vodou rituals, sequined flags beckon these loa from beyond, who in turn bring messages of faith and hope to the supreme spiritual force of Vodou, known as “Bondye,” who represents pure goodness and the highest principle of the universe. Celebrating Vodou’s origins in community, creativity and freedom, these works prompt us to consider the ways we all exist between different cultures, and ask us to reflect on our own spirituality as well as our points of connection with the rest of humanity. Beginning in the 1960s, Girouard was one among a prominent group of contemporary artists from Louisiana
that included Keith Sonnier, Lynda Benglis, and Dickie Landry. These artists countered the more austere minimalist art being made at the time with exuberant color, eclectic compositions, and unorthodox new art materials that reflected Louisiana’s diverse local culture, but also looked out into the wider world. In works like these sequined flags, their art gave visibility to new voices and perspectives from within and beyond the borders of the United States. They often included references to a global range of cultures, either through direct collaborations with artists in places like Haiti, Japan, and India, or through appropriations of forms and influences from those cultures. Their work celebrates the power of collaboration and cross-cultural dialogue and communication, while also raising questions about authorship, ownership, and authenticity that have only become more relevant in our increasingly global world. The exhibitoin is curated by Katie A. Pfohl, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, with Nicolas Brierre Aziz, Community Outreach Coordinator
New Orleans Museum of Art | NOMA Magazine
LEARN
INSPIR ED BY NOMA: CRISTINA MOLINA At select intervals throughout the run of Ear to the Ground: Earth and Element in Contemporary Art, on view through August 31, New Orleans-based artist Cristina Molina will host a series of performances in the exhibition’s galleries in, which she offers museum visitors intimate guided tours of the exhibition. Can you share more about the inspiration behind these performances? The performance is called Under Three Things. In this piece, I want to transport museum visitors to the underground, or underworld. I assume the figure of Persephone from Greek mythology, but reimagine her not as a victim of Hades, but rather as an empowered goddess with her own agency and strength. In the performance, I offer visitors guided tours of the exhibition in which I mingle real facts about the artworks and artists with my own fictional narrative, mixing up what people are seeing in reality with this imagined, fantastical landscape. I want the experience to be as immersive and intimate as possible, which is why I whisper to people, and only do these tours one on one, arm in arm. I want people to come away with a very different experience of the artworks than what one typically gets at a museum. You often privilege female protagonists in your work. The photograph that you created to accompany your performance, on view in the gallery, is nestled among work by other female artists. Is that something you were thinking about? I don’t think it’s exclusive to women, but do I think this exhibition really demonstrates that women have a certain special sensitivity to the landscape that really resonated with me. When I guide people through
www.noma.org
Artist Cristina Molina, at left, delivers a “whispering tour” to Amy Crum in the exhibition Ear to the Ground: Earth and Element in Contemporary Art.
the exhibition, and we are looking, for instance, at Olafur Eliasson’s work, The Hinged View, I talk about rainbows. His work is very much a nod to gender equality, and also a way to encourage people to think about non-heteronormative ideas. Were you thinking at all about the environment and the potential threats of climate change when you created this tour? Yes, definitely. It’s very subtle. In all of my work, I want to seduce people, draw them in, and offer them this illusion of softness. But then, every once in awhile, I break the illusion by jarring them into a reality they may not be expecting. The title Under Three Things is taken from the biblical Proverb, “Under three things the earth trembles, the fourth it cannot bear.” My performance is, in part, a meditation about the danger that the earth might break under human exploitation. You’ve mentioned previously that your work often deals with the search for paradise. Do you view this performance as seeking a kind of utopia?
The tour itself isn’t exactly about finding a utopia, but instead is offering a new vision of it. I want to reimagine the underworld not as an endpoint but as an arrival. In today’s current political climate, when there are so many issues that are so vocal and visible, we need a place to stop and think, and that is the space I am trying to create. What do you want people to take away from the performance? What I hope it offers is a space to slow down, to really look and really listen. I hope that people really consider my slow pace and soft voice, and maybe bring that same energy to looking at other artworks in the museum, and into their own lives. Curatorial Intern Amy Crum is a graduate student at Tulane University. She interviewed Molina after the first performance.
Molina’s performances at NOMA will take place during Friday Nights at NOMA on the following dates and is offered on a firstcome, first-served basis: FRIDAY, JANUARY 25 | 6 – 8 p.m. FRIDAY, MARCH 22 | 6 – 8 p.m. FRIDAY, APRIL 5 | 6 – 8 p.m.
17
LEARN
NOM A W ELCOME S N EW EDUCATION DIR ECTOR A N D CU R ATOR
Gabrielle Wyrick joined NOMA as the Deputy Director for Learning and Engagement.
In the latter part of 2018, NOMA welcomed Gabrielle Wyrick as Deputy Director for Learning and Engagement and Ndubuisi Ezeluomba as the Françoise Billion Richardson Curator of African Art. By leading the Learning and Engagement Department, Wyrick will spearhead the interpretive aspects of NOMA, developing inclusive and engaging strategies and experiences, including participatory learning and digital projects. Additionally, she will supervise the design of public programs such as lectures, films, performances, symposia, gallery talks, and more. She was named a 2018 Museum Educator of the Year by the National Art Education Association (NAEA). Wyrick arrived at NOMA in October 2018 from the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, where she served as Associate Director of Education from 2010 to September 2018. She has also served as Project Director for the National Convening for Teens in the Arts at ICA/Boston since 2010. Previously, Wyrick held the position of Curator of Education at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego for four years, where she oversaw all interpretive and education activities. Wyrick received an M.A. in Art History from Tufts University, and a B.A. in Art History and Criticism 18
Ndubuisi C. Ezeluomba is the Françoise Billion Richardson Curator of African Art
from the University of California, San Diego. She has contributed to Teen Convening Education Reports, ICA/ Boston, and Journal of Museum Education. Additionally, Wyrick served as an adjunct faculty member in the Department of World Languages and Cultural Studies at Suffolk University, and the Division of Integrated Studies at Lesley University. She has been a guest lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Tufts University, and served as a Capstone Advisor in Museum Studies at Harvard University. Ndubuisi Ezeluomba will oversee and manage NOMA’s significant collection of traditional African art, which is considered one of the most important in a public museum in the United States. Originally from Benin City, Nigeria, Ezeluomba comes to NOMA from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, where he was the Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Research Specialist in African Art. There he collaborated with the institution’s conservation department to probe beneath the surface of the objects in the museum’s collection. Before his time in Virginia, Ezeluomba served as a consultant on the Elusive Spirits: African Masquerades exhibition at the Harn Museum of Art at the University of Florida, and worked on the museum’s curatorial team that produced Kongo Across
the Waters, examining 500 years of cultural exchange between the Kongo, Europe, and the United States. The exhibition traced the rise of Kongo as a major Atlantic presence and the transmission of Kongo culture through the transatlantic slave trade into American art. It was presented at NOMA in 2015. Ezeluomba received a Ph.D. in Art History from the University of Florida, Gainesville, specializing in the visual cultures of Olokun shrines. He received his B.A. in Fine and Applied Arts from the University of Benin, and graduated from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria, where his master’s thesis focused on the contemporary Nigerian artist Obi Ekwenchi. Ezeluomba has contributed to multiple publications and journals, including Routledge Encyclopedia of African Studies; Agents of Space: Eighteenth-Century Art, Architecture and Visual Culture; Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism; and Black Art Quarterly; and has presented at numerous international conferences.
