AQJulAugSep2009

A benefit of membership with the New Orleans Museum of Art

ARTSQUARTERLY VOLUME XXXI ISSUE 3

NEW ORLEANS MUSEUM OF ART

JULY/AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2009

Caring Partners: Non-Profits Join NOMA to Extend Reach of Exhibition

BY JO-ANN MUELLER Art of Caring Community Coordinator

Joel Meyerowitz (American, born 1938) The Elements: Air/Water Part I, No. 6 2007 Chromogenic print, 82 x 66 inches Collection of Mary and David Solomon

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NEW ORLEANS MUSEUM OF ART

Art Conservation Advisory, LLC Richard D. White Professional Associate, A.I.C. Emergency/Disaster Assistance Insurance Claims Surveys and Examinations Condition Examinations and Reports Collections Advise Conservation Treatments 1001 South Broad Street New Orleans, Louisiana 70125 Tel: 504-821-6326 • Email: arcons99@yahoo.com

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FROM

THE

DIRECTOR

J

ust as major construction projects are appearing in City Park, like Big Lake and the Great Lawn, NOMA is embarking on a number of important capital projects in anticipation of its Centennial in 2011.

Finally, after three years of negotiations with FEMA, our insurance companies, and the City, NOMA will be able to make the necessary repairs to its building and sculpture garden. Architects have been selected, construction drawings and specifications prepared, and the public bidding process begun and/or completed.

First up are repairs to the Besthoff Sculpture Garden, which will require the garden to be closed for three to four months this summer. With the hard work of the Oregon National Guard and NOMA staff and volunteers, the garden reopened three months after Katrina. Since then, most visitors are unaware that repairs are still needed. These include repair of pathways, the irrigation system and lighting of both sculptures and pathways. In addition, more than forty trees need to be replaced and considerable ground cover and bushes need replanting. All of this work must be done carefully so as not to damage any of the sixty-one sculptures now installed over five acres.

The big project inside the Museum proper is to replace the floor in the lower basement where much of the art collection was stored.

Fortunately the Museum is built atop the Esplanade Ridge which raised it above sea level, preventing any floodwaters from penetrating the building. However, hydrostatic pressure under the building forced water up through hairline cracks in the concrete slab.

Four to six inches of water accumulated and sat in the basement for more than two and a half weeks. Although no art was damaged, the water caused the waterproof topping to delaminate from the building slab. Now 25,000 square feet of topping must be jackhammered out and a new waterproof topping poured.

The happy consequence of this work is the acquisition of new space for art storage and education programs. Toward that goal, in December 2008 NOMA purchased a 41,000 square foot steel and concrete warehouse just a mile and a half from the Museum to serve as a new off-site Art Storage Repository and Conservation Center. Architectural plans are nearly complete to retrofit this building and we hope to move 25,000 art works to the new facility by the end of 2009. Once that is done much of the space in the lower basement will be redesigned as a new Education Center, providing NOMA with three times the space it had before Katrina for art classrooms, a computer lab, a children’s art gallery, seminar rooms and education offices.

The final part of this $5 million Centennial renovation program is to convert the first and second floors of the Wisner Wing into new galleries for Spanish Colonial and French eighteenth-century art.

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ARTSQUARTERLY VOLUME XXXI ISSUE 3

NEW ORLEANS MUSEUM OF ART

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Caring Partners: Non-Profits Join NOMA to Extend Reach of Exhibition Jo-Ann Mueller

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Making the Invisible Visible: Seeing What the Artist Has in Mind Heather Lemonedes, Ph.D.

JULY/AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2009

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AN INSTANT ARRESTED IN ETERNITY: Sketches by Steinlen, Forain & Tchelitchew George Roland

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WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM OUR FRIENDS: Recent Accessions in the Decorative Arts John W. Keefe

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Jeffrey Cook’s Art of Caring (1961-2009) William A. Fagaly

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Marcus Coates: Animal Instincts Miranda Lash

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Mnemonic Devices: Rachel Jones and David Webber Miranda Lash

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FLOATULENTS: Inflatable Photographs by Martin von Haselberg Diego Cortez

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Fabergé Egg Hunt Brings Bunnies and Bounce to the Sculpture Garden Laura Carman

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Call For Volunteers

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Taylor Scholars Honored at NOMA Jim Mulvihill

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2009 Delgado Award Winner Celebrated at Fellows Dinner Jim Mulvihill

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Spring in the Garden: A Look Back Pamela Buckman

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Flower Power: NVC Volunteers Bring Beauty to the Great Hall Laura Carman

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ART IN BLOOM: A Blooming Success!

