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EXHIBITIONS
EXHIBITIONS
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Living with Art: Selections from Baton Rouge Collections March 5–September 27, 2020
Curated by LSU MOA
To commemorate the opening of the LSU Museum of Art in the Shaw Center for the Arts fifteen years ago, we presented this special exhibition celebrating art collecting in Baton Rouge. Through the loan of extraordinary works from nine private collections, we celebrated the creative spirit that binds artists to collectors and collections to institutions. Living with Art featured a wide selection of media, periods, and styles, ranging from German Expressionists to Southern self-taught artists; French Impressionism and international artists to Louisiana artists; and from painting to porcelain to bronzes and photography. We extend appreciation to the generous lenders to this exhibition: Karen and Jerry Ceppos, Janie and Chet Coles, Becky and Warren Gottsegen, Beverly and Steven Heymsfield, Salomia and Ben Jeffers, Mary Terrell Joseph, Cary Saurage, and two additional private collectors. Thank you to the following sponsors of this exhibition: Dr. Kay Martin, in Honor of Mr. L. Cary Saurage II; Friends of the LSU Museum of Art; Taylor Porter; Mrs. Jan and Mr. Sanford A. Arst; Mrs. Beth and Dr. Butler Fuller; In Honor of Mr. L. Cary Saurage II: Mrs. Laurie and Mr. Hank Saurage; Mr. C. Wayne Meyers; Mrs. Donna M. Saurage; Mrs. Catherine and Mr. Matt Saurage; and The Helene Kantrow Blitzer and Sidney M. Blitzer Family Fund. All LSU MOA exhibitions are supported by the generous donors to the Annual Exhibition Fund.
Conspicuous: Satirical Works by Caroline Durieux March 19–August 30, 2020
Curated by LSU MOA
This exhibition focused on satirical lithographs produced in the 1930s to the early 1950s by Caroline Durieux from the LSU MOA permanent collection. While studying at Newcomb College, Caroline Durieux was exposed to the now famous theories of Thorstein Veblen, who coined the term “conspicuous consumption.” Durieux closely observed the behaviors of bourgeois circles in the United States, Mexico, and France and found patterns of consumption and leisure united the upper classes. Caroline Durieux translated the quirky, conspicuous behaviors she observed in Louisiana and abroad into the prints included in this exhibition.
Caroline Durieux was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1896. She graduated from Newcomb College, worked with the Works Progress Administration, and later became faculty in LSU’s art department, where she researched electron printmaking with radioactive inks and revived cliché-verre methods, in addition to teaching and practicing traditional printmaking methods. LSU Museum of Art holds nearly 300 works by Durieux.
EXHIBITIONS
Letitia Huckaby: This Same Dusty Road September 17, 2020–March 14, 2021
Curated by LSU MOA
This Same Dusty Road featured quilted photographic works based on Huckaby’s faith, family, and cultural heritage in Louisiana. Much of the work in this exhibition grows out of memories of visiting family who lived along Louisiana Highway 19. Through heirloom fabrics, traditional hand-quilting techniques, and photography, Huckaby mines the legacy of her family—particularly the matriarchs—connecting and confronting past and present inequities. She composes her family portraits to evoke old masterworks and altar pieces. Another portrait series features nuns at the Sisters of the Holy Family Mother House, which was founded in 1842 by African American women. This exhibition and all LSU MOA exhibitions are supported by the generous donors to the Annual Exhibition Fund.
Letitia Huckaby holds an MFA in Photography from the University of North Texas, a BFA in Photography from the University of Boston at Lesley, and a BA in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma at Norman, Oklahoma. Her work is part of the permanent collections of the Library of Congress, Art Museum of Southeast Texas in Beaumont, the Samella Lewis Contemporary Art Collection at Scripps College in Claremont, California, the Brandywine Workshop in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, among others. She has had residencies with the Gee’s Bend Quilters and Brandywine.
EXHIBITIONS
Southbound: Photographs of and about the New South October 22, 2020–February 14, 2021 Organized by the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina.
Southbound: Photographs of and about the New South featured fifty-six photographers’ visions of the South over the first decades of the twenty-first century. Accordingly, it offers a composite image of the region. The photographs echo stories told about the South as a bastion of tradition, as a region remade through Americanization and globalization, and as a land full of surprising realities. The project’s purpose is to investigate senses of place in the South that come together, however fleetingly, in the spaces between the photographers’ looking, their images, and our own preexisting ideas about the region.