Join Ndubuisi Ezeluomba for specialized tours of NOMA’s African Art Galleries WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30 | 12 p.m. Noontime Talk Commemoration: African Ancestral Screens and Bundles WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13 | 12 p.m. Noontime Talk For Spirits and for Kings: Prestigious Arts of Africa
New Orleans Museum of Art | NOMA Magazine
PROFE S SIONA L PATH WAYS
Since the summer of 2018, NOMA has welcomed nine interns from New Orleans’s three historically black colleges as part of a new Professional Pathways program underwritten by a grant from the Walton Family Foundation and the Ford Foundation. Out of the eighty museums nationwide that applied for the grant, NOMA is one of twenty pioneering institutions—and the only one in the Gulf South—selected to receive funding as part of the Diversifying Art Museum Leadership Initiative. The initiative aims to recruit university-level students from under-represented and under-served backgrounds for paid internships with the long-term goal of diversifying curatorial and management staffs at art museums across the US. The program was spurred in part by a national study from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which concluded that while 38 percent of Americans identify as Asian, Black, Hispanic, or multiracial, only 16 percent of art museum leadership positions were held by people of color. Students from Dillard, Southern, and Xavier universities have all benefited from this competitive internship at NOMA. In the fall of 2018, Ramzee McGee-Williams, Stephano Flowers, and Jalisa Orellana worked with NOMA staff in a variety of ways. McGee-Williams, a junior at Dillard with family ties to New Orleans, grew up in Toledo, Ohio. She is majoring in social work and plans to pursue a law degree. “People might not think those degrees would lead me to an art museum, but I’m a visual person and this experience has broadened my mindset. It has framed my worldview.” She says her observational skills have been fine-tuned through the internship. “There are many interpretations of art, just as there are many interpretations of law.” She worked with Jennifer Williams in the Learning and Engagement
www.noma.org
Department, specifically in NOMA’s programs aimed at attracting teen audiences. “There’s too often a lack of youth in museums, so I did extensive research on teen-related programs at other museums across the country,” McGee-Williams said. This research led to brainstorming about potentially adding a teen docent program to NOMA, “allowing teens to give tours to other teens, or hosting teen nights at the museum.” Just a few years removed from that age group, McGee-Williams NOMA Professional Pathways interns Jalisa Orellana, Stephano Flowers, and Ramzee McGee-Williams. believes “teens know how other teens think.” Stephano Flowers, “I had never considered museum a senior in the visual work before taking on this internship. arts program at Dillard, is from Terry, I wasn’t opposed to it, but I wondered, Mississippi. A professor referred him What would I do in a museum if I wasn’t to Professional Pathways where he curating? I just thought there were has assisted NOMA’s digital asset curators and guards, and that was it.” department with photo archiving. He has She worked side by side with worked with Seth Boonchai in touching NOMA staff during Friday Nights at up and adjusting lighting on images of NOMA events, “making sure everything works in NOMA’s permanent collection. ran smoothly,” as well weekend Museum technology was a surprise to programs aimed at family audiences Flowers, who thought such institutions and summer camps for children. “might still be in the Stone Age” and “I was surprised and a bit jealous occupied solely with what is hung on of the kids who already knew so the walls or placed on pedestals. much about art at such a young age,” Experiencing a work environment Orellana said. “Even the kids who beyond academia has been very weren’t immediately engaged, it was beneficial. He is applying for postimpressive to see them open up and graduate museum studies programs. start to talk about art. More kids need “I’m currently mentoring a sophomore this exposure, and it’s important to and encouraging her to apply to NOMA, let everyone know what’s available to take advantage of a professional at NOMA—including internships.” setting before you get a diploma.” Jalisa Orellana is a senior from For more information about Professional Pathways, including application rules and Alexandria, Virginia, majoring in history deadlines, visit noma.org/internships. NOMA will at Xavier. Her three-month internship also be host to an internship program aimed at led to being hired part time in NOMA’s students of color funded by the Souls Grown Deep Foundation, beginning in 2019. Learning and Engagement Department.
19
SUPPORT
THE M A N Y WAYS OF GI V ING
NOMA’s Young Fellows raised funds for the placement of a Meditation Path in the expansion of the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden, slated to open in late spring of 2019.
At its inception, NOMA was viewed as “a place where primary emphasis was on education, moral uplift, and social betterment,” in the words of founding board member and renowned artist Ellsworth Woodward. Before the cornerstone was laid in 1910, funds for the building’s construction had been donated by philanthropist Isaac Delgado, for whom the original museum was named. This seed money of $150,000 served as inspiration for the hundreds of donors who have followed in his lead. A few of our 2018 benefactors shared their reasons for giving: Mini Masters is a collaborative arts integration program for prekindergarten students featuring works of art from NOMA. The program introduces these students to visual arts, while training educators to use works of art as tools for teaching literacy, arts, science, and math concepts. Board member David Kelso and his wife, Sara, believe in the fundamental importance of an early arts education for children, which led them to establishing the David and Sara Kelso Endowment for Early Childhood Arts Education. 20
“When I was in grade school in Virginia, our class took field trips to the National Gallery in Washington, and I always looked forward to that,” says David, managing director of a financial services company. Mini Masters and other education initiatives at the museum are designed to fill in the gaps created by the lack of arts experiences for children and families through a variety of activities that reinforce education concepts, from art activities that enable students to better understand elements of nature, like seasons, to gallery visits at the museum. The students develop cognitive connections that have a long-term impact on further progress in school, relationships, and society as a whole. David sees this as the critical importance of Mini Masters: “Some may see programs like this as the softer side of life, but I consider it an integral part of how people can and should be viewing the world around them.” In 2003, NOMA inaugurated the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden. The nearly five-acre site, lush with towering pine trees and moss-
draped live oaks—some more than 200 years old—surrounding a tranquil lagoon, was transformed into a breathtaking outdoor art space graced with works by internationally renowned sculptors. The garden now ranks among the best in the world, which has led to a major expansion with a lead gift from its namesakes. Many individual and corporate donors have committed funds toward this development of six adjoining acres. NOMA’s Young Fellows, a group of professionals under age 40 who share an interest in art, raised funds for the installation of a Meditation Path that will meander through the natural splendor of the garden, connecting works by major twenty-first-century artists. Among those supporting the project are new Young Fellows members Mary and Ryan Peters. “Philanthropy, at times, feels out of reach to many who are willing to support a cause,” says Mary, who works in institutional advancement at a private school. “Young Fellows has been a great initiative because it allows us to root our philanthropic goals within our means and within an institution that continually strives to make the city a better place through shared experiences in art.”