Virginia Panno

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Circles and Fellows of the New Orleans Museum of Art

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Corporate Membership

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Join the Circles and Upgrade Your Support of NOMA

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Contributions

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Library Happenings

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NOMA Book Club Goes Back to School Sheila Cork

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NOMA Education: Programs & Activities

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Program Sponsors

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Museum News

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NOMA Exhibition Schedule

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NOMA Calendar of Events

Articles appearing in any issue of Arts Quarterly do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the staff or the board of trustees of the New Orleans Museum of Art.

Editor: Caroline Goyette

SUPPORT ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Art Director: Aisha Champagne Advertising Manager: Karron Lane Printing: Roberson Printing

The programs of the New Orleans Museum of Art are supported by a grant from the Louisiana State Arts Council through the Louisiana Division of the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Arts Quarterly (ISSN 0740-9214) is published by the New Orleans Museum of Art, P.O. Box 19123, New Orleans, LA 70179-0123. 504-658-4103. Advertising 504-610-1279 or 504-658-4103. © 2009, New Orleans Museum of Art. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced or reprinted without permission of the publisher.

Free admission for Louisiana residents is sponsored by The Helis Foundation and the members of the New Orleans Museum of Art. The Museum is open Wednesday, noon to 8 p.m., Thursday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Besthoff Sculpture Garden is open Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. For information on upcoming exhibitions and events at NOMA, please call 504-658-4100 or visit our website at www.noma.org.

NEW ORLEANS MUSEUM OF ART

ARTS QUARTERLY

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Caring Partners: Non-Profits Join NOMA to Extend Reach of Exhibition

BY JO-ANN MUELLER Art of Caring Community Coordinator

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uest Curator Cynthia Goodman spent more than five years in collaboration with New Orleans Museum of Art Director E. John Bullard, assembling the images for the exhibition The Art of Caring: A Look at Life through Photography. On display at NOMA through October 11, 2009, the exhibition is comprised of seven thematic components—Children and Family, Love, Wellness, Disaster, Caregiving and Healing, Aging, and Remembering—and features acclaimed photographs from collections across the nation. To complement the exhibition’s subject matter and promote understanding, the Museum has sought partnerships with national and local relief, humanitarian, health, and educational organizations whose missions are to provide guidance and support to their communities.

The people of New Orleans are critically aware of the role a caring hand can play in one’s very survival. To honor their important work, NOMA has invited twentysix local, not-for-profit, social service agencies to become Community Partners in The Art of Caring. Over a period of ten Saturdays from May to October, each participating group will share its resources and information about its services with Museum visitors. Visitors are encouraged to engage in a self-guided tour of the exhibition and its compelling treatment of the joys and challenges we encounter throughout our everyday lives. Award-winning HBO and other films, selected to complement each weekend’s program, will be screened at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

The public opening for The Art of Caring took place on May 16 and included an “Afternoon Focus on Hospice and Grief” as part of the Remembering theme.

The National Hospice Foundation, the National Hospice Organization, and the Louisiana-Mississippi Hospice Organization provided information about hospice care in our community as well as nationwide. Seasons Grief and Loss Center exhibited art from children who had experienced a loss. The HBO Film Letting Go: A Hospice Journey was also shown.

On June 6, the day’s theme was Children and Family.

Community Partners including the Children’s Defense Fund, Jewish Family Service, Catholic Charities Therapeutic Family Services, and the Magnolia School offered information to visitors and the Children’s Defense Fund film, Dismantling the Cradle to Prison Pipeline, was screened.

On Saturday, June 20, NOMA’s Community Partners presented “Healing through Art for Children.” NOMA’s art therapist Holly Wherry facilitated a creative art project for all ages and the HBO Film, We Are Together: The Children of the Agape Choir, was shown.

Upcoming Community Partners Days On Saturday July 11, 11 a.m.-3 p.m., the exhibition’s Aging theme will be augmented through dialogue with the American Association of Retired Persons, Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans PACE Program, The New Orleans Council on Aging, and Jewish Family Service’s “Lifeline” Program. The films Young at Heart and Aging in America: The Years Ahead will be shown at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

On Saturday, July 25, 11 a.m.-3 p.m., in conjunction with the theme of Caregiving and Healing, the LSU School of Nursing will be available to take blood pressures of Museum visitors and give participants tools

Neal Slavin (American, born 1941) Channel Swimmers Association 1986 Polaroid print, 63 x 44 inches Courtesy Neal Slavin Studio, New York, NY

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Thomas McAvoy (American, 1905-1966) Blind doctor Albert-André Nast using his ear instead of a stethoscope, Chelles, France, 1953 Inkjet print, 18 x 13 inches Used with permission. Time LIFE Collection

to track their screenings, immunizations, and fitness data.