Southbound: Photographs of and about the New South was organized by the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina. This program was made possible in part by a grant from the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge, funded by the East Baton Rouge Parish Mayor-President and Metro Council. Additional support is provided by generous donors to the Annual Exhibition Fund.
EXHIBITIONS
GUEST CURATOR: LETITIA HUCKABY
Southbound: Photographs of and about the New South October 22, 2020–February 14, 2021 Selected Southbound photographs by artist Letitia Huckaby were placed in LSU MOA Art in Louisiana galleries.
Selected photographs from the Southbound exhibition were integrated into each of LSU MOA's Art in Louisiana galleries. This Same Dusty Road artist Letitia Huckaby served as guest curator selecting works that resonated with her own view of the South to inspire deeper looking and fresh perspectives on our permanent collection. Each of these works' labels in these galleries were marked with the Southbound logo and discussion of Huckaby's viewpoint.
Letitia Huckaby holds an MFA in Photography from the University of North Texas, a BFA in Photography from the University of Boston at Lesley, and a BA in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma at Norman, Oklahoma. Her work is part of the permanent collections of the Library of Congress, Art Museum of Southeast Texas in Beaumont, the Samella Lewis Contemporary Art Collection at Scripps College in Claremont, California, the Brandywine Workshop in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, among others. She has had residencies with the Gee’s Bend Quilters and Brandywine.
EXHIBITIONS
The Art of Seating is developed by the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville and the Jacobsen Collection of American Art, and is organized for tour by International Arts & Artists, Washington, DC.
The Art of Seating: Two Hundred Years of American Design featured a selection of over forty iconic and historic chairs reaching back from the mid-1800s to pieces from today’s studio movement. Drawn from the Jacobsen Collection of American Art, these chairs offer a stylistic journey in furniture, with showstoppers by John Henry Belter, George Hunzinger, Herter Brothers, Stickley Brothers, Frank Lloyd Wright, Charles and Ray Eames, Eero Saarinen, Isamu Noguchi, and Frank Gehry, among others. The exhibition also featured contemporary and historic designs by some of the biggest manufacturers such as Knoll, Herman Miller, and Steelcase. Thank you to Partner Sponsor, Donald J. Boutté and Michael D. Robinson, and Presenting Sponsor, Taylor Porter Attorneys At Law, for sponsoring this exhibition. Additional support provided by the donors to the Annual Exhibition Fund.
Donald J. Boutté
EXHIBITIONS
THE ART OF SEATING IN ART IN LOUSIANA GALLERIES
Chairs from LSU MOA collection added another 100 years of history and chairs from The Art of Seating were placed in LSU MOA Art in Louisiana galleries
Additions from the LSU Museum of Art permanent collection expanded the period of chair design even farther back in history to the 18th century. Adding a vernacular and three “high style” chairs held in LSU MOA’s permanent collection expanded The Art of Seating’s timeline of design by roughly 100 years, from 1810 back to 1710.
Chairs from The Art of Seating were also placed in LSU MOA's Art in Louisiana galleries to coincide with theme and/or time period of the artwork in a specific gallery.
EXHIBITIONS
Collection Spotlight: Recent Acquisitions by Black Artists March 28–September 26, 2021
Curated by LSU MOA
This permanent collection exhibition featured recent acquisitions of works by Black artists. On view for the first time at LSU MOA were works by Radcliffe Bailey, Whitfield Lovell, Madelyn Sneed-Grays, Mario Moore, and Gordon Parks, among other recently acquired works. These acquisitions were made possible by The Winifred and Kevin P. Reilly Initiative for Underrepresented Artists. The Initiative supports growth of LSU Museum of Art’s permanent collection by funding acquisitions of works by Black, Indigenous, and Latinx artists, including those of marginalized sexualities, gender identities, and communities. During the 2020 year, the 500K initiative focused on acquiring works by Black artists, which will continue through 2021.
In addition to The Winifred and Kevin P. Reilly Initiative for Underrepresented Artists, Collection Spotlight: Recent Acquisitions by Black Artists is supported by the generous donors to the LSU MOA Annual Exhibition Fund: The Imo N. Brown Memorial Fund in memory of Heidel Brown and Mary Ann Brown; Louisiana CAT; Charles Schwing; The Alma Lee, H. N., and Cary Saurage Fund; The Newton B. Thomas Family/Newtron Group Fund; LSU College of Art & Design; Elizabeth M. Thomas; Mr. and Mrs. Sanford A. Arst.