New Orleans Museum of Art | NOMA Magazine
Mini Masters connects preschool-age children in New Orleans with NOMA and offers educators an opportunity to integrate art into early childhood lessons. Here children peer through plexiglass at the intricate interior of America, a replicated log cabin, painted with gold resin, by artist Will Ryman filled with symbolic objects.
Ryan, who works in human resources for the hospitality industry, concurs. “It’s one thing to be able to go to events around the city,” he says, “but it’s another to support and connect with an organization that strives to maintain and promote an important cultural tenet of New Orleans, which is diversity of expression and thought through art. Being a part of the Young Fellows provides that deep and meaningful connection to the unique threads that comprise the fabric of our city.” In December 2018 Angelique, a captivating work of art with a curious connection to New Orleans, was acquired and installed in NOMA’s Bea and Harold Forgotston Gallery. This dramatic painting (see page 4) enhances the museum’s presentation of European and American art from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The artist, Léopold Burthe, was a New Orleanian who spent his adult life in Paris. In the spring of 2017, Vanessa Schmid, NOMA’s Senior Research Curator for European Art, was informed of this historical work by peers who had seen the painting at the TEFAF Maastricht art fair in The Netherlands.
www.noma.org
“With the heating up of the art market, it’s increasingly difficult for museums to compete and purchase works of art to keep them in the public trust,” Schmid said. “Once masterpieces go into private hands, it’s unpredictable as to whether they will be preserved, let alone ever seen again by a wider public and scholars.” With that in mind, she contacted Michael and Susie McLoughlin to discuss its purchase for NOMA. Michael, a businessman who owns a metal fabricating company in Michigan, grew up a block from City Park, and he and his wife maintain close ties to the city. They return frequently and often visit NOMA; in fact, the couple are supporters of The Orléans Collection exhibition. “Susie and I have long enjoyed both collecting art and sharing it with others,” says Michael. Some of the McLoughlins’ pieces have been loaned to such institutions as the Cabildo, the Snite Museum at the University of Notre Dame, the Toledo Museum of Art, and the Flagler Museum. In addition, their generosity led to the purchase of a sculpture for City Park.
“When Vanessa approached us about potentially acquiring Angelique for NOMA, it was the perfect storm. Our love of art and our love of the city intersected, and we were happy to oblige.”
NOMA relies upon the support of donors. If you find these stories inspiring and would like to make an impact yourself, please contact the museum for more information. Anne P. Baños, Deputy Director apbanos@noma.org 504.658.4129 Jenni Daniel, Director of Development jdaniel@noma.org 504.658.4107
21
SUPPORT 2
3
4
5
6
7
10
11
1. Kelsey Brosnan, Curatorial Fellow for European Art, and Mark Romig, President and CEO, New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corp and 2018 NOLA Foundation, at the opening of The Orléans Collection on October 25, 2018. 2. Supporters Gail and John Bertuzzi with Vanessa Schmid (center), Senior Research Curator for European Art, at the exhibition opening. 3. Supporters Jean and Buddy Bolton with Béatrice Odunlani (center), Deputy Mayor of Orléans, France, at the exhibition opening. Orléans is a sister city to New Orleans. 4. LOVE in the Garden artist honorees for 2018 (from left to right): L. Kasimu Harris, Katrina Andry, and John Alexander. Not pictured is Luis Cruz Azaceta. 5. LOVE in the Garden 2018, presented by Hancock Whitney, on September 28, 2018. The annual party in the Besthoff Sculpture Garden raises funds for education initiatives, programming, exhibitions, and more at NOMA.
22
8
12
9
13
6. LOVE in the Garden co-chairs (from left to right): Christine LeBlanc, Mimi Schlesinger, Elizabeth Grimes. Also included is Michael J. Siegel, 2018 NOMA Board President. 7. Odyssey 2018: All That Glitters, in partnership with IBERIABANK, was held on November 10, 2018. 8. Odyssey Ball chairs (from left to right) Robyn and Andrew Schwarz, Nancy and Franco Valobra, Allison and Ben Tiller. 9. Dr. Michele Zembo and Mr. Glade Bilby II at Odyssey. 10. Michael J. Siegel, 2018 NOMA Board President; Susan M. Taylor, The Montine McDaniel Freeman Director; and Hunter G. Hill, New Orleans Market President, IBERIABANK, at Odyssey. 11. Mr. and Mrs. Wan Kim, patrons of Odyssey. 12. Odyssey guests Gian Durand, Robert E. Smith Lupo, and Laverne Toombs. 13. A fireworks display at Odyssey 2018 commemorated the New Orleans Tricentennial.
New Orleans Museum of Art | NOMA Magazine
P H OTOS 1 , 2 A N D 4: C H ERY L G ERB ER P H OTO G R A P H Y | P H OTOS 4 – 1 3: RO M A N A LO H K IN
1
DONORS The New Orleans Museum of Art gratefully acknowledges our donors, who make our exhibitions, programming, and daily operations possible. We appreciate your continued support of NOMA and its mission. Thank you!
Foundation and Government Support
Corporate and Individual Support
$500,000 and above
$500,000 and above
$20,000 – $49,999
$10,000 – $19,999
The Benjamin M. Rosen Family Foundation
Sydney and Walda Besthoff
Anonymous
A Friend of NOMA
Charitable Lead Annuity Trust Under the Will of Louis Feil
Virginia Besthoff
Cathy and Morris Bart
Mr. and Mrs. Darryl D. Berger
Donna and Benjamin M. Rosen
Jay and Andree Batt
Gail and John Bertuzzi
Collins C. Diboll Private Foundation
Frank B. Stewart Jr.
E. John Bullard
Jean and Buddy Bolton
Ella West Freeman Foundation
Phyllis M. Taylor
Leonard Davis and Sharon Jacobs
Caroline and Murray Calhoun
Pia and Malcolm Ehrhardt
Reuben O. Charles, II
Tim L. Fields, Esq.
Jeffrey J. Feil
The Frank B. Stewart, Jr. Foundation Patrick F. Taylor Foundation
$100,000 – $499,999
The Sydney and Walda Besthoff Foundation
Hancock Whitney
Julie and Ted George
Tina and Robert Hinckley
Betty Fishman
Zemurray Foundation
JPMorgan Chase & Co.
