NOMA Arts Quarterly Fall 2016

Arts Quarterly New Orleans Museum of Art

07-0816 Arts Quarterly Fall 2016.indd 1

Fall 2016

9/27/16 1:22 PM

07-0816 Arts Quarterly Fall 2016.indd 2

9/27/16 1:22 PM

DIRECTOR’S LETTER

Susan M. Taylor

Cover George Dunbar, Red M, 1959, Acrylic and paper collage, Collection of the Artist Left Kenneth Josephson American, b. 1932, Gotland, Sweden, 1967, Gelatin silver print, printed 2014, Loan, private collection, courtesy of Stephen Daiter Gallery, Chicago

Local audiences know that the New Orleans Museum of Art is deeply committed to the Gulf Coast region, but a recent trip with a group of museum patrons reminded us that NOMA also is an integral part of a powerful and inspiring network of museum colleagues, collectors, and scholars all over the country, indeed the world.

For me, the reminder came while leading a four-day, NOMA Fellows tour of Denver and Aspen in September. At several Colorado museums, a flagship botanical garden, an important study center, and in the homes of private collectors, the interconnectedness of this field was demonstrated time and again for our entire group. Connections in the world of museums are strengthened by our shared passions and pleasures — and they take many forms.

In Denver, for example, we were welcomed by Christoph Heinrich, director of the Denver Art Museum. He joined our New Orleans group for lunch, shared some of his institution’s recent publications as well as his institution’s exhibitions and curators. Later, we were hosted at the art-filled downtown apartment of J. Landis Martin, chairman of the DAM board of trustees. The apartment building, adjacent to DAM, was designed by Daniel Libeskind, the same architect who created the museum’s striking 20006 extension. It gave us a fresh perspective on Denver’s arts community as well as some spectacular views of the city.

On this trip, the connections between patrons and collectors were reinforced by the museums and collections we experienced. In Denver, we toured the Clyfford Still museum that houses the estate of this renowned abstract expressionist and heard how city leaders united to secure the works by building this spectacular new museum to house them. At the Denver Botanical Gardens, we saw sculptures on loan from the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis, an outdoor installation that included objects by many artists one also can find in NOMA’s Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden. Later, at the Aspen Art Museum, we found a fresh reminder of New Orleans: an installation of work by Louisiana native Lynda Benglis that included a rooftop fountain. As many of you know, the 1984 World’s Fair fountain by Benglis was installed in the Big Lake adjacent to NOMA last fall. That installation was funded by the Helis Foundation, which also supported NOMA’s acquisition of Wing, a seminal early sculpture by Benglis now on view in our contemporary galleries.

At every point of our Colorado trip, we experienced the same collegial spirit. Institutional leaders shared time, expertise and an insider’s perspective on everything from museum governance to art market trends. Private collectors, including NOMA trustee Tommy Coleman and his wife Dathel, welcomed us into their homes, inspired to share their collections with generosity, passion, and the sense of responsibility that often motivates serious art lovers.

Of course, this trip was not an exception. The web of collegiality that we encountered in Colorado extends to museums everywhere.

Just days before our Colorado trip, NOMA welcomed the director of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Kaywin Feldman, who shared her museum’s experience with technology and audience engagement. Her insights, freely given, helped our board understand how other museums are adapting to secure new audiences.

Multiply that visit by a thousand daily exchanges — loaned works of art, shared scholarship, exhibition collaborations and social media shout outs — and one begins to get a sense of the strong web of connections between museums and between the patrons who support them. It’s a bond felt by many, from the teens who joined NOMA’s summer youth programs, to the nation’s biggest collectors.

Consider the following statement by Paul G. Allen, the philanthropist and co-founder of Microsoft, who will share his collection in a nationally touring exhibition, Seeing Nature, that opens at NOMA on October 14. In the exhibit catalog, he says, “Sometimes when you live with art, you stop seeing it in the way that someone fresh to it sees it, and it’s great to have these works seen through new eyes. I want to be able to give people the same kind of eye-opening experience I had when I first went to the Tate over 30 years ago.”

Allen has a long relationship with New Orleans, both as a music fan and a regular visitor to Jazz Fest. Art is always like that: it’s about the things we share because they inspire us.

Susan M. Taylor The Montine McDaniel Freeman Director

07-0816 Arts Quarterly Fall 2016.indd 1

9/27/16 1:22 PM

CONTENTS

Fall 2016

FEATURE

MUSEUM

12 George Dunbar: Elements of Chance

INSPIRED BY NOMA

4 Tim Francis EXHIBITIONS

5 NOMA on the Northshore

5 New Gallery Space Opens for the Arts of India

6 Diedrick Brackens threads New Orleans into his fabric 8 Seeing Nature spotlight: Brueghel’s Five Senses COLLECTIONS

10 Collection Spotlight: Symbolism and the Southern Gothic 11 New Acquisitions: Works by Kenneth Josephson

Page 12

GEORGE DUNBAR

Page 8

CELEBRATING THE SENSES

2

07-0816 Arts Quarterly Fall 2016.indd 2

9/27/16 1:22 PM

Arts Quarterly New Orleans Museum of Art

Page 6

JAPAN FEST

Page 17

NOMA’S CREATIVE CAREERS INTERNS

COMMUNITY VISIT

SUPPORT

16 Japan Fest

18 NOMA Donors 19 2017 Fellows Dinner

LEARN

17 Teen Squad 17 Seeing Nature Programs

20 Bastille Day, Late Night, Teen Interns 22 50th Odyssey Ball Auction Preview 23 50 years of the Odyssey Ball

Opposite left George Dunbar, Diety IX, 2001, Gold leaf and clay over dental stone, Collection of Jim Perrier and Jim Ashby Opposite right Jan Brueghel the Younger, The Five Senses: Sight, c. 1625, Oil on panel, Paul G. Allen Family Collection

3

07-0816 Arts Quarterly Fall 2016.indd 3

9/27/16 1:22 PM

INSPIR ED BY NOM A : TIM FR A NCIS

An attorney with the New Orleans firm Sher Garner Cahill Richter Klein & Hilbert L.L.C., Timothy B. Francis focuses on litigation, business transactions and government relations.

His experience touches a wide range of business, entertainment, art, political and legal ventures. Most recently, Tim worked with Stevie Wonder (United Nations Messenger of Peace) to pass an international treaty that makes books and printed material available to the visually impaired in twenty-two countries around the globe.

Francis has a bachelor’s degree from Xavier University and a law degree from Tulane University. A former trustee and executive committee member of NOMA, Francis serves as a board member for numerous civic, business, education and philanthropic organizations, including Tulane University, The Norman C. Francis Leadership Institute, The Louise McGehee School, The New Orleans Sugar Bowl, and The History Makers’ national advisory board. He is also a member of the New Orleans tricentennial committee.

Tim and his wife Ashley gifted a number of prints by John T. Scott (winner of the prestigious MacArthur Foundation genius award and fellowship) to NOMA’s permanent collection. Come see them on view in the Great Hall through mid-October.

4

07-0816 Arts Quarterly Fall 2016.indd 4

When did you develop an appreciation for art?

I think I’ve always had a dominant left side of my brain, which has led me to the creative arts since I was a child.