Ochsner Blood Bank will conduct a blood drive at NOMA. The Greater New Orleans Immunization Network will give immunizations and enter them into a state database and the Covenant House will be present as well. The films See Me/Look at Me and The Sandwich Generation will be shown at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

On Saturday, August 8, 11 a.m.-3 p.m., the Greater New Orleans Alzheimer’s Association will be available to answer visitor questions, provide information and resources, and screen the HBO Film, The Alzheimer’s Project. This newly released film provides hopeful information about scientific progress in treating Alzheimer’s disease.

On the fourth anniversary of Katrina, Saturday, August 29, 11 a.m.-3 p.m., the American Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, the Make It Right Foundation, and the Disaster Management Program at Tulane University will create a moving program with a focus on “Recovering from Disaster.” A reading of the names of those lost to Katrina will memorialize the victims of the storm. Photographs of New Orleans by Ron Marks, Dean of the School of Social Work at Tulane University, will be displayed. Individual and community art-making offered as part of NOMA’s ongoing Hyogo Art Therapy Initiative will be offered for visitors of all ages. While Spike Lee’s HBO Film, When the Levees Broke (screened 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.), documents Disaster, NOMA’s day pays tribute to our city’s losses by highlighting the successful recovery process which is renewing our community and citizens.

The focus on Saturday, September 12, 11 a.m.-3 p.m., will be Wellness. East Jefferson General Hospital Wellness Center-Yoga Program will join us in the Sydney

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and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden. Integrative Medicine Specialist Irene Sebastian, M.D. and Ph.D., will discuss nutrition, classical homeopathy, and herbal therapy, and the Elmwood Fitness Center will provide information on personal trainers and the Weigh No More Program. The film Autism: The Musical will be shown at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

On Saturday, September 26, 11 a.m.-3 p.m., Love will be the featured theme. The American Heart Association along with the Magnolia School for special needs children will be present. For visitors of all ages, the Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals will conduct a Dog Adoption Day in front of the Museum. The film Andrew Jenks, Room 335 will be shown at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

The twenty-six partnering organizations will be invited to return to join NOMA for a Community Awareness Day on Saturday, October 10, the exhibition’s closing weekend. NOMA staff members are working to finalize culminating events for The Art of Caring exhibition.

The New Orleans Museum of Art is grateful to each Community Partner for joining the Museum in responding to our community’s needs with dedication, hope, and resourcefulness. NOMA remains committed to the power of the visual arts to confront difficult issues and to promote healing. n

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Making the Invisible Visible: Seeing What the Artist Has in Mind BY HEATHER LEMONEDES, PH.D. Associate Curator of Drawings The Cleveland Museum of Art

The Permanent Collection of Prints and Drawings in the New Orleans Museum of Art contains many works by important abstract artists.

About 115 of the most exciting and colorful have been selected for the current exhibition: THE MIND’S EYE, Without Subject Matter, What Does the Artist See? Dr. Lemonedes, a distinguished scholar and curator, reflects on the beauty and pleasure provided by some of the works to be seen there.

George Roland, Exhibition Organizer, Doris Zemurray Stone Curator of Prints and Drawings

W

hat many abstract artists have in common is a desire to capture something essential, to apprehend that which is fundamentally incomprehensible. In effect, they seek not to reproduce the world around us, but to make visible the invisible …

After Impressionism, art increasingly sought to express the intangible rather than the tangible. For the early modernists, music was considered the paradigm of a pure or abstract form of art. Vincent van Gogh found inspiration in the abstraction of music, writing to his brother Theo: “Why do I understand the musician better,

why do I see the raison d’être of his abstractions better?”1 For Van Gogh, music, which refrained from comparisons or references to the outside world, was a higher achievement than most painting. The Symbolists appreciated that by avoiding allusions to the external world, music was able to provide more direct access to the inner life of the artist.

Pioneers of abstract painting such as Wassily Kandinsky believed that music’s direct and emotional appeal indicated a condition to which the visual arts should aspire. Kandinsky summed up the attraction of the musical model in his 1912 treatise On the Spiritual in Art: “Musical sound has direct access to the soul. It finds there is an echo, for man ‘hath music in himself.’”2 The idea of synaesthesia—sensory perception of one kind manifested as a sensory experience of another, such as when a specific color evokes a particular smell sensation—became a staple of early modern painting and helped visual artists to achieve in their abstractions the more pure form of art that they were seeking. Artistteacher Arthur Wesley Dow identified musical analogy as a model for modern art: “Line, mass and color have pure aesthetic value whether they represent anything or not.