IBERIABANK
Dr. and. Mrs. Richard Gilder III
Cammie and Charles Mayer
Elizabeth and Chip Goodyear
Elizabeth and Willy Monaghan
Dana and Steve Hansel
Jeri Nims
Juli Miller Hart
Roger Ogden
Kit and Ed Landry
Jacki and Brian Schneider
Ashley Longshore
Kitty and Stephen Sherrill
Stewart and Renee Peck
Aimée and Mike Siegel
Janet and David Rice
Estate of Lynette Askin Stilwell
Sally E. Richards
Suzanne and Robert Thomas
Sheila and Britton Sanderford
Franco and Nancy Valobra
Robyn and Andrew Schwarz
$200,000 – $499,999 The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation The Azby Fund City of New Orleans The Elise M. Besthoff Charitable Foundation The Helis Foundation
$100,000 – $199,999
Michael and Susie McLoughlin Janice Parmelee and Bill Hammack Robinson Lumber Company
$50,000 – $99,999 Marjorie and Scott Cowen Marla Garvey
Goldring Family Foundation
Adrea D. Heebe and Dominick A. Russo, Jr.
Institute of Museum and Library Services
Dr. and Mrs. Harris Hyman, III
Smoothie King
Lois and Lloyd Hawkins Jr. Foundation
Robert and Mary Lupo
Jane and Rodney Steiner
The Selley Foundation
New Orleans & Company
Allison and Ben Tiller
The RosaMary Foundation
Nancy Rathborne
Jason P. Waguespack
The Walton Family Foundation
Tina Rathborne and Phillip De Normandie
$50,000 – $99,999 2018 NOLA Foundation Eugenie and Joseph Jones Family Foundation
Liz and Poco Sloss Susu and Andrew Stall Robert and Pamela Steeg Catherine Burns Tremaine
The Ford Foundation The Lupin Foundation
$20,000 – $49,999 Boh Foundation Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel Foundation Jewish Communal Fund Louisiana Division of the Arts National Endowment for the Arts Robert Lehman Foundation, Inc. Samuel H. Kress Foundation
NOMA Corporate Members Gold
Green
Hyatt Regency New Orleans
Crescent Capital Consulting, LLC
International-Matex Tank Terminals
Ernst & Young
Jones Walker
Hexton Gallery
New Orleans & Company
Library Street Collective
Pelham Communications
Neal Auction Company
$10,000 – $19,999
Silver
The Bertuzzi Family Foundation
JPMorgan Chase & Co.
The Booth-Bricker Fund Evelyn L. Burkenroad Foundation The Garden Study Club of New Orleans, Inc.
New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation Regions Bank Salon 94 Valentino Hospitality
Bronze Gulf Coast Bank and Trust
J. Edgar Monroe Foundation
Hotel Monteleone
Kabacoff Family Foundation
Laitram, LLC
New Orleans Theatre Association The Ruby K. Worner Charitable Trust This list includes donors who made gifts between December 1, 2017 and December 1, 2018. If you have any questions, or would like information about supporting NOMA, contact NOMA’s Development Department by calling 504.658.4127.
www.noma.org
23
SUPPORT
INSTAGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Enjoy highlights from NOMA’s Instagram, featuring images from New Orleans’ oldest fine arts institution. Share your visit using #explorenoma.
NOMA CIRCLES President’s Circle
Mr. and Mrs. Lynes R. Sloss Mr. and Mrs. Bruce L. Soltis
Mr. and Mrs. Sydney J. Besthoff III
Mr. and Mrs. Robert M. Steeg
Mr. and Mrs. Ralph O. Brennan
Mr. and Mrs. Robert E. Thomas
Mr. and Mrs. David F. Edwards
Ms. Susan Zackin
Mrs. Marla Garvey Mr. and Mrs. Charles B. Mayer Mrs. Robert Nims
Patron’s Circle
Mrs. Phyllis Taylor
Dr. Siddharth K. Bhansali Mr. John L. Cleveland, Jr.
@inaweoftheworld engagements: 1,154 | reach: 10,953 | impressions: 14,205
Director’s Circle
Mr. and Mrs. R. Foster Duncan
Mr. and Mrs. John D. Bertuzzi
Ms. Anne Gauthier
Mrs. Katherine Boh
Mr. and Mrs. G. Anthony Gelderman
Ms. Lucy Burnett and Mr. Gregory Holt
Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Heebe
Mr. and Mrs. James J. Frischhertz
Mr. and Mrs. Murray Calhoun
Ms. Sharon Jacobs and Mr. Leonard A. Davis
Mrs. Isidore Cohn, Jr.
Dr. Edward D. Levy, Jr.
Mrs. H. Mortimer Favrot, Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. J. Thomas Lewis
Ms. Juli Miller Hart
Ms. Elizabeth Livingston
Ms. Adrea D. Heebe and Mr. Dominick A. Russo, Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Michael McLoughlin
Mr. and Mrs. Russ Herman
Mr. and Mrs. William Monaghan
Ms. Louise H. Moffett
Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Heymann
Drs. Joy D. and Howard Osofsky
Mr. and Mrs. Hunter G. Hill
Mr. and Mrs. Gray S. Parker
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Hinckley
Mr. and Mrs. James C. Roddy
Dr. and Mrs. James F. Pierce
Mr. and Mrs. Brian A. Schneider
Dr. Elisabeth H. Rareshide and Dr. Ronald G. Amedee
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Shelton 3 Mr. and Mrs. Frank B. Stewart, Jr.
Mrs. Charles S. Reily, Jr.
Mr. Stephen F. Stumpf, Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. James J. Reiss, Jr.
Ms. Catherine Burns Tremaine
Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin M. Rosen
Ms. Celia Weatherhead
Mr. and Mrs. Edward Shearer
Mr. and Mrs. D. Brent Wood
Mr. and Mrs. Michael J. Siegel Mr. Michael Smith
ISA AC DELGADO SOCIETY @gerbercheryla engagements: 568 | reach: 7,798 | impressions: 8,999
@kapfohl engagements: 728 | reach: 8,892 | impressions: 10,775
24
Wayne Amedee
Thomas B. Lemann
Larry W. Anderson
Dr. Edward D. Levy, Jr.
Honorable Steven R. Bordner
John and Tania Messina
E. John Bullard
Anne and King Milling
Joseph and Sue Ellen Canizaro
William Monsted
Mrs. Carmel Cohen
James A. Mounger
Folwell Dunbar
Jeri Nims
Prescott N. Dunbar
Judith Young Oudt
Lin Emery
Mrs. Charles S. Reily, Jr.
William A. Fagaly
Pixie and Jimmy Reiss
Randy Fertel
Polly and Edward Renwick
Lyn and John Fischbach
Donna and Benjamin M. Rosen
Tim and Ashley Francis
Brian Sands
Sandra D. Freeman
Jolie and Robert Shelton
Sarah and Richard Freeman
Margaret and Bruce Soltis
Tina Freeman and Philip Woollam
Nancy Stern
Dana and Steve Hansel
Mrs. John N. Weinstock
Abba J. Kastin, M.D.