I had the fortune of growing up on Xavier University’s campus, and I spent most of my time hanging out in the art department with John Scott, who was a young professor then. John was very gracious with his time, and he sort of mentored me as a child—he gave me my first job polishing bronze and steel from sculptures he was making—so I was immersed in the arts at a very young age.

Xavier has a very vibrant art department and there were many different mediums being taught, from printmaking to etching, lithographs, collages, to ceramics and pouring bronze, it was all across the board, so I never “studied” art because I literally got to hang out there every day. I was just lucky.

When did you start collecting?

Then, actually. I’d go work on my own pieces, John might give me a piece, I’d pick up a student’s piece, and ultimately I started painting myself. I’ve had a life as a painter and I’ve had shows in L.A., New York, Washington, Colorado and other places, and so over the years I would have a show, sell some art, and then take that money and buy someone else’s art [laughs]. So I started collecting.

Buying art is really a luxury, you have to have disposable income. Over the years I also started publishing art for artists like Elizabeth Catlett, Sam Gilliam, Fred Brown, and John Scott. I’d trade or sell art, but always collected. It’s been a passion for me.

Did NOMA’s collection and exhibitions also inspire you?

I loved the Frederick Brown show [in 2009]. Brown was the subject of the largest retrospective of a Western artist in the People’s Republic of China, and remains the only Western artist to have had an exhibition at China’s national

museum in Tienanmen Square. Fred was a dear friend, and I worked with him on publishing his work and collecting his art. I just love the power of his paintings and the vibrancy, color and narrative that’s told, and the expressions of the musicians he painted. He and John Scott have had a pretty big impact on me.

Why have you chosen to support NOMA over the years?

I got introduced to NOMA through my parents; my mother was on the board many years ago. I wanted to help bring more people under the tent by being involved at NOMA, and by donating works of art to make sure that certain artists were represented there. Helping to bring about some positive change through serving on the board, and helping to get other African Americans on the board was also really important to me, and important for NOMA, because an institution without diversity does not represent this entire community.

What would you tell someone who has never visited an art museum?

I would tell them that it’s a way to really connect with our society, to connect with free expression. The one thing that’s sort of intimidating about museums—like the court system—it’s the building right?

Court buildings are supposed to be omnipotent, big, monolithic structures, that give weight and importance to what happens inside. So some people are intimidated by museums whose structure kind of represents that same stature. So I would tell people that you’ve got to get beyond the edifice, and understand that what exists inside is the heart and soul of people like themselves who express their feelings and thoughts through their art. Museums are there to protect and preserve art so that they can have an opportunity to experience history, and how people have told their stories through the years through art, without being censored.

Arts Quarterly New Orleans Museum of Art

9/27/16 1:22 PM

EXHIBITIONS

N EW GA LLERY SPACE OPENS FOR THE A RTS OF IN DI A

South India, Kerala, Standing Shiva with Elaborate Frame, 16th century Bronze, Gift of Robert Kipniss, 2007.151

This fall, NOMA will open its first dedicated gallery of art of the Indian subcontinent. This nearly 1,000 square foot space, located on the museum’s third floor, will present highlights from NOMA’s permanent collection of art from the region, including stone and bronze sculpture, miniatures, paintings, textiles and photographs. These works, dating from the second through nineteenth centuries, touch upon the artistic achievements of diverse cultures of this region.

Now home to a number of modern nations including India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, the subcontinent has been a center of civilization for millennia.

It is the birthplace of three major religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, all of which had their origins in the 6th – 5th centuries BCE. Many of the works in the collection, and on view in the gallery, were created as architectural or decorative elements for religious establishments, or as objects of personal devotion for adherents to these faiths. The large Partial Torso of a Bodhisattva dates to the 2nd century CE, and is among the earliest works in the collection. The

www.noma.org

07-0816 Arts Quarterly Fall 2016.indd 5

mottled red sandstone from which it is carve indicates its probable origins in Mathura, one of the early centers of Buddhist art in India. The mid11th century Vishnu Stele, most likely intended for a niche within a larger temple complex, shows this Hindu god with his consort Lakshmi and attendants. The Standing Digambara Jina in Kayotsarga Pose also from the eleventh century, is the largest Jain bronze in the collection, and would likely have been a component of a larger altarpiece.

Works of art from the Indian sub-continent first entered NOMA’s collection in the 1970s with foundational gifts from Mr. and Mrs. Frederick M. Stafford; however it was not until the 1990s that the collection began to coalesce with substantive gifts and loans from the collection of Dr. Siddharth K. Bhansali. Additional gifts from donors such as Robert Kipniss have further strengthened and enhanced the collection. Through the generosity of these and other donors, the collection now numbers over 500, and includes works in various media, including a distinctive collection of sculpture, textiles and jewelry of village and tribal India.

This new gallery is designed to accommodate both the permanent collection installations as well as opportunities for focused, special exhibitions. This inaugural installation will feature a special presentation of important Pala period (8th – 11th century) bronzes from North India on loan from the Bhansali collection.

Generous support for the new Indian gallery at NOMA comes from the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation.

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

Top Pollack, Reginald, Dance, 1963, Oil on canvas,

Gift of Kerstin B. Pollack, 2003.106, © Courtesy of the Artist’s Estate Bottom Pollack, Reginald, Dance of Death, 1963, Oil on canvas, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Reginald Pollack, 98.39, © Courtesy of the Artist’s Estate

NOM A ON THE NORTHSHOR E Vibrant colors and ethereal figures are featured in most of Reginald Pollack’s work, from prints to paintings.

But during the early to mid-1960s, in the midst of the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights movement, and a slew of political assassinations, Pollack created a grey series that considered the “question of evil.” Dancing skeletons, hanging angels, and bullying animals captured in muted colors play across the canvases. Is this the dark world in which we live or some sinister, otherworldly realm?

A selection of paintings from this series will be shown with the bright prints from later in his career, revealing the scope of his artistic practice across media, content, and style.

Reginald Pollack & the Dance of Death: Selections from the New Orleans Museum of Art will be on view at the St. Tammany Art Association in Covington, LA October 8 – November 26, 2016.

5

9/27/16 1:22 PM

EXHIBITIONS

DIEDR ICK BR ACK ENS THR E A DS N EW OR LE A NS IN TO HIS FA BR IC

NOMA AND JOAN MITCHELL CENTER COLLABORATE TO SHOWCASE A RISING STAR FABRIC ARTIST

Diedrick Brackens’ contemporary textile works incorporate techniques drawn from European tapestries, West African weavings and Southern quilts.

His lushly textured and vibrantly colored textile pieces seek to address issues of race and gender, and employ weaving as a potent metaphor for new ways of imagining individual and cultural identity. In an exhibition at the New Orleans Museum of Art this spring, Brackens will create a new body of work that mines textile works in NOMA’s permanent collection to explore New Orleans’ rich weaving traditions.

Brackens’ project at NOMA will be presented in collaboration with the Joan Mitchell Center, which is hosting the young Dallas native as a fall artist-inresidence in advance of his spring exhibition at NOMA. Arts Quarterly talked to Brackens in advance of his residency, and offers an edited transcript of that conversation here.

6

07-0816 Arts Quarterly Fall 2016.indd 6

Tell us a little bit about your background as an artist. Why do you work in textiles?