Ceasing to make representation a standard but comparing the visual arts with music. Finding a common basis for all the visual arts.”3 One of Dow’s students, Georgia O’Keeffe, recalled walking down the hall at Columbia University: One day I heard music from his classroom.

Being curious I opened the door and went in. A low-toned record was being played and the students were asked to make a drawing from what they heard. So I sat down and made a drawing too. Then he played a very different kind of record—a sort of high soprano piece— for another quick drawing. This gave me an idea that I was very interested to follow later—the idea that music could be translated into something for the eye.4 Drawing from music inspired a series of abstract drawings that O’Keeffe referred to as Specials. She, like so many of her contemporaries, was influenced by Kandinsky’s On the Spiritual in Art; his analogy of the visual arts with music helped free her and so many other artists from reliance upon recognizable subject matter as they forged a path toward abstraction.

Thus, from the early twentieth century, abstract art has been associated with music. Music was perceived by the modernists as being abstract, and therefore a viable model for what they were trying to communicate visually. Its appeal lay in its ability to captivate the listener by composition alone without any reliance on subject matter. Even Clement Greenberg, despite his belief that abstraction required the separation of painting from all other genres, argued that what painting could borrow from music was its “purity”—the fact that music neither imitated nature nor any other art. He acknowledged that in the twentieth century,

Grace Hartigan (American, born 1922) From Triptych: 1960 On a Tar Roof Salute by James Schuyler Screenprints Museum Purchase: Joel and John N. Weinstock Fund, 2005.14.1-3

Music had come to replace poetry as the paragon art. It was the art which the other avantgarde arts envied most and whose effects they tried hardest to imitate … What attracted the avant-garde to music as much as its power to suggest was … its nature as an art of immediate sensation.5 Abstract art cannot be discussed in terms of a school of artists bound together by a common belief or mission;

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however, what many abstract artists have in common is a desire to capture something essential, to apprehend that which is fundamentally incomprehensible. In effect, they seek not to reproduce the world around us, but to make visible the invisible, as music gives fleeting form to that which is by nature intangible.

By distancing their art from the outside world, each of the artists represented in The Mind’s Eye attempt to capture something essential on paper or canvas. This essay will examine the approaches of several artists in The Mind’s Eye who, by expurgating illusionism from their work, approach the non-representational aspects of music and therefore devote their work to something more timeless and eternal.

Working in New York City during the 1940s and 1950s, the Abstract Expressionists tried to embody spontaneity and subjectivity in their paintings, drawings, and prints. Jazz—both the music itself and the settings of jazz clubs of New York City—became important to the evolution of the art of the period. As David Acton explained in his landmark catalogue on Abstract Expressionist prints, the artists “came to think of a work of art as a reflection of the psychological and emotional state of its maker and as the record of its own creation.”6 Joan Mitchell, one of the Abstract Expressionists who explored the parallels of poetry and music in her art, proclaimed, “People will never understand what we’re doing if they cannot feel. All art is abstract. All music is abstract. But it’s all real.”7 Paul Jenkins, another Abstract Expressionist, aptly described the process and purpose of eliminating recognizable subject matter from his art: “Sometimes it seems as though I am keeping a storm door shut with one hand while I am painting with the other, in order to keep the known out so that the unknown may enter.”8 As they let go of recognizable subject matter—relegated it to outside of the storm door—the Abstract Expressionists became more engaged with artistic process and the sensuous nature of paint, ink, canvas, and paper itself.

One of the pioneers of Abstract Expressionism, Robert Motherwell was the most prolific printmaker of the group. Motherwell was attracted to the camaraderie of the collaboration inherent in printmaking and by the mid-1970s had worked in virtually every printmaking medium. His Africa Suite (1970), a series of ten screenprints, was based upon a group of ink-on-paper drawings from the same year. From the mid-1960s, Motherwell made over five hundred automatist drawings on identical sheets of Japan paper. In these works, the artist set himself the challenge of working without conscious preconceptions, confining himself to the immediate impulse, and allowing himself no revisions.9 In the Africa Suite, Motherwell reworked his automatist brush drawings with white acrylic over painting and white paper masking to achieve the silhouettes of the final screenprints.10 The printer Irwin Hollander described Motherwell’s prints: “They come right from the elbow, right from his own inner balance.”11 Motherwell himself described the separation from outside objects in his art: “I almost never start with an image. I start with a painting idea, an impulse, usually derived from my own world … A subject emerges from an interaction between myself, my I and my medium.”12 Helen Frankenthaler, like her husband Motherwell, was also a prolific abstract expressionist printmaker. In their spontaneity, rigor, and beauty, her prints paralleled her paintings. She was deeply engaged in the entire printmaking process, drawing her own images, mixing colors, selecting paper, checking registration marks. Her prints were a testament to her own inner vision. Rosalind Krauss’s description of the aims of the Abstract