Mercedes Whitecloud
Lee Ledbetter and Douglas Meffert
New Orleans Museum of Art | NOMA Magazine
EVENTS
J U LI A A R MSTRONG -TOTTEN A N D THE OR LÉ A NS COLLECTION Julia Armstrong-Totten will be among the ten scholars speaking at The Orléans Collection Symposium on January 11 and 12. (See page 27 for additional information.) She spoke with NOMA Magazine about The Orléans Collection, on view through January 27, and how this famous cache of more than 500 paintings made its way from a Parisian palace to London auctions in the 1790s, from where the collection was ultimately dispersed across the world. Can you summarize for our readers how these sales, caused such a sensation in London? Up until the time of the French Revolution, the paintings in the collection of the Duke of Orléans were made available for public viewing in the Palais-Royal, and they had become a popular tourist attraction in Paris by the end of the eighteenth century. However, by 1790, the Duke’s greatgrandson, Louis Philippe Joseph d’Orléans, had amassed crushing debts, which forced him to consider selling the collection, as he had already mortgaged his other tangible assets. This Duke of Orléans was in London at the time, and rumors began circulating in local newspapers about a potential sale, although this didn’t happen immediately. But this is the point when “Orléans mania”—as I like to call it—really took hold because the public was very excited about the possibility of the paintings finding a permanent home in Britain. Within a couple of years, the collection was divided into two portions and sold. One of the Duke’s creditors, a French banker, acquired the Italian, French, and Spanish paintings, while a London banking syndicate acquired the Dutch, Flemish, and German paintings. Later, three British noblemen would assume a loan involving the French banker’s paintings, so unexpectedly, both portions would end up in London and be put on display at events called www.noma.org
Lorenzo Lotto, The Virgin Mary and Child with Saints Jerome, Peter Francis, and an Unidentified Female Saint, about 1505, Oil on panel, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, Purchased by private treaty with the aid of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, 1984
private contract sales. The first one contained those paintings acquired by the London banking syndicate and was organized by their agent, the gentleman-dealer Thomas Moore Slade. These paintings went on view in April 1793, and this immediately became a blockbuster exhibition. Keep in mind that there was no venue regularly open to the public that featured top-notch Old Master paintings. The National Gallery in London would not open until 1824. Because the Orléans Collection was already internationally famous, the exhibition reportedly tempted visitors from all over the country to travel to the capital city and take advantage of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see some of these legendary paintings. Why was the “private contract sale” such an innovation? While the expression “sale by private contract” existed throughout the eighteenth century, and referred to other types of transactions, especially those involving real estate, in 1786 an art speculator called Noel Desenfans
adopted the idea of applying the phrase to long-term exhibitions in which some or all the works of art on display were privately for sale. A catalog or price list was typically printed as a guide for perspective buyers. Furthermore, an entrance fee was charged to give the event a feeling of exclusiveness, but it also provided additional income if sales lagged. The most successful of these types of events included works of art that attracted a paying crowd, like the paintings from the Orléans Collection. Since private contract sales did not have to be registered with the Excise Office, like auctions, the proprietor had complete control over all aspects of the events. They became extremely popular at a time when the art market was flooded with important paintings from the continent, because they allowed buyers time to contemplate a potentially expensive purchase. Julia Armstrong-Totten traced the present locations of paintings from the Orléans Collection. She contributed the appendix and an essay to the catalog, which is for sale online at noma.org/shop.
25
JANUARY – APRIL, 2019 • EVENTS AT NOMA BY DATE
CALENDAR
YOGA IN THE GARDEN
TAI CHI
DOCENT-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.
Saturdays and Mondays at noon beginning Saturday, March 16.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 23
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15
SATURDAY, MARCH 16
12 p.m. NOONTIME TALK The Orléans Collection with Curator Kelsey Brosnan
12 p.m. NOONTIME TALK The Orléans Collection with Curator Vanessa Schmid
5 – 9 p.m. FRIDAY NIGHTS AT NOMA
10 a.m.
MINDFULNESS CLASS with Dr. Jayashree Rao (Advance registration required)
FRIDAY, JANUARY 11
FRIDAY, JANUARY 25
10 a.m.
STUDIO KIDS!
11 a.m.
STORYQUEST
12 p.m.
BOOK CLUB CURATORIAL PROGRAM with Lisa Rotondo-McCord
5 – 9 p.m. FRIDAY NIGHTS AT NOMA
THE ORLÉANS COLLECTION SYMPOSIUM The New Orleans Museum of Art and the Frick Collection’s Center for the History of Collecting will host a symposium of renowned scholars speaking about the art collection of Philippe II, Duke of Orléans. 5 p.m.
ART ON THE SPOT
5 p.m.
7 p.m.
SYMPOSIUM KEYNOTE LECTURE Vanessa Schmid, Senior Research Curator of European Art
12 p.m. BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION GROUP An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16 12 p.m.
NOONTIME TALK Ear to the Ground: Earth and Element in Contemporary Art with Curator Katie Pfohl
TUESDAY, JANUARY 15 12 p.m. BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION GROUP An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
ART ON THE SPOT
6 p.m.
GALLERY TALK on The Orléans Collection with Curator Vanessa Schmid
6 p.m.
INTERACTIVE PERFORMANCE by Cristina Molina in Ear to the Ground: Earth and Element in Contemporary Art
6:30 p.m. CREATE LATE (Advance registration required) 7 p.m.
LECTURE by Andrew McClellan in conjunction with The Orléans Collection: Viewing Art in 18th-Century Paris
SATURDAY, JANUARY 26 10 a.m.
MINDFULNESS CLASS with Dr. Jayashree Rao (Advance registration required)
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30 12 p.m.
NOONTIME TALK Commemoration: African Ancestral Screens and Bundles with Ndubuisi Ezeluomba, Curator of African Art
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1 5 – 9 p.m. FRIDAY NIGHTS AT NOMA 5 p.m.
16th ANNUAL TULANE MAYA SYMPOSIUM with Tulane’s Stone Center for Latin American Studies 6 p.m. Is “Collapse” a Useful Term in Understanding Pre-Columbian Maya History? A LECTURE by Jeremy A. Sabloff of the Santa Fe Institute 7:15
SYMPOSIUM RECEPTION
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16 10 a.m.
MINDFULNESS CLASS with Dr. Jayashree Rao (Advance registration required)
10 a.m.
STUDIO KIDS!
11 a.m.
STORYQUEST
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19 6 p.m.
CLASSES WITH CURATORS On Collecting Photography Russell Lord and Brian Piper
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21 12 p.m.
BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION GROUP Double Vision: the Unerring Eye of Art World Avatars Dominique and John de Menil by William Middleton
ARTS & LETTERS Edmund White in Conversation with Thomas Beller
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23 10 a.m.
MINDFULNESS CLASS with Dr. Jayashree Rao (Advance registration required)
SATURDAY, MARCH 9 10 a.m.
MINDFULNESS CLASS with Dr. Jayashree Rao (Advance registration required)
10 a.m.
STUDIO KIDS!
11 a.m.
STORYQUEST
FRIDAY, JANUARY 18
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2
5 – 9 p.m. FRIDAY NIGHTS AT NOMA
10 a.m.