I went to undergrad at the University of North Texas, and I knew I would be an art major, but I didn’t know necessarily what I would study. Then I took a 3-D class, and my instructor became the first person to say the words “fiber” or “textile” to me. I was making a lot of work using string and found clothes, and trying to manipulate those materials to make three-dimensional objects, and she was like, “You should take a weaving class.” I had never heard those words before, so I took a weaving class at her suggestion that summer, and fell in love immediately; just the ways in which weaving is very regimented and ordered, and sort of a slow process. I really enjoyed the meditative quality of it, and that’s what first got me hooked on the medium. And so eventually I declared the major and explored all the other things that came along with it: went to graduate school, got my MFA with an emphasis in textiles, and so on.

In your process, you use both synthetic commercial dyes and less conventional materials. How do you make those choices?

Sometimes there are things that I can communicate better with a certain dye. So, if I want a bright pink, I’m going to use a synthetic dye because I know that it will give me exactly what I want. But often times I use dyes not necessarily for moral or sustainability reasons, but because I think that this will communicate what a synthetic dye can’t, or vice versa. For instance, using bleach brings to mind ideas about cleaning or the home. When people see bleach on fabric, they have very particular ideas about what that means, so for me it’s a way to think about cleansing, but also that kind of harsh, caustic kind of burn that bleach gives. When I think about textiles — these things that are close to our bodies and maybe can stand in for our bodies — there’s a way that throwing bleach on the body brings to mind very specific ideas for me, whereas using wine, for example, invokes a different

Arts Quarterly New Orleans Museum of Art

9/27/16 1:22 PM

kind of mood: maybe things about romance, or just the act of consuming wine, or wine being a symbol for blood.

But for me, whenever I use something that’s not a commercial dye, it’s to try to get at a very particular idea or symbol.

Can you talk a little bit more about what using bleach connotes to you?

It’s a lot about trying to purify something — maybe purify isn’t the right word, because the connotation is kind of that it’s this lovely, wonderful thing, but really it’s about trying to eliminate something, trying to wipe something out. I think a lot of the work I was doing when I started using bleach was at the height of media attention for the killings of young black men and women, so it was really a way to think about what purification was going on, or what kind of “cleansing” was going on, and I wanted to find ways to put that on its head and think about what kind of ways can I invoke that.

www.noma.org

07-0816 Arts Quarterly Fall 2016.indd 7

Have you ever been to New Orleans?

Do you have a specific project you want to develop during your residency here, or are you hoping the city will inspire you in new ways?

I came to New Orleans once, on a whirlwind trip while I was in college.

We went to the French Quarter and Cafe Du Monde — those touristy things. But since then, I’ve been in love with some of the ideas that I think of when I think of New Orleans, and I’ve been wanting to come back and explore some of the more historical, less “party” things about it.

Above left Diedrick Brackens, sleep

don’t come easy, 2015, Woven cotton, nylon and chenille yarn, 61 x 52 inches, Collection of the artist Above Diedrick Brackens, get in where you fit in, 2016, Woven cotton and polyester yarn, 71 x 67 inches, Collection of the artist

I have some ideas that I’ve been incubating for a while, but I hope to come to the city and see where it leads me. I’m most interested in exploring things that are particularly grounded in the South, perhaps figuring out some of the local textile traditions, or looking at water as a theme. I’ve always been interested in mapmaking, so I want to find out if there are things that are particular to waterway industries that might pop up there.

7

9/27/16 1:22 PM

CELEBR ATING THE SENSE S: JA N BRU EGHEL THE YOU NGER

Jan Brueghel the Younger, The Five Senses: Sight, c. 1625, Oil on panel, Paul G. Allen Family Collection

Jan Brueghel the Younger, The Five Senses: Smell, c. 1625, Oil on panel, Paul G. Allen Family Collection

Jan Brueghel the Younger, The Five Senses: Hearing, c. 1625, Oil on panel, Paul G. Allen Family Collection

Jan Brueghel the Younger, The Five Senses: Taste, c. 1625, Oil on panel, Paul G. Allen Family Collection

Jan Brueghel the Younger, The Five Senses: Touch, c. 1625, Oil on panel, Paul G. Allen Family Collection

8

07-0816 Arts Quarterly Fall 2016.indd 8

Arts Quarterly New Orleans Museum of Art

9/27/16 1:22 PM

Jan Brueghel the Younger (Flemish, 16011678), Summer Flowers in a Wanli Kraak Porcelain Bowl, c. 1630-1635, Oil on panel, The Mrs. Frederick M. Stafford Collection, EL.1977.14 Closely related to the five senses series, this panel from NOMA’s collection can be seen in the first floor Dutch galleries. (See the inside back cover for detail.)

As part of Seeing Nature, an exhibition of masterworks from the Paul G. Allen Family Collection opening October 14 at NOMA, New Orleanians can view a magnificent series of Flemish paintings

by Jan Brueghel the Younger (1601-1678) depicting allegories of the five senses.

Each allegory features Venus and Cupid in a palace setting. As the goddess of love, Venus is the paragon of female beauty and vehicle for human sensuality, and, in this series, our chaperone through the senses. Jan Brueghel the Younger’s meticulous technique offers viewers a seductive banquet of details and textures.

Sight packs visual treasures into a resplendent loggia-like interior, conjuring the worlds of art, learning and religion with emblematic objects. Smell is a riotous festival of scents and flowers, bringing together blossoms from different seasons. Hearing is the quiet panel of the group. The open landscape view enhances its mood, a melodic interlude amid the teeming details of the other paintings. Taste offers a feast of meat, fish, exotic fruits and vegetables, with Venus enjoying free-flowing wine served by a satyr. Touch shows Venus affectionately kissing her son Cupid in a room full of armor and discarded weapons, a reminder that Venus also is known as the bearer of peace. In mythology, she quells Mars’s

www.noma.org

07-0816 Arts Quarterly Fall 2016.indd 9

urge to fight when the god of war falls in love with her. By juxtaposing Venus and disused weaponry, the artist shows the foundations of true prosperity, a clear theme across all these scenes of abundance and opulence.

This series, especially Sight, continues the tradition of portraying collectors’ cabinets, a speciality among Antwerp artists. During this period, Antwerp sat at the center of a burgeoning international art trade.

The city boasted a staggering number of artists and studios, and delivered paintings to Spanish and English ports, French nobility, and the New World. The cosmopolitanism of this international port city is fundamental to the appeal of Brueghel’s work. In its collective grouping of objects, instruments and books, the Senses series also suggests encyclopedic knowledge and study.

Such paintings could be displayed in a learned “studiolo,” or library, further emphasizing the refinement reflected in both subject and style.

Jan Brueghel the Younger was the youngest practitioner of the illustrious Brueghel family of painters. His grandfather was Pieter Brueghel (1525-1569), the brilliant painter of peasant life and proverbs. His father, Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625),

or “Velvet” Brueghel, specialized in lushly detailed scenes of country and court life where leafy vistas extend to the blue horizon. As a privileged son of the Brueghel dynasty, Jan the Younger studied in Rome, traveling there with childhood friend Anthony van Dyck. By age 24, Jan the Younger was a prominent figure in the Antwerp artists’ guild and ran his father’s successful shop with Peter Paul Rubens.