EXHIBITIONS
⊳ MODERN & CONTEMPORARY
On view in LSU MOA's Modern & Contemporary Gallery, Lesley Dill’s dynamic Word Queen of Itchy Water with Suspended Crown explores what Dill terms the “space of language.” Conceived as female forms—queens with their inherent dignity—the suspended crown represents the energy of human beings while the copper and steel letters reference the armor we put on through language. Word queens included in this series featured text and letters from poems by Emily Dickinson, Salvador Espriu, Pablo Neruda, and Tom Sleigh.
⊲ INTRO
On view in LSU MOA Intro Gallery is part of Deborah Luster’s Tooth for an Eye: A Chorography of Violence in Orleans Parish project, this photograph documents a 1992 murder site on St. Philip Street in New Orleans. Images like this one exemplify Luster’s exploration of vibrancy and decay, life and death, remembrance and loss, but through a very specific lens. At the time of the project, New Orleans had the highest homicide rate in the U.S. Luster conceives of the series as a photographic archive of New Orleans topography, culture, and architecture through the lens of homicide in the parish.
ART IN LOUISIANA UPDATES
▲ LANDSCAPE GALLERY
The Art in Louisiana gallery highlighting landscapes was completely reinstalled to explore the intersection of the natural environment with culture. Nineteenth-century paintings paired with contemporary works highlighted the tensions between culture, industry, and the environment—and our own romanticized notions of landscape.
▲ PORTRAITURE & REPRESENTATION
This gallery was updated to show a range of styles and how portraiture has evolved. Historically, wealthy patrons commissioned portraits of themselves and their families to signify their status, wealth, and lineage. In the 20th century, portrait painting and photography became less formal and more expressive. Rather than working by commission, artists followed their own interests or observations. They took fellow artists, public and cultural figures, and everyday people or family as subjects.
EXHIBITIONS
▲ YOUNG ARTISTS GALLERY: PIECING COMMUNITY
Before a quilt becomes a quilt, it’s a disconnected jumble of fabric scraps—squares and triangles of different colors and textures. Piecing is the act of unifying many individual fabric scraps into a larger, intricately patterned work that often carries deep meaning. Inspired by artist Letitia Huckaby, LSU MOA launched a project focused on representing and building community through quilting. Huckaby’s work connects her family, faith, and heritage through quilting and portraiture. Our community quilt project sought to highlight diversity in our community and celebrate how individual contributions join together in a community quilt. Hundreds of students and community members submitted photographs of portraits or artwork to be included in the project. Over one hundred Louisiana Key Academy students used LSU MOA online resources learn about Huckaby’s quilting practice before making work. Students from LSU, Baton Rouge Magnet High School, Woodlawn High School, and Baton Rouge Center for Visual and Performing Arts Elementary submitted artwork, and Baton Rouge Modern Quilter’s Guild submitted pieced-together portions. The resulting community quilts represented over two hundred individual makers from our local community. This project was supported by Louisiana CAT.
PENNINGTON FOUNDATION FAMILY GALLERY UPDATES
▲ WHAT IS PATTERN?
This gallery was curated by LSU MOA Educator Grant Benoit to show artwork from the LSU MOA permanent collection that represented the theme of pattern. The work in this space challenged young viewers to look at the art in this gallery to find and recognize patterns and to learn how pattern can tell us about where we live and the customs we follow.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and for the safety of visitors and staff, this area was a no-touch space. This aspect allowed viewers to instead focus on looking closely at patterns and discover new things about each work on view in this gallery.
EXHIBITIONS
Katrina Andry: The Promise of the Rainbow Never Came
Windgate Museum of Art at Hendrix College Conway, Arkansas January 22–March 21, 2021
⊲ Visitors: 137 over 27 days open ⊲ Virtual Talk with Curator
Courtney Taylor
Painting Enlightenment: Experiencing Wisdom and Compassion through Art and Science
Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens Delray Beach, Florida May 6, 2021–March 2022
⊲ Visitors May 6–June 30: 22,754
TRAVELING EXHIBITIONS
Carrie Mae Weems: The Usual Suspects
TRAVELING SOON
⊲ Fairfield University Art Museum,
Walsh Gallery Fairfield, Connecticut
September 9–December 18, 2021 ⊲ Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia Athens, Georgia
May 21–August 6, 2022 ⊲ The College of New Jersey Art
Gallery Ewing, New Jersey
August 31–October 30, 2022
Letitia Huckaby: This Same Dusty Road
TRAVELING SOON
⊲ Historic City Hall Arts & Cultural
Center, City of Lake Charles,
Lake Charles, Louisiana
January 14–March 26, 2022