MINDFULNESS CLASS with Dr. Jayashree Rao (Advance registration required)
5:30 p.m. MUSIC Extended Trio
10 a.m.
STUDIO KIDS!
SMALL TALKS about Ear to the Ground: Earth and Element in Contemporary Art
11 a.m.
STORYQUEST
6 p.m. Cristina Molina
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8
12 p.m.
6:30 p.m. Diedrick Brackens
5 – 9 p.m. FRIDAY NIGHTS AT NOMA
FRIDAY, MARCH 15
7 p.m. Sara Madandar
5 p.m.
ART ON THE SPOT
10 a.m.
MINDFULNESS CLASS with Dr. Jayashree Rao (Advance registration required)
A Night of India
10 a.m.
STUDIO KIDS!
5 p.m.
11 a.m.
STORYQUEST
5:30 p.m. MUSIC Andrew McLean
1 p.m.
TINTYPE DEMO with artist Timothy Duffy
SATURDAY, JANUARY 19
ART ON THE SPOT
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20 12 p.m.
NOONTIME TALK Keith Sonnier: Until Today with Katie Pfohl, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art
FRIDAY, MARCH 22 5 p.m.
ART ON THE SPOT
6 p.m.
INTERACTIVE PERFORMANCE by Cristina Molina
6:30 p.m. COMMUNITY CONVERSATION Considering Cultural Exchange
TUESDAY, MARCH 26 12 p.m.
BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION GROUP Keith Sonnier Until Today by Jeffrey Grove and Terrie Sultan
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27
LECTURES I L LU M I N AT I O N S
L O O K I N G W I T H I N A N D B E YO N D
9:30 a.m. Darroch and Michael Putnam Authors, The Flower Color Guide I N PA RT N E R S H I P W I T H
ART ON THE SPOT
5:30 p.m. MUSIC Shawn Williams 7 p.m.
ART ON THE SPOT
5:30 p.m. MUSIC Patrice Fisher and ARPA
5:30 p.m. MUSIC Pardon My French!
5:30 p.m. MUSIC Harpist Cathy Anderson
TUESDAY, JANUARY 15
26
5 – 9 p.m. FRIDAY NIGHTS AT NOMA
5 p.m.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13
10:45 a.m. Nicky Haslam, English interior designer and garden visionary 12:30 p.m. LUNCHEON Pavilion of the Two Sisters, City Park 7 – 10 p.m. PREVIEW PARTY
THURSDAY, MARCH 28 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. ART IN BLOOM
FRIDAY, MARCH 29 10 a.m. – 9 p.m. ART IN BLOOM 5 – 9 p.m. FRIDAY NIGHTS AT NOMA
12 p.m.
NOONTIME TALK For Spirits and for Kings: Prestigious Arts of Africa with Ndubuisi Ezeluomba, Curator of African Art
BOOK CLUB CURATORIAL PROGRAM with Katie Pfohl
5 – 9 p.m. FRIDAY NIGHTS AT NOMA
EXHIBITION OPENING Keith Sonnier: Until Today
5 p.m.
ART ON THE SPOT
5:30 p.m. MUSIC Bamboula 2000 6:30 p.m. CREATE LATE (Registration required; see page 28)
5 p.m.
ART ON THE SPOT
5:30 p.m. MUSIC Love Evolution
SATURDAY, MARCH 30 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. ART IN BLOOM
LOUISIANA RAINBOW IRIS FESTIVAL SUNDAY, MARCH 31 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. BESTHOFF SCULPTURE GARDEN
New Orleans Museum of Art | NOMA Magazine
SUNDAY, MARCH 31 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. ART IN BLOOM
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3 12 p.m.
NOONTIME TALK Mildred Thompson: Against the Grain with Katie Pfohl, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art
FRIDAY, APRIL 5 5 – 9 p.m. FRIDAY NIGHTS AT NOMA 5 p.m.
ART ON THE SPOT
5 p.m.
EDIBLE BOOK DAY An international celebration of literature, art, and food. Visit noma.org to enter the cake decorating contest.
6 p.m.
INTERACTIVE PERFORMANCE by Cristina Molina in Ear to the Ground: Earth and Element in Contemporary Art
6:30 p.m. CREATE LATE
SATURDAY, APRIL 6 10 a.m.
POETS FOR ART FREE poetry workshop for students in grades 6 – 12. Visit noma.org for registration.
10 a.m.
STUDIO KIDS!
11 a.m.
STORYQUEST
SYMPOSIUM
Tastemaking, Networks and Legacy JANUARY 11 – 12 Presented by NOMA and The Frick Collection’s Center for the History of Collecting Reservations required.
The New Orleans Museum of Art and the Frick Collection’s Center for the History of Collecting will host a symposium in conjunction with The Orléans Collection exhibition, dedicated to the collecting and collection of Philippe II, Duc d’Orléans, (1674–1723). The symposium will consider Philippe d’Orléans’s taste and the impact the collection had for generations of collectors and artists, and a wider public throughout the eighteenth century.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10 12 p.m.
12 p.m.
NOONTIME TALK Keith Sonnier: Until Today with Curatorial Fellow Allison Young ART PRIMER Five from Louisiana with Katie Pfohl and Allison Young
THURSDAY, APRIL 11 12 p.m.
BOOK CLUB CURATORIAL PROGRAM with Curatorial Fellow Brian Piper
SATURDAY, APRIL 13 10 a.m.
NOMA EGG HUNT AND FAMILY FESTIVAL
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17 12 p.m.
NOONTIME TALK Ear to the Ground: Earth and Element in Contemporary Art with Curator Katie Pfohl
Enroll online at noma.org/symposium, or call (504) 658-4160. Hotel blocks have been reserved for symposium participants at the Hampton Inn on St. Charles (hamptoninn3.hilton.com); register using the codeword: NOMAFRICKSYMPOSIUM.
SCHEDULE 10:30 A.M. | SESSION 1
FRIDAY, JANUARY 11 6 P.M. | Repositioning Philippe’s
Collecting, Symposium Keynote Lecture by Vanessa Schmid, Senior Research Curator for European Art at the New Orleans Museum of Art
SATURDAY, JANUARY 12 9 A.M. – 7 P.M. | Symposium
9 A.M. | REGISTRATION 9:30 A.M. | WELCOME
The Legacy of The Orléans Collection, Inge Reist, Director Emerita, The Frick Collection’s Center for the History of Collecting
PERFORMANCE Dickie Landry
Tastemaking in Paris: Philippe, His Circle and Connections in Eigtheenth-Century France Paintings for the Duke of Orléans: Montarsis, Hérault, Rondé and the Network of Parisian Picture Dealers around 1710, François Marandet, Art History Lecturer, Institut d’études supérieures des arts, Paris Absolutism and the Politics of Affect in Antoine Coypel’s Aeneas Gallery, Aaron Wile, University of Southern California
Sessions and Reception
THURSDAY, APRIL 18 6 p.m.