Jan the Younger painted his series just after his father’s death in 1625. The panels make reference to a 1618 gift of five paintings of the senses by Jan the Elder and Rubens, which were given to the Spanish crown and are now in the Prado Museum in Madrid. Jan the Younger’s series established him as the family’s artistic heir. He would go on to lead a vibrant workshop for four more decades.

Seeing Nature: Landscape Masterworks from the Paul G. Allen Family Collection will be on view in the Ella West Freeman Galleries from October 14, 2016 – January 15, 2017. The exhibition is coorganized by Portland Art Museum, the Seattle Art Museum and the Paul G. Allen Family Collection.

Vanessa Schmid, Senior Research Curator for European Art

9

9/27/16 1:22 PM

COLLECTIONS

COLLECTION SPOTLIGHT: ODILON R EDON, FR ENCH SY MBOLISM A N D THE SOU THER N G OTHIC French symbolist painter Odilon Redon was born in France but conceived in New Orleans, creating an enigmatic connection to the American South.

Redon often spoke and wrote of his in utero journey from New Orleans to Bordeaux, and envisioned his Creole heritage as a critical precursor to the more exotic and experimental elements of his art. Although Redon spent most of his childhood on the family’s estate in Bordeaux, the South—and particularly New Orleans—always possessed a strong imaginative pull.

Redon’s father made his fortune in the slave trade in New Orleans in the 1830s, where he met and married Redon’s mother, Marie Guérin, a French Creole woman from Louisiana.

One of Redon’s most important early supporters, the French art collector and critic Marius-Ary Leblond, felt that it

was their shared “Creole upbringing” that helped him understand the fantastical and often bizarre nature of Redon’s work. To many critics of the period, Redon’s art seemed to possess what Jules Boissé called in 1880 “a kind of mysterious ‘Americanism’...[that] has led to a pathological creation like that of Edgar Poe through a wild and solitary inspiration.”

Redon, like many of the other French artists and writers connected with the symbolist movement, was intrigued and inspired by the macabre imagery in Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories, as well as his connection to the American South. Translated into French by poet Stéphane Mallarmé, Poe’s stories helped pave the way for the wild, expressive art of the symbolists, which reveled in dreams and fantasies, and acknowledged the darker, more

disturbing aspects of a contemporary culture haunted by the specters of slavery and colonialism.

In the 1880s, Redon created a series of lithographs titled To Edgar Allan Poe that drew from Poe’s visionary but often disturbed imagery. To Redon, Poe’s stories represented the height of human imagination and also captured the sense of alienation and dislocation at the heart of much Symbolist art. In paintings like Le Reve des Papillon, Redon portrayed nature with a fantastic intensity, showing butterflies floating within an ephemeral and unfixed realm of fantasy and delusion that calls forth both dreams and nightmares.

Odilon Redon’s Le Reve des Papillon is currently on view in NOMA’s Roussel Norman Gallery on the second floor.

Katie Pfohl, Curator for Modern and Contemporary Art

Odilon Redon, French, 1840-1916, Le Reve Des Papillons (The Dream of Butterflies), ca. 1910-15, Oil on canvas, The Muriel Bultman Francis Collection, 86.284

10

07-0816 Arts Quarterly Fall 2016.indd 10

Arts Quarterly New Orleans Museum of Art

9/27/16 1:22 PM

N EW ACQU ISITIONS: WOR K S BY K EN N ETH JOSEPHSON

Left Kenneth Josephson (American, born 1932), Chicago, 1959, Gelatin silver print, Museum purchase, 2016 Top Right Kenneth Josephson, American, born 1932, Matthew, 1965, Gelatin silver print Bottom Right Kenneth Josephson, American, born 1932, Hollywood (Archaeological Series, Two Meter Stick), 1975, Gelatin silver print

Exhibitions often present opportunities to acquire works that fill notable absences in the permanent collection.

This fall, two exhibitions have given us that opportunity. Kenneth Josephson: Photography Is and Something in the Way: A Brief History of Photography and Obstruction both include a number of works by Kenneth Josephson (American, born 1932), one of the most inventive photographers of the second half of the twentieth century. While NOMA’s permanent photography collection is strong in many areas, it lacks depth in 1960s and 1970s conceptual photography, an area in which Josephson is a key figure. In conjunction with these two exhibitions, NOMA has acquired an important group of four photographs by Josephson.

Throughout his career, Josephson has explored photography’s central relationships: between light and shadow, flatness and depth, the real world and its representation, and the image and the www.noma.org

07-0816 Arts Quarterly Fall 2016.indd 11

object. In his work, these explorations take many different forms—multiple exposures, richly printed street photographs, landscapes, and pictures of pictures—but these disparate works all share one thing in common: Josephson’s photographs refer back to themselves or to the processes that created them.

While these ideas might lead to dry, analytical images, in Josephson’s hands they result in playful, beautifully composed photographs that surprise, challenge, and delight.

In Hollywood, for example, Josephson holds a two meter stick that is carefully painted to look as if it recedes into the picture further than it does.

Exploiting the flatness of photography, he collapses the distance between him (and therefore us) and the iconic Hollywood sign. Chicago, from 1959 is one of his earliest works and was created while he was a student of noted photographer Harry Callahan, at the

Institute of Design. Callahan challenged his student to create a multiple exposure image in the camera. This collapsing of multiple images into one produced a luminous print of a fire escape that seems to vibrate with light.

Matthew reveals Josephson’s humorous approach to conceptual photography. In the image, Josephson’s son Matthew holds an instant photograph, made moments before, in front of his face and upside-down.

The result is a paradox: the instant photograph reveals Matthew’s face even as it obscures it. This photograph is both of and about photography. Finally, in Stockholm, Josephson documents the light filtering through the trees as it highlights the ferns below. Through careful exposure and attention to the subtleties of printmaking, Josephson exploits the blackness and whiteness of photography, making the ferns look painted in select areas.

11

9/27/16 1:22 PM

07-0816 Arts Quarterly Fall 2016.indd 12

9/27/16 1:22 PM

George Dunbar: Elements of Chance A PIONEERING LOUISIANA MODERNIST SHARES SEVEN DECADES OF STUDIO EXPLORATIONS

Opening this fall, George Dunbar: Elements of Chance is the first comprehensive museum retrospective for the artist George Dunbar, who played a pivotal role in introducing abstract art to the South. The exhibition tells the story of one of Louisiana’s most beloved and important artists, and also chronicles the region’s first encounter with abstract art. It explores the evolution of Dunbar’s art from his early action paintings from the 1940s and 1950s to his most recent work in clay relief. A Louisiana native, Dunbar studied in Philadelphia, Paris and New York before returning to Louisiana in the 1950s to create paintings, sculptures, assemblages, and prints that marry the stark geometry of modern art with the lush, elemental materials that call forth the region’s distinctive local landscape.

Dunbar’s richly textured works explore abstract art’s connection to landscape and place, and his unique vision for abstraction highlights Louisiana’s pivotal—if widely underestimated— role in the broader story of twentieth century American art. Through his work as an artist, as well as his role as a founder of Orleans Gallery, New Orleans’ first artist-owned and operated collective art gallery, Dunbar helped create a culture and context for contemporary art in the region. He introduced New Orleans to radical new ideas about art making, embracing elements of chance in ways that continue to shape contemporary art in the region today.