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Paul Jenkins (American, born 1923) Untitled, 1963 Color lithograph Gift of Mrs. John N. Weinstock, 2004.193.39

Expressionists is an apt explanation of Frankenthaler’s personal approach: Every mark on their canvases was seen as asking to be read in the context of a private self from which the intention to make that mark had been directed. From this it followed that the public surface of the work demanded that one see it as a map from which could be read the privately held crosscurrents of personality—a kind of testimony of the artist’s inviolable self.13 Beauty, for Frankenthaler, was paramount. For her “light, scale, feeling are inherent in a beautiful work of art … the artist’s own wrist is of crucial importance. I believe the wrist, the sensibility, must be in the whole concept of making the prints.”14 One might say that Frankenthaler responded to an inner music when making her art. While her bold, colorful prints and paintings make no perceptible references to the external world, they strictly adhere to a personal vision.

The work of several painters and poets of the New York School converged in the 1950s and 1960s. This diverse group developed a shared community, championing one another’s work, reading together, and collaborating on literary journals. Grace Hartigan’s work was particularly intertwined with poetry. Hartigan belonged to the so-called “second generation” of Abstract Expressionists who were influenced by Jackson Pollock and Robert Motherwell, but also reacted against their mentors, creating works that combined “pure” abstraction and hints of traditional representational painting. In 1960 Hartigan collaborated with the poet James Schuyler to produce Salute, a portfolio that combined screenprints and poetry. In each of the images in Hartigan’s triptych, she responded to the visual elements in Schuyler’s poems. The poem “Flashes” begins: Dark day, hard, swarming west the Chrysler Building silver, soluble south not a hole a depth 9

Hartigan titled the accompanying screenprint On a Tar Roof, quoting the last line of Schuyler’s poem. In the image, she not only drew the immediately recognizable shape of the Chrysler Building, but also invoked the shape of the poem. The bold, black lines in the screenprint echo the length and jaggedness of the lines of Schuyler’s poem. Hartigan avoided describing her subject matter, instead internalizing the poem, distilling it down to its essence. Salute is a modern example of ut pictura poesis, a conjuring of the poem’s images while at the same time existing as an abstraction.

Sol LeWitt’s idea of conceptual art was at the center of a profoundly significant moment in American abstraction. As early as 1963, LeWitt was engaged in making an art that was radically different from that of his contemporaries. His sculptures, paintings, drawings, and prints were based on highly ordered, completely abstract systems. While Abstract Expressionists had dematerialized the external world by enveloping it in a haze of the artist’s own subjectivity, structure and context took precedence over content in LeWitt’s oeuvre. Instead of focusing on perception, LeWitt explored the nature of authorship in the creative process, asking questions such as “Who is the author of a work of art?” and “How is art created and distributed in contemporary capitalist economies?” LeWitt described his concerns and the new direction of abstract art as he envisioned it: I will refer to the kind of art in which I am involved as conceptual art. In conceptual art, the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair … The idea becomes a machine that makes the art. This kind of art is not theoretical or illustrative of theories; it is intuitive, it is involved with all types of mental processes and it is purposeless.15 LeWitt began developing his work from basic arithmetic, geometric, and numerical systems in 1964.

Early in his career he made modular sculptures which helped define the “less-is-more” aesthetic of Minimalism.

By 1966, the cube had become the basic element in his visual vocabulary. In 1968 LeWitt dispensed with a canvas or paper support and began drawing directly on the wall. The early wall drawings were based on combinations of vertical, horizontal, and diagonal lines drawn with graphite on a wall. For LeWitt, the artist’s responsibility ended with the conception of the idea and the provision of a plan in the form of written instructions.

The actual execution of the drawing on the wall was left up to a trained assistant; the drawing could be executed in any location, any number of times. With these innovations, LeWitt solicited the interpretation of the draftsman who became a collaborator equal to the artist in the production of the work of art. Such artistic collaboration is akin to the relationship of the artist and printer. These same concepts were reflected in LeWitt’s austere prints of the 1970s, which were characterized by the rigor of the ideas which lay behind the works themselves. The prints may be seen as related to the wall drawings not only in their reliance upon geometry, but also in the nature of their multiplicity. Abstract, conceptual prints made in editions echo the way in which the wall drawings may be made, unmade, and made again and in turn are parallel to music performed repeatedly over time.