ADMISSION $100 for adults | $75 NOMA members $30 Graduate students with ID (please use a university email address)
Alternatives to the French Academy: Painters and the Public Spaces during the Regency, Sophie Raux, University of Lyon The Craze for Netherlandish Painting in Eighteenth-Century Paris, Everhard Korthals Altes, Delft Technical University
1:30 P.M. | SESSION II The Orléans Effect in Great Britain Crossing the Channel: The Orléans Pictures Arrive in London, Julia Armstrong-Totten, Independent Scholar The Orléans Collection reborn in Regency London: The Stafford Gallery in Cleveland House, Peter Humfrey, Professor Emeritus, University of St. Andrews Decline and Fall: The Fate of the Orléans Pictures in Britain, Elizabeth Pergam, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, New York Looking at the £100,000 Picture: Responses to Raphael and Rembrandt at the National Gallery, London at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, Alison Clarke, Terra Foundation-Paul Mellon Centre Fellow
12:30 P.M. | LUNCH
TUESDAY, APRIL 23 12 p.m.
BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION GROUP Portrait of a Phantom: The Story of Robert Johnson’s Lost Photograph by Zeke Schein
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24 12 p.m.
NOONTIME TALK Bondye: Between and Beyond with Nic Aziz
The symposium is made possible through the support of THE FRICK COLLECTION’S CENTER FOR THE HISTORY OF COLLECTING
THE ROBERT H. SMITH FAMILY FOUNDATION
Please visit noma.org/events for potential additions and changes to the museum calendar and subscribe to our weekly newsletter at noma.org.
www.noma.org
27
BABY ARTSPLAY!
SELECT SATURDAYS, 10 A.M. – 12 P.M. For students ages 5 to 10. Explore art made by diverse cultures. January 19 | February 2, 16 | March 9, 16 | April 6 Advance registration required $25 NOMA member/$30 nonmember per class
STUDIO KIDS!
JANUARY – APRIL 2019 • YOUTH & FAMILY CLASSES
CALENDAR
SATURDAYS | 10:30 A.M. Visit noma.org/2019classes for Spring 2019 Baby Arts play dates. Funded by The Helis Foundation. Space is limited. Register today at www.yabap.eventbrite.com.
FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO ENROLL IN THESE CLASSES, PLEASE VISIT NOMA.ORG/2019CLASSES
STORYQUEST
SELECT SATURDAYS, 11 – 11:45 A.M. January 19 | February 2, 16 | March 9, 16 | April 6 For kids aged 2 – 7 Free with museum admission Funded by the Patrick F. Taylor Foundation
ADULT ART CLASSES | Series of three classes FRIDAYS 6:30 – 8 P.M. | January 25 | March 15 | April 5 Exclusively for adults, kick off your weekend with a glass of wine and an art lesson! Unwind with a creative project while enjoying Friday Nights at NOMA. Advance registration is required. $25 per class for NOMA members $30 per class for nonmembers
28
New Orleans Museum of Art | NOMA Magazine
I L LU M I N AT I O N S L O O K I N G W I T H I N A N D B E YO N D I N–PA RT2019 NERSHIP WITH MARCH 27 31,
One of the most anticipated springtime events in New Orleans, Art in Bloom showcases spectacular floral designs created by over 100 exhibitors that remain on public display at NOMA for four days, from March 28 – 31. This year’s theme, Illuminations: Looking Within and Beyond, will bring together exhibitors from New Orleans and beyond to pair floral displays with NOMA’s art and sculpture. Proceeds from Art in Bloom benefit education projects and exhibitions at NOMA and community projects of The Garden Study Club of New Orleans.
FOR TICKETS OR INFORMATION: 504.658.4121
CHAIRS Sweet Dupuy Catherine Makk
MARCH 27 | Patron Party 6 P.M. Preview Party 7 – 10 P.M. MARCH 28 | Lectures and Luncheon 9:30 a.m. | Darroch and Michael Putnam of Putnam and Putnam, NYC and the authors of The Flower Color Guide 10:45 a.m. | Nicky Haslam, legendary English interior designer and garden visionary 12:30 p.m. | Luncheon and Fashion Show Pavilion of the Two Sisters, City Park
| aib@noma.org
CHAIRS Emily Arata | Rebecca Friedman
SATURDAY, APRIL 13, 2019 10 A.M. – 1 P.M.
SYDNEY AND WALDA BESTHOFF SCULPTURE GARDEN
& FAMILY FESTIVAL #nomaegghunt | www.noma.org/egghunt | 504.658.4121 | egghunt@noma.org
Join the conversation! NOMA’s Arts & Letters series welcomes authors, poets, journalists, playwrights, and literary scholars to the museum for public conversations that reflect on literature at the intersection of arts and culture. This program is free with museum admission thanks to support from the Patrick F. Taylor Foundation. www.noma.org
29
CALENDAR HIGHLIGHTS • JANUARY – APRIL, 2019
CALENDAR
LECTURE VIEWING ART IN 18TH-CENTURY PARIS A LECTURE BY ANDREW MCCLELLAN FRIDAY, JANUARY 25 | 7 P.M. The final lecture in conjunction with The Orléans Collection will take place on Friday, January 25, at 7 p.m. as part of Friday Nights at NOMA programming. Andrew McClellan, professor and Museum Studies adviser in Department of Art and Art History at Tufts University, will discuss “Viewing Art in 18th-Century Paris.” He is the author of four books: Inventing the Louvre: Art, Politics, and the Origins of the Modern Museum in Eighteenth-Century Paris (1999), Art and Its Publics: Museum Studies at the Millennium (2003), and The Art Museum from Boullée to Bilbao (2008), and The Art of Curating: Paul J. Sachs and the Museum Course at Harvard (2018).
Detail of Turgot Map of Paris, 1740. David Rumsey Historical Map Collection, Stanford University, 10059.023
ARTS & LETTERS
CLASSES WITH CURATORS
EDMUND WHITE IN CONVERSATION WITH THOMAS BELLER
ON COLLECTING PHOTOGRAPHY
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1 | 7 P.M.
Tuesday, February 19 | 6 – 9 P.M.
NOMA’s Arts & Letters series welcomes authors, poets, journalists, playwrights, and literary scholars to the museum for public conversations that reflect on literature at the intersection of arts and culture. Edmund White, a pioneering figure in gay literature and memoir, will be interviewed by Thomas Beller, an acclaimed nonfiction writer and professor at Tulane University. This program is included with museum admission for Friday Nights at NOMA thanks to support from the Patrick F. Taylor Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival.
The photography collection at the New Orleans Museum of Art has become one of the finest in the country, numbering more than 12,000 works. Join Russell Lord, the Freeman Family Curator of Photography, and Brian Piper, Mellon Fellow for Photography, for a one-night Classes with Curators. $100 nonmembers | $75 members. Register at noma.org/2019classes.