Without George’s work—and the community of artists, patrons, collectors and critics who rose up to support and champion his art—Louisiana art would not be where it is today. The opportunity to showcase George Dunbar’s rich artistic contributions to the region is particularly meaningful this year, since his exhibition coincides with the fiftieth anniversary of NOMA’s Odyssey Ball.

Celebrating George’s work, this exhibition also honors the many patrons and supporters who have created such a sense of shared community around art in this city over the course of the last fifty years. NOMA gave George his first solo show in the 1950s, and it feels only fitting that this museum should be the place where he receives full credit for his contributions to the art and life of this city.

As a young artist, George Dunbar would often spend hours on a painting only to look down and find a more perfect composition in the spilled paint and discarded scraps of paper on his studio floor.

He appreciated the paintings his mentor Franz Kline scrawled across telephone book pages, but saw in the inverted “V” of an envelope flap an already ideal geometry. He liked John Chamberlain’s carefully composed sculptures of welded automobile parts, but often preferred the arrangements he saw in piles of crushed cars peeking out of low bed trucks on Louisiana’s highways. Looking back over a seventy-year career, Dunbar recently characterized his art as one of “accidental triumphs.”

As he says, “sometimes something just drives by on the highway and it’s already perfect.”1 FACING PAGE George Dunbar, Coin du Lestin, c. 1999, Gold leaf over mauve clay, Collection of the Artist

13

07-0816 Arts Quarterly Fall 2016.indd 13

9/27/16 1:22 PM

ABOVE George Dunbar, Bridge XI, 2011, Palladium over white clay, Collection of Hugh Uhault

Dunbar’s richly textured works explore abstract art’s connection to landscape and place, and his unique vision for abstraction highlights Louisiana’s pivotal—if widely underestimated— role in the broader story of twentieth century American art.

14

07-0816 Arts Quarterly Fall 2016.indd 14

From its inception, George Dunbar’s art has explored the relationship between chance and intention; order and entropy; freedom and restraint.

In his work, unbridled abstractions like Red M (seen on cover) coexist with the absolutely symmetrical medallions of his Coin du Lestin series.

Even within individual works, intention often cedes to accident and design devolves into disarray. In early paintings like Red M, seemingly slapdash brushstrokes coalesce into inverted triangles to form the letter “M,” and, in his Coin du Lestin series, the perfect geometry of his exactingly etched medallions disobey the thick layers of elemental organic clay on which they sit. On a recent visit to Dunbar’s art studio, lyrical abstractions made by dragging a paint-saturated mop across the studio floor sat side-by-side carefully controlled compass-drawn abstractions and rough layers of modeling clay. “The thing about giving up control,” Dunbar says, “is that there are just so many different ways of doing it.”2

George Dunbar’s life, like his art, has been a study of contrasts.

He grew up in a New Orleans of lush bayous and ornate wrought iron railings, and spent his most formative years as an artist amidst the clean, whitewashed walls of the 1950s New York gallery scene. A successful land developer, he spent his days moving rough earth from the front seat of a bulldozer, and his nights composing ethereal geometric abstractions in gold and silver leaf like his Coin du Lestin series. After embracing the

Arts Quarterly New Orleans Museum of Art

9/27/16 1:22 PM

radical new abstract painting of the New York School while living in Manhattan in the early 1950s, he returned to New Orleans to spend the rest of his life in a city that, for much of the 20th century, was largely indifferent to abstract art. Throughout his career, Dunbar has named most of his artworks after Louisiana towns and bayous—Bonfouca, Rouville, Coin du Lestin—yet emphasizes in conversation that his work should not be interpreted as too closely connected to Southern landscape or culture.

Today—over seventy years after he completed his first painting—George Dunbar continues to offer a unique vision for American abstraction, creating an art that both embraces and transcends place.

George Dunbar: Elements of Chance will be on view in NOMA’s Frederick R. Weisman Galleries, The Helis Foundation Gallery, and the Great Hall from November 4, 2016 – February 19, 2017. This article is excerpted from the foreword and essay that appears in a catalogue of the same name, which will be available for purchase in the Museum Shop. Copies signed by the artist will be available in limited quantity.

Susan M. Taylor, The Montine McDaniel Freeman Director

ABOVE LEFT George Dunbar, Marshgrass XXVI, 2007, Red gold over brown clay and red rags, Collection of Olivia and Archie Manning ABOVE RIGHT George Dunbar, Diety IX, 2001 Gold leaf and clay over dental stone, Collection of Jim Perrier and Jim Ashby

Katie Pfohl, Curator for Modern and Contemporary Art

www.noma.org

07-0816 Arts Quarterly Fall 2016.indd 15

15

9/27/16 1:22 PM

VISIT

JA PA N FE ST 2016 R ET U R NS TO NOM A , OCTOBER 8

Drum thunder always signals the opening of Japan Fest at New Orleans Museum of Art. The Kaminari Taiko Drummers will provide a percussive fanfare for the 2016 edition of the festival, which takes over NOMA’s galleries, auditorium and front steps, Oct. 8, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Now in its 22nd year, the annual gathering at NOMA is the largest celebration of Japanese culture in the Gulf South. It’s a day to enjoy traditional dance groups, martial arts demonstrations, tours of our Japanese art collection, a fashion show, and much more, including Japanese food. Many visitors come to the festival in Japanese dress, wearing everything from traditional kimonos to Pokemon costumes.

Organized by NOMA, the Consulate General of Japan in Nashville and the Japan Club in New Orleans, the 2016 festival brings together more than 30 community groups and presenters. Among the participants are organizations dedicated to every aspect of Japanese culture: haiku, martial arts, bonsai, Zen meditation, the strategic board game of go, and much more.

Admission is free for NOMA members, $5 for the general public.

16

07-0816 Arts Quarterly Fall 2016.indd 16

Arts Quarterly New Orleans Museum of Art

9/27/16 1:22 PM

LEARN

IN TRODUCING : NOM A TEEN SQUA D!

SEEING NATURE

LANDSCAPE MASTERWORKS FROM THE PAUL G. ALLEN FAMILY COLLECTION

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14

OPENING NIGHT | 6:30 PM

LECTURE: Vacation Work: The Landscapes by Gustav Klimt

Janice Staggs, Director of Curatorial Affairs, The Neue Galerie NOMA Creative Careers interns with Leah Chase at Dooky Chase Restaurant

NOMA had a great summer with its five Creative Careers Interns. These rising high school seniors spent June 27 through August 2 learning about careers in the arts and culture field, and were tasked with brainstorming a program that would engage teens at NOMA.

Building on the momentum set by these enthusiastic interns, NOMA is delighted to announce a new series of programs for teens beginning in fall 2016. This new initiative will provide local students ages 13-19 with the opportunity to explore their creativity, discover careers in the arts, practice leadership skills, experience cultural activities, and have fun with their peers.

The initiative begins with the Teen Squad, an advisory committee of 10-15 high school students—including the five Creative Careers Interns—from diverse backgrounds working with NOMA to develop and present teen-related programs at the museum throughout the academic year. The Teen Squad will hold monthly planning meetings and organize teen programs, including a large-scale event in spring 2017.