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The closing of the Wadsworth Atheneum’s 1981 retrospective of LeWitt’s wall drawings was celebrated with a concert by the Philip Glass Ensemble.16 The idea of commemorating the closing rather than the opening recalls one of LeWitt’s statements about the wall drawings: “The wall drawing is a permanent installation, until destroyed. Once something is done, it cannot be undone.”17 Such an idea likens a visual work of art, usually permanent but in this case temporary, with music, which by nature is simultaneously enduring and ephemeral. The abstract artist may be seen as a composer and the conceptual work of art as a musical score. A conceptual work of art, like music, consists of a language of symbols which must be interpreted by others. LeWitt was often associated with Philip Glass; both artist and composer began with a seemingly simple structure which is repeated with variations to evoke a surprisingly wide range of emotions.

Agnes Martin traveled a path in her art similar to LeWitt’s. From in the late 1950s, Martin made paintings and drawings in which a grid formed a screen through which a subtly modulated background is observed.

Although the artist’s lines follow a precise pattern, they are neither mechanically regular nor immaculately perfect. Barely perceptible variations in strength of line and spaces between lines enliven the imposed order and create a rhythm that is organic rather than precise. Martin described the subject matter of her art: “My paintings have neither objects, nor space, nor time, not anything— no forms. They are light, lightness, about merging, about formlessness, breaking down forms.”18 Martin’s deceptively simple compositions summon infinite expressions of purity and transcendent beauty.

Praise was made following a hiatus of several years from painting after which color was increasingly introduced into her work. While her early work was done in shades of gray and whites, the palette of her paintings, drawings, and prints from the 1970s onward expanded to include delicate washes of pigment, often reflective of earth and sky. Praise was part of the Rubber Stamp Portfolio (1976), a suite of thirteen rubber-stamp prints by various artists published by the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Prints were extremely rare for Martin; her work is so intimate, so intensely personal that she seldom worked in multiples. Praise, however, successfully embodies the essence of Martin’s abstractions. A delicately printed wash of rose-colored ink radiates behind tremulous bands of darker pink. The resulting effect is like that of music or poetry, evocative and resonant.

If Motherwell’s, Frankenthaler’s and Hartigan’s abstractions were intensely personal, psychological reflections of the inner life of the artist, and LeWitt’s and Martin’s works may be understood as minimalist distillations of the idea or essence of geometry or nature, Terry Winters’s work may be interpreted as an invention of a whole universe of abstract forms. Winters belongs to a generation of artists who emerged in the 1980s who departed from the modernist belief that abstract paintings or works on paper must proclaim their essential flatness.

Winters prefers a deep, illusionistic space, quite at odds with the abstractions of the previous decades. A preoccupation with the interconnectedness of things underlies most of Winters’s work. In his abstractions, he explores imagery culled from a vast array of sources, such as microscopic views of insects, weather radar patterns, topographic maps, computer graphics, and architectural plans. Morula I, II, and III, a series of three lithographs and the artist’s first series of prints, operate

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on several levels. Morula is the Latin for mulberry, but in English refers to dividing egg and germ cells and the process of reproduction.19 The choice of subject and title reflect Winters’s penchant for suggesting metaphorical affinities between different aspects of the real world.20 As Cliff Ackley has described Winters’s work: Obviously Winters’s conception of abstraction is not a minimalist one of carefully calculated limitation and restraint, but rather one that is explosively baroque, involving the invention of new patterns and spaces that actively encourage multiple reading and manifold levels of association.21 Whereas the musical analogy with LeWitt or Martin’s minimalism might be the deceptively simple compositions of John Cage, Winters’s score would no doubt be symphonic.

Ultimately, the range of what may be considered “abstract” art within the art of the second half of the twentieth century is vast. What binds it and its practitioners together is a desire to reveal something beyond that which initially meets the eye. n

Notes 1. Herschel Browning Chipp, Theories of Modern Art: A Sourcebook

by Artists and Critics (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968), 35.

2. Wassily Kandinsky, On the Spiritual in Art, 2nd ed. (Munich, 1912); reprinted in Kandinsky: Complete Writings on Art, eds. Kenneth C. Lindsay and Peter Vergo (New York: Da Capo Press, 1994), 161.

3. Arthur Wesley Dow, “Modernism in Art,” Magazine of Art 8 (January 1917): 115-16.

4. Georgia O’Keeffe, Georgia O’Keeffe (New York: Viking, 1976), facing plate 14.

5. Clement Greenberg, “Towards a Newer Laoccon,” in Clement Greenberg: The Collected Essays and Criticism Vol. 1, ed. John O’Brien (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986), 31.