EDMUND WHITE was born in 1940 and raised in Cincinnati and Chicago. As a novelist, biographer, and an essayist on literary and social topics, much of White’s writing focuses on the theme of same-sex love. His books include The Joy of Gay Sex (1977), co-written with Charles Silverstein; a trio of autobiographic novels: A Boy’s Own Story (1982), The Beautiful Room Is Empty (1981) and The Farewell Symphony (1997); and a biography of French novelist, playwright, and political activist Jean Genet. He is currently a professor of creative writing at Princeton University. THOMAS BELLER is an author, editor, and professor of English at Tulane University. His books include Seduction Theory (1995), The Sleep-Over Artist (2000), How To Be a Man: Scenes from a Protracted Boyhood (2005), and J.D. Salinger: The Escape Artist (2014). He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker and is a contributing editor to Travel+Leisure magazine.
30
Margaret Bourke-White, American, 1904–1971, Chrysler Corporation, 1932, Detail, Gelatin silver print, Promised bequest of Tina Freeman, E-2018-41.9
New Orleans Museum of Art | NOMA Magazine
THE M USEU M SHOP Exhibitions may come and go, but catalogues allow you to revisit your favorite works of art for years to come. Visit the Museum Shop to purchase any of these titles, many of which were published by the museum or authored by NOMA curators.
The Orléans Collection The history of one of Europe’s greatest art collections, assembled by Philippe II, the Duke of Orléans, and later dispersed across the world is thoroughly researched by nine scholars in this lushly illustrated companion to the exhibition.
Looking Again: Photography at the New Orleans Museum of Art
Carlos Rolón: Outside/In
Curator Russell Lord delves into the history of 131 images, out of more than 12,000 in NOMA’s renowned photography collection, spanning the history of the medium from the 1840s to present day.
The cultural ties between New Orleans and Latin America were explored in a solo exhibition by Puerto Rican artist Carlos Rolón, whose work incorporates wrought iron, cinder block, mirror, decorative tile, paintings of lush, tropical flora and a mobile street vendor’s cart.
Hardcover: $65
Hardcover: $29.95
New Forms, New Voices: Japanese Ceramics from the Gitter-Yelen Collection
Personalities in Clay: American Studio Ceramics from the E. John Bullard Collection
Keith Sonnier: Until Today
Dr. Kurt Gitter and his wife, former NOMA curator Alice Rae Yelen, lent a significant portion of their extensive collection of ceramics by contemporary Japanese artists for this 2018 exhibition.
NOMA Director Emeritus John Bullard’s varied collection of contemporary American ceramics, dating from 1940 to the end of the twentieth century, is captured in this catalogue, with biographical information on each artist.
Softcover: $19.95
Softcover: $19.95
Hardcover: $55 | Softcover: $40
For more than five decades, Louisiana artist Keith Sonnier has combined his signature neon with scrap metals, TV antennas, found objects, and other unexpected materials in a seemingly endless stream of playful and inventive works.
Hardcover: $39.95
Find additional merchandise at noma.org/shop NOMA members receive a 10-percent discount (some restrictions apply).
www.noma.org
31
2019 BOARD OF TRUSTEES
ACCREDITATION
Janice Parmelee, President
James J. (Jimmy) Reiss, Jr. At-Large
Sydney J. Besthoff III, Vice-President
Marshall Hevron, At-Large
Stephanie Feoli, Vice-President
Michael J. Siegel, Immediate Past President
Michael Smith, Vice-President Rob Steeg, Secretary
Julie Livaudais George, Appointed
Lynes R. (Poco) Sloss, Treasurer
Suzanne Thomas , Appointed
The New Orleans Museum of Art is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.
Robert Hinckley, At-Large
MEMBERS
NATIONAL TRUSTEES
Jay Batt
Joseph Baillio
Gayle M. Benson
Mrs. Carmel (Babette) Cohen
Elizabeth Boh
Mrs. Mason (Kim) Granger
Elizabeth Boone
Jerry Heymann
Caroline Calhoun
Herbert Kaufman, M.D.
David Johnson
Michael Christovich
Mrs. James (Cherye) Pierce
ART DIRECTOR
Henry Coaxum
Mrs. Billie Milam Weisman
Scott Cowen Margo DuBos David Edwards
Mrs. Edgar L. (Leah) Chase, Jr.
Tim L. Fields Penny Francis Tony Gelderman Dathel Coleman Georges Adrea D. Heebe Hunter G. Hill Joseph Jaeger, Jr. David Kelso
S. Stewart Farnet Sandra Draughn Freeman Kurt A. Gitter, M.D. Mrs. Erik (Barbara) Johnsen Richard W. Levy, M.D. Mr. J. Thomas Lewis Mrs. J. Frederick (Beverley) Muller
Robert E. Smith Lupo
Mrs. Robert (Jeri) Nims
Cammie Mayer
Mrs. Charles S. (Banana) Reily, Jr.
Kenya LeNoir Messer
Harry C. Stahel
Julie Miller Hart
Mrs. Harold H. (Matilda) Stream
Howard Osofsky
Mrs. James L. (Jean) Taylor
Thomas F. Reese
Mrs. John N. (Joel) Weinstock
Pamela Reynolds Ryan Jolie Shelton Susu Stall Frank Stewart Catherine Burns Tremaine Zannie Voss Brent Wood The Honorable Mayor LaToya Cantrell Joe Giarrusso, New Orleans City Council Member Jennifer Heebe, NVC Chairman
32
Mary Degnan
Roman Alohkin Sesthasak Boonchai
Prescott N. Dunbar
Louis J. Lupin
Garner Robinson
EDITOR
STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS
HONOR ARY LIFE MEMBERS
Leonard A. Davis
New Orleans Museum of Art
NOMA Magazine (ISSN 0740-9214) is published by the New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA 70124 © 2019, 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.
COMING IN NOVEMBER 2019 Inventing Acadia: Landscape Painting in Louisiana 1800–1900 explores the rise of landscape painting in the state during the 19th century. As the first major exhibition of Louisiana landscape paintings in more than forty years, Inventing Acadia will reveal the state’s role in creating a new vision for American landscape art, vastly different than that to be found in the rest of the nation. Offering a newly expansive view of the American landscape and its people, Inventing Acadia is the only exhibition that has ever placed Louisiana landscape painting in a wider national and international context, and will feature more than sixty works from private and public collections across Louisiana, Europe, and the broader United States. RIGHT Joseph Rusling Meeker, Bayou Plaquemines, 1885, Oil on canvas, 38 3⁄8 x 33 1⁄2 inches, New Orleans Museum of Art, Museum Purchase, gift of Bernard Bruen, by exchange, 2003.221
New Orleans Museum of Art | NOMA Magazine
www.noma.org
33
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! Instagram @NewOrleansMuseumofArt Facebook NOMA1910 Snapchat ExploreNOMA
ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE. AND A GRAND SETTING.
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 or the Besthoff Sculpture Garden. 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