“I had a wonderful experience this summer at NOMA and can’t wait to get back and enjoy it with everyone again,” says Creative Career Intern Coryanna Harris. “Also, I can’t wait to see all of our hard work as a team come together.” www.noma.org

07-0816 Arts Quarterly Fall 2016.indd 17

Thanks to The Helis Foundation, all teens ages 13-19 receive free admission to NOMA with a Teen Pass, and are eligible to attend teen programs at the museum.

GALLERY TALK | 7:30 PM

Vanessa Schmid, Senior Research Curator for European Art

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17 | NOON NOMA BOOK CLUB Standing in the Sun: A Life of JMW Turner

by Anthony Bailey

JOIN THE SQUAD! Applications are being accepted now.

NOMA seeks creative, enthusiastic, dedicated high school students to join the NOMA Teen Squad. These teens will become a part of the museum team dedicated to helping shape teen programs at NOMA.

DECEMBER 2 | 7:30 PM ARTIST PERSPECTIVE

WHO SHOULD APPLY? • High school students during the 2016-2017 school year • Highly motivated teens who are enthusiastic about being a part of a museum team • Teens who can commit to being an active attendee of afterschool meetings and NOMA Teen Squad events • Teens who like being creative— artists and non-artists are both welcome.

FILM SERIES

For more information, please contact Elise Solomon at esolomon@noma.org or 504.658.4128.

Lake Douglas, Ph.D., ASLA, Landscape Architect

DECEMBER 16 | 6:30 PM LECTURE: Landscape in Europe & America

Rachel DeLue, Princeton University

All held indoors in NOMA’s Stern Auditorium

NOV. 4, 7:30 PM | Woman In Gold DEC. 23, 7:30 PM | Klimt DEC. 30, 7:30 PM | Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working with Time JAN. 6, 7:30 PM | David Hockney: A Bigger Picture

NOONTIME TALKS

Join Vanessa Schmid, Senior Research Curator for European Art on the following dates at noon for a tour of Seeing Nature.

October 19 | November 2 | November 9 November 30 | January 4

JANUARY 13 | 6:30 PM

LECTURE | Reflections of Venice: Canaletto, Turner and Manet Vanessa Schmid, Senior Research Curator for European Art

17

9/27/16 1:22 PM

SUPPORT

DONORS

NOMA BUSINESS COUNCIL

The New Orleans Museum of Art gratefully acknowledges our donors, who make our exhibitions, programming, and daily operations possible. We appreciate your continued support of NOMA and its mission. Thank you!

Platinum

Bronze

Superior Energy Services

First NBC Bank

Foundation and Government Support $500,000 and above

$20,000 - $49,999

Collins C. Diboll Private Foundation

Gayle and Tom Benson Charitable Foundation

$200,000 - $499,999 The Azby Fund

The Institute of Museum and Library Sciences

The Elise M. Besthoff Charitable Foundation

Louisiana Division of the Arts

The Helis Foundation

The Walton Family Foundation

The RosaMary Foundation

$150,000 - $199,999

$10,000 - $19,999

City of New Orleans

E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation

$100,000 - $149,000

Evelyn L. Burkenroad Foundation

Lois and Lloyd Hawkins Jr. Foundation

Feil Family Foundation

$50,000 - $99,999

Le Meridien New Orleans

Gold Chevron

Green

Hyatt Regency New Orleans

Basin St. Station

International-Matex Tank Terminals

Boh Bros. Construction Company, LLC

Jones Walker

Crescent Capital Consulting, LLC

The New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau

Dupuy Storage & Forwarding, LLC Ernst & Young Gulf Coast Bank & Trust Company

Silver Bellwether Technology Corporate Realty NOLA.com | The TimesPicayune

Hotel Monteleone Laitram, LLC Neal Auction Company New Orleans Auction Galleries Regions Bank

The Garden Study Club of New Orleans Goldring Family Foundation

Eugenie and Joseph Jones Family Foundation

The GPOA Foundation

The Gulf Seafood and Tourism Promotional Fund

John Burton Harter Charitable Trust

Hearst Foundations

Kabacoff Family Foundation

The Harry T. Howard III Foundation

The Lupin Foundation

J. Edgar Monroe Foundation

New Orleans Theater Association Ruby K. Worner Charitable Trust

ISA AC DELGADO SOCIETY

Corporate and Individual Support $100,000 and above

$10,000 - $19,000

H. Russell Albright

Lee Ledbetter and Douglas Meffert

Sydney and Walda Besthoff

Dathel and Tommy Coleman

Barbara and Wayne Amedee

Thomas B. Lemann

Mrs. H. Mortimer Favrot, Jr.

Tina Freeman and Philip Woollam

Larry W. Anderson

Dr. Edward D. Levy Jr.

IBERIABANK

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

Honorable Steven R. Bordner

John and Tania Messina

E. John Bullard

Anne and King Milling

Joseph and Sue Ellen Canizaro

James A. Mounger

Mrs. Carmel Cohen

Judith Young Oudt

Mrs. Isidore Cohn Jr.

Mrs. Charles S. Reily Jr.

Prescott N. Dunbar

Pixie and James Reiss

Donna Perret Rosen and Benjamin M. Rosen

Estate of Albert and Rea Hendler

Frank and Paulette Stewart

Sandra and Russ Herman

Estate of Daniel Henry Yeoman

Elly and Merritt Lane

$50,000 - $99,999

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas B. Lemann Elizabeth and Willy Monaghan

The New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau

Sally E. Richards

Lin Emery

Mr. and Mrs. Edward F. Renwick

William A. Fagaly

Arthur Roger

Joshua Mann Pailet

Jacki and Brian Schneider SKYY Vodka

Randy Fertel

Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin M. Rosen

Lyn and John Fischbach

Brian Sands

Tim and Ashley Francis

Jolie and Robert Shelton

Joseph and Sue Ellen Canizaro

Mr. and Mrs. Richard W. Freeman

Margaret and Bruce Soltis

Chevron

Sandra D. Freeman

Mrs. Frederick M. Stafford

Tina Freeman and Philip Woollam

Nancy Stern

Mr. and Mrs. Stephen A. Hansel

Mrs. John N. Weinstock

Abba J. Kastin, MD

Mercedes Whitecloud

$20,000 - $49,999 Jeri Nims Michele Reynoir and Kevin Clifford Sheila and H. Britton Sanderford Kitty and Stephen Sherrill Estate of Warren and Sylvia Stern Whitney Bank

For information about supporting NOMA, contact the museum’s Department for Development and External Affairs, (504) 658-4127.

18

07-0816 Arts Quarterly Fall 2016.indd 18

Arts Quarterly New Orleans Museum of Art

9/27/16 1:22 PM

ert

FELLOWS DINNER MIXES

NOMA CIRCLES President’s Circle

Patron’s Circle

VENETIAN STYLE AND

Mr. and Mrs. Tom Benson Mr. and Mrs. John D. Bertuzzi

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

PHILANTHROPIC HONORS

Mr. and Mrs. Sydney J. Besthoff III

Mr. and Mrs. Luis Baños

Mr. and Mrs. David F. Edwards

Mr. Brent Barriere and Ms. Judy Barrasso

Mrs. Lawrence D. Garvey Ms. Adrea D. Heebe and Mr. Dominick A. Russo Jr.