Agnes Martin (American, born Canada, 1912-2004) Praise, 1976 The Rubber Stamp Project portfolio Rubber-stamped ink Gift of Mr. Joe Zucker and Mrs. Joseph Schmucker Le Va, 89.48.13

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6. David Acton, The Stamp of Impulse: Abstract Expressionist Prints (Worcester, MA: Worcester Art Museum, 2001), 9.

7. David Amram, “Seeing the Music, Hearing the Pictures,” in The Stamp of Impulse: Abstract Expressionist Prints, David Acton (Worcester, MA: Worcester Art Museum, 2001), 21.

8. Jean Cassou, Jenkins (London: Thames and Hudson, 1963), 7.

9. Acton, 2001, 234.

10. Siri Engberg and Joan Banach, Robert Motherwell: The Complete Prints 1940-1991, Catalogue Raisonné (Minneapolis: Walker Art Center, 2003), 105.

11. Stephanie Terenzio and Dorothy C. Belknap, The Prints of Robert Motherwell: Catalogue Raisonné (New York: Hudson Hills Press in association with The American Federation of the Arts, 1984), 26.

12. Dore Ashton and Jack D. Flam, Robert Motherwell (New York: Abbeville Press, 1983), 13, 17.

13. Rosalind Krauss, Line as Language: Six Artists Draw (Princeton: The Trustees of Princeton University, 1974), 7.

14. Helen Frankenthaler, “The Romance of Learning a New Medium for an Artist,” Print Collector’s Newsletter 8 (July-August 1977), 66 quoted in Ruth E. Fine, Helen Frankenthaler Prints (Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art; New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1993), 13.

15. Sol LeWitt, “Paragraphs on Conceptual Art,” Artforum 5.10 (June 1967): 80.

16. John Carlin, “Sol LeWitt Wall Drawings: 1968-1981,” Art Journal 42.1 (Spring 1982): 63.

17. Sol LeWitt, “Wall Drawings,” Arts Magazine 44.6 (April 1970): 45.

18. Agnes Martin as quoted by Ann Wilson, “Linear Webs,” Art and Artists (October 1966): 49.

19. Clifford S. Ackley, “‘Double Standard’: The Prints of Terry Winters,” Print Collector’s Newsletter 18.4 (September-October 1987): 124.

20. Clifford S. Ackley, Terry Winters: Prints and Sequences (Waterville, ME: Colby College Museum of Art, 2005), 16.

21. Ibid., 16.

The Mind’s Eye: Without Subject Matter, What Does the Artist See? continues on view in the Templeman Galleries, second floor of the New Orleans Museum of Art, through October 11, 2009.

Robert Motherwell (American, 1915-1991) Africa 4, 1970 Screenprint Gift of Marlborough Gallery, 71.55

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AN INSTANT ARRESTED IN ETERNITY: Sketches by Steinlen, Forain & Tchelitchew from the Joseph F. McCrindle Collection

BY GEORGE ROLAND The Doris Zemurray Stone Curator of Prints and Drawings, NOMA

Drawing is the artist’s most direct and spontaneous expression, a species of writing: it reveals, better than does painting, his true personality.

Edgar Degas

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oday, when we want to remember something we have seen, we photograph it with our cell phone. A century ago, we made a sketch. This was especially important to professional observers of the day-to-day passing scene. Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen roamed Montmartre filling his sketchbooks with the images he would draw upon to create vivid lithographs for weekly publications. Jean-Louis Forain haunted the law courts, pen in hand, to capture his popular caricatures. Pavel Tchelitchew recorded the incidents from his personal life, planning more comprehensive compositions. These rapid and fluent images bring us closer to the spirit of the artist than many more highly developed works and give us the pleasure of seeing the artist at work.

This summer NOMA will present An Instant Arrested in Eternity. The exhibition includes approximately forty sketches by Steinlen, Forain, and Tchelitchew selected from the promised gift of more than 150 drawings from the collection of the late Joseph F. McCrindle of New York.

McCrindle, a graduate of St. Paul’s School, Harvard University, and Yale University, made his career in the literary world, eventually reviving the Transatlantic Review, a respected journal that was an early publisher of John Updike, Harold Pinter, Anthony Burgess, and Iris Murdoch, among a host of emerging talents. In later life he devoted himself to philanthropic projects lending support and encouragement to artists and writers.

Always an enthusiastic art lover, McCrindle assembled an extensive and eclectic collection of more than 2,000 drawings and 100 paintings which, following his death last year, is being distributed to more than thirty American museums by the Joseph F. McCrindle Foundation. NOMA is grateful to be included among beneficiaries such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the National Gallery of Art. n AN INSTANT ARRESTED IN ETERNITY: Sketches

by Steinlen, Forain & Tchelitchew from the Joseph F. McCrindle Collection may be seen in the Stafford Gallery opening Wednesday, July 1 through September 27, 2009.