Mr. and Mrs. Alvin Baumer, Jr. Ms. Dorothy Brennan

Mr. and Mrs. Charles B. Mayer

Mr. and Mrs. Joseph C. Canizaro

Mrs. Robert Nims

Mrs. Marjorie J. Colomb

Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin M. Rosen

Mr. Leonard A. Davis and Ms. Sharon Jacobs

Mrs. Patrick F. Taylor

Director’s Circle

Mr. and Mrs. James J. Frischhertz Mr. and Mrs. Edward N. George

Canaletto, The Wharf from the Basin of San Marco, 18th-century, Oil on canvas, Milan: Castello Sforzesco

Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Heebe

Mr. and Mrs. Robert H. Boh

Mr. and Mrs. H. Merritt Lane III

Mrs. Isidore Cohn, Jr.

Dr. Edward D. Levy Jr.

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas B. Coleman

Mr. and Mrs. J. Thomas Lewis

Dr. and Mrs. Scott S. Cowen

Ms. Josie McNamara

Mr. Jerry Heymann

Mrs. Louise H. Moffett

Mr. Robert Hinckley

Dr. Howard and Dr. Joy D. Osofsky

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas B. Lemann

Mr. Joshua Mann Pailet

Mr. and Mrs. William Monaghan

Mr. and Mrs. James C. Roddy

Mr. and Mrs. Robert J. Patrick

Mr. and Mrs. Brian A. Schneider

Dr. and Mrs. James F. Pierce

Mr. and Mrs. Edward Shearer

Mrs. Charles S. Reily, Jr.

Mrs. Frederick M. Stafford

Jolie and Robert Shelton

Mr. Stephen F. Stumpf, Jr.

Mr. and Mrs. Stephen C. Sherrill

Mr. and Mrs. James L. Taylor

Ms. Debra B. Shriver

Ms. Catherine Burns Tremaine

Mr. and Mrs. Michael J. Siegel

Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Brent Wood

3

Mr. and Mrs. Bruce L. Soltis Mr. and Mrs. Robert M. Steeg Mr. and Mrs. Robert S. Taylor Mr. and Mrs. Robert E. Thomas

4

www.noma.org

07-0816 Arts Quarterly Fall 2016.indd 19

The 2017 Carnival season will stretch past Fat Tuesday at the New Orleans Museum of Art, both in our galleries and at special events such as our annual Fellows Dinner. The occasion is a grand touring exhibit, A Life of Seduction: Venice in the 1700s, which NOMA is organizing with the Italian presenter, Contemporanea Progetti.

The Fellows Dinner, set for Saturday, March 11, will be held in NOMA’s permanent collection galleries with easy access to the Venetian show.

Guest curated by a former director of the Museums of Venice, A Life of Seduction gathers more than 100 works from museums in Italy and the United States. It will showcase paintings of processions, street performers, Carnival activities and the topography of Venice, setting them side-by-side with period costumes and decorative arts.

For the 200 guests who attend the Fellows Dinner, it’s a chance to celebrate the links between Carnival-loving New Orleans and the canal-lined city on the Adriatic — and to celebrate NOMA’s Circles and Fellows members who do so much to support the museum.

Masking is encouraged at this edition of the Fellows Dinner, where the surprises will extend to the annual announcement of the Isaac Delgado Memorial Award winner. Since 1975, NOMA has presented the award, which honors distinguished service and extraordinary support to the museum.

Past honorees include prominent donors, NOMA’s leaders, regional foundations, corporate sponsors and New Orleans political figures.

For information about the Fellows Dinner, contact the museum’s Department for Development and External Affairs, (504) 658-4127.

19

9/27/16 1:22 PM

1

P H OTO G R A P H Y BY RO M A N A LO K H IN

SUPPORT

3 2 2

2

1

2 4

3

SU MMER BROUGHT CELEBR ATIONS A N D ST U DEN T IN TER NS TO NOM A

20

07-0816 Arts Quarterly Fall 2016.indd 20

New Orleans slows down over the summer, but at NOMA we picked up the pace with public events that included a citywide Bastille Day gathering, and the annual Late Night festival that keeps our doors open until midnight. NOMA also debuted the Creative Careers Internship, a new immersive educational program for teens in the New Orleans area.

The Bastille Day Fête, which took place July 15, turned into a memorial for victims of the terrorist attack at Nice, which marred France’s national holiday in 2016. Grégor Trumel, the Consul General of France in New Orleans, spoke to the crowd and led guests in a minute

5

of silence for the victims of the attack.

Outdoor activities were cancelled, but NOMA programs continued with the Great Hall draped in French flags. The Bastille Day Fête was presented in partnership with Alliance Française, the Consulate General of France, the French-American Chamber of Commerce (Gulf Coast Chapter), and the New Orleans Tourism and Marketing Corporation.

On August 19, NOMA’s Late Night fete drew an all-ages crowd of more than 600 guests for live music, cooking classes, 3D printing demonstrations, gallery talks, film screenings, and other

Arts Quarterly New Orleans Museum of Art

9/27/16 1:22 PM

8

7

6

6

5

9

10

11

1

P H OTO G R A P H Y BY RO M A N A LO K H IN

1

12

programs. PlayBuild NOLA partnered with the museum to present hands-on activities. The programming was keyed to our popular summer exhibit, The Essence of Things - Design and the Art of Reduction: An Exhibition of the Vitra Design Museum.

NOMA launched its Creative Careers Internship this summer, with a $125,000 grant from the Walton Family Foundation. The program brought five New Orleans students to the museum: Cymone Richardson, Coryanna Harris, Paris Banks, Patrianne Stevenson and Rayion Wilson.

www.noma.org

07-0816 Arts Quarterly Fall 2016.indd 21

14

13

They shadowed our staff, participated in mentoring activities and took time to visit other museums and area universities. The interns, all seniors at KIPP Renaissance High School, also looked for ways that NOMA could better engage young audiences, and shared their proposals with our staff. This paid, pre-professional internship was modeled after a similar program at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas.

1 Bastille Day Fête 2 Bastille Day Fête 3 Grégor Trumel, the Consul General of France in New Orleans speaks at Bastille Day Fête.

4 A dog arrived in French costume at Bastille Day Fête 5 NOMA Late Night included children’s activities.

6 Quintron performed at NOMA Late Night.

7 – 11 NOMA Late Night included gallery tours, music, food trucks and hands-on activities.

12 – 14 NOMA launched its Creative Careers Internship this summer, bringing five New Orleans high school students to the museum: Cymone Richardson, Coryanna Harris, Paris Banks, Patrianne Stevenson and Rayion Wilson.

21

9/27/16 1:22 PM

SUPPORT

JOIN US FOR THE 50TH ODYS SEY

Wayne Amedee, Under the Bam, Under the Boo I

George Dunbar, Rouville No. 53

Join us for The 50th Odyssey presented by IBERIABANK on Saturday, November 12. Chaired

by Susu and Andrew Stall, this unforgettable evening will be inspired

by NOMA’s fall exhibition, Seeing Nature: Landscape Masterworks from the Paul G. Allen Family Collection, which includes forty masterpieces spanning five centuries of European and American landscape painting.

Odyssey guests will also enjoy George Dunbar: Elements of Chance, which surveys the career of George Dunbar (American, b. 1927), a New Orleans native who played a pivotal role in introducing abstract art to the South.

In addition to dining and dancing, guests also will have the opportunity to bid on a variety of oneof-a-kind items at our silent auction.

Original works of art, spa packages, international getaways, and more will be up for bidding.

To purchase Odyssey tickets or for other information, visit noma.org/ odyssey2016 or call 504.658.4163.

22

07-0816 Arts Quarterly Fall 2016.indd 22

SILENT AUCTION PREVIEW George Dunbar, Rouville No. 53 Palladium leaf over gray and white clay, 41.5” x 50.5” Donor: George Dunbar Value: $25,000 Paris Travel Package Enjoy the best of Paris with a one week stay at the private flat of Frances and Rodney Smith. Travel in comfort on Delta One, the world’s first all-suite business class.

Donors: Frances and Rodney Smith, Delta Air Lines Value: Priceless James Flynn, Arraia (Manta Ray) Acrylic on panel, 61.5” x 61.5” Donors James Flynn and Callan Contemporary Value: $11,500 Melissa Bonin, Avant les Isle de la Madeleine Oil on linen, 30” x 40” Donor: Melissa Bonin Fine Art, LLC Value: $10,000 Ashley Longshore 40” x 40” painting Donor: Ashley Longshore Value: $8,500

Ashley Longshore

Wayne Amedee, Under the Bam, Under the Boo I Acrylic, digital imagery in paper, framed, 48” x 35” Donor: Wayne Amedee Value: $6,500 Cal-a-Vie Health Spa, La Petite Spa Package Enjoy a 3-day spa getaway for one, including 1 king bed, 6 spa treatments, unlimited fitness classes, nutritional lecture, cooking demonstration, and complimentary round trip transportation between the San Diego airport and Cal-a-Vie. Donors: Terri and John Havens, Cal-a-Vie Health Spa Value: $4,550 Tim Trapolin, Strut Your Stuff Miss Lizzie Oil wash with conte chalks and black japaned chalks, 26” X 38,” donated in honor of Anne Baños Donor: Tim Trapolin Value: $4,800 Nicole Charbonnet, Study for Erased Riley Mixed media on canvas, 30” x 30” Donor: Nicole Charbonnet Value: $6,000

Arts Quarterly New Orleans Museum of Art

9/27/16 1:22 PM

M A K E SOME MEMOR IE S AT THE 50TH ODYS SEY

THE FIRST ODYSSEY BALL 1966

¡CARNIVAL! 2006

For 50 years, the Odyssey Ball has been an occasion to see the New Orleans Museum of Art in full party mode. While the ball has traditionally been NOMA’s biggest annual fundraiser, it is also among the most extravagant gatherings in a city dedicated to extravagant parties.

People-watching is chief among the pleasures at Odyssey, whether gazing across the dance floor, or looking down from the balcony of the Great Hall. It’s glamorous and totally fun: an occasion to sweep through elegant rooms in a brand new ball gown or to show off the cuff links that came down to you through your family.

During Odyssey, the usual calm of our galleries yields to other moods. In 2006, for example, Casa Samba paraded through the party, helping to celebrate the opening of ¡Carnaval! In 2009, two trumpeters greeted ball goers on the front steps of NOMA, before they entered the Magic Kingdom of our 2009 Disney exhibit, Dreams Come True.

Above all, Odyssey is a night to make memories. We realized that when we looked back through NOMA’s archive for snapshots of previous gatherings. Now it’s your turn: Come make some memories of your own November 12, 2016 at The 50th Odyssey presented by IBERIABANK.

DREAMS COME TRUE 2009

www.noma.org

07-0816 Arts Quarterly Fall 2016.indd 23

23

9/27/16 1:22 PM

2016 BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Lynes R. (Poco) Sloss

ACCREDITATION

Julie Livaudais George President

Michael Smith

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

Mike Siegel First Vice President

Robert M. Steeg

Sydney J. Besthoff III Vice President

Melanee Gaudin Usdin

Suzanne Thomas Vice President Herschel L. Abbott Jr. Secretary Janice Parmelee Treasurer Donna Perret Rosen At-Large

Susu Stall Frank Stewart The Honorable Mayor Mitch J. Landrieu Susan G. Guidry, New Orleans City Council Member Dana Hansel, NVC Chairman

NATIONAL TRUSTEES Joseph Baillio

Tommy Coleman At-Large

Mrs. Carmel Cohen

David F. Edwards Immediate Past President

Jerry Heymann

MEMBERS Justin T. Augustine III

Mrs. Mason Granger Herbert Kaufman, MD Mrs. James Pierce Mrs. Billie Milam Weisman

Eric Blue

HONOR ARY LIFE MEMBERS

Elizabeth Boone

H. Russell Albright, MD

Robin Burgess

Mrs. Jack R. Aron

Daryl Byrd

Mrs. Edgar L. Chase Jr.

Scott Cowen

Isidore Cohn Jr., MD

Margo DuBos

Prescott N. Dunbar

Stephanie Feoli

S. Stewart Farnet

Penny Francis

Sandra Draughn Freeman

Adrea D. Heebe

Kurt A. Gitter, MD

Russ Herman

Mrs. Erik Johnsen

Robert Hinckley

Richard W. Levy, MD

Dennis Lauscha

Mr. J. Thomas Lewis

Louis J. Lupin

Mrs. Paula L. Maher

Cammie Mayer

Mrs. J. Frederick Muller

Juli Miller Hart

Mrs. Robert Nims

Brenda Moffitt

Mrs. Charles S. Reily Jr.

Elizabeth Monaghan

R. Randolph Richmond Jr.

J. Stephen Perry

Mrs. Frederick M. Stafford

Thomas F. Reese

Harry C. Stahel

Britton Sanderford

Mrs. Harold H. Stream

Jolie Shelton

Mrs. James L. Taylor

Kitty Duncan Sherrill

Mrs. John N. Weinstock

24

07-0816 Arts Quarterly Fall 2016.indd 24

EDITOR

Chris Waddington ART DIRECTOR

Mary Degnan

Debra B. Shriver

Gail Bertuzzi Siddharth (Sid) Bhansali

Arts Quarterly New Orleans Museum of Art

Arts Quarterly (ISSN 0740-9214) is published by the New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, New Orleans, LA 70124 © 2016, New Orleans Museum of Art. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced or reprinted without permission of the publisher.

Facing page Jan Brueghel the Younger (Flemish, 1601-1678), Summer Flowers in a Wanli Kraak Porcelain Bowl (detail, see page 8), c. 16301635, Oil on panel, The Mrs. Frederick M. Stafford Collection, EL.1977.14 Back cover South India, Kerala, Standing Shiva with Elaborate Frame, 16th century Bronze, Gift of Robert Kipniss, 2007.151

Arts Quarterly New Orleans Museum of Art

9/27/16 1:22 PM

www.noma.org

07-0816 Arts Quarterly Fall 2016.indd 25

25

9/27/16 1:22 PM

Arts Quarterly New Orleans Museum of Art P.O. Box 19123 New Orleans, LA 70179-0123 Follow us!

07-0816 Arts Quarterly Fall 2016.indd 26

9/27/16 1:22 PM