A Gallery Talk by the organizing curator, George Roland, will take place on Wednesday, August 5, at 6 p.m.

Pavel Tchelitchew (American, born Russia, 1898-1957) Reclining Clown, 1930 Sepia ink wash Promised Gift of the Joseph F. McCrindle Foundation, EL2009.9.21 Tchelitchew was a typical “bad boy” of twentieth-century art, much like Jean-Michel Basquiat of recent memory. His life was outrageous—an original Parisian bohemian of the 1930s and a fixture of Greenwich Village gay society later. In spite of his habit of making homoerotic drawings, his art generated warm support from connoisseurs such as Gertrude Stein, who bought the entire contents of his Paris studio. A major canvas, Hide and Seek, has proved to be one of the most popular paintings in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Clowns and children often were subjects treated with a surprising tenderness.

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Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen (Swiss living in France, 1859-1923) Peasant with a Barrow Sepia ink wash Promised Gift of the Joseph F. McCrindle Foundation, EL2009.9.100

Jean-Louis Forain (French, 1852-1931) Standing Man in Profile Black ink Promised Gift of the Joseph F. McCrindle Foundation, EL2009.9.78.a.b

Steinlen is remembered as a commercial artist and, in both senses of the word, popular. Despite being a regular exhibitor of somber canvases at the Salon des Indépendants, it is the thousands of illustrations by which he made his living that ensure his reputation today as they did during his lifetime. A regular contributor to weeklies like Gil Blas and L'assiette au Beurre, his images exude warmth and respect for the genre subjects of the popular press.

His posters were celebrated and collected; Yvette Gilbert was said to prefer greatly his poster of her cabaret appearance to that of Toulouse-Lautrec’s famous treatment.

Frequent visitors to Steinlen’s work are the cats of which he was so fond.

Forain briefly trained as a fine artist with Gérome and Carpeaux. A friend of Degas and Monet, he exhibited with the Impressionists but, possessed of a deft hand at likeness, he soon found hospitality in the popular journals. A great chronicler of scandal and intrigue, Forain’s subjects were often victims of satire and even spite, giving way in later life to virulent anti-semitism. From 1914 to 1920 he produced a long series for Le Figaro on the heroism of soldiers in the First World War. Forain issued numerous albums that provide a tableau of turn-of-the-century society.

A relentless, not to say ferocious, observer, his drawings are highly prized by lawyers, politicians, and other wheeler-dealers today.

NEW ORLEANS MUSEUM OF ART

WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM OUR FRIENDS: Recent Accessions in the Decorative Arts

BY JOHN W. KEEFE The RosaMary Foundation Curator for Decorative Arts

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his new Cameo Gallery presentation focuses upon works acquired for the decorative arts collection from 2005 through the present day which have not already been or are not currently on exhibition in another section of the Lupin Foundation Center for the Decorative Arts. A number of important recent acquisitions have already been placed on view; for example, in 2007 Sydney and Walda Besthoff generously gave their outstanding collection of Wedgwood “Fairyland” lustre wares to the Museum. These pieces are already displayed in a miniexhibition in the second floor Pellerin Lobby. Similarly, income from the William McDonald Boles and Eva Carol Boles Fund made possible the purchase of a large vesselsculpture, Bilbao, of 2004 by the Italian glass maestro Lino Tagliapietra. Since such a major object had long been on the Museum’s list of desiderata, Bilbao was immediately exhibited in the contemporary glass gallery of the Lupin Foundation Center. Accordingly, in spite of

Clockwise from the lower center: Portrait Cup and Saucer: La Marquise de Sévigné Circa 1815-1820, Hard-paste porcelain Dihl and Guérhard Manufactory (active 1789-1825) Paris, France, Ht. of cup 4 1/2 inches, Diam. of saucer 6 5/8 inches, Gift of Lin Emery, 2008.199.a-b Dinner Plate, circa 1825-1835, Hard-paste porcelain Denuelle Manufactory (active 1819-1852) Paris, France, Diam. 11 inches, Museum Purchase: Mervin and Maxine Mock Morais Fund, 2005.58 Covered Sugar Basin: Antique décor, 1789-1793 Christophe Potter Manufactory (active 1789-1793) Paris, France, Ht. 5 3/4 inches Museum Purchase: Mervin and Maxine Mock Morais Fund, 2005.57a-b Portrait cups and saucers were extremely fashionable presents during the Restauration (1815-1830) and frequently bore the likeness of notable personages such as Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, the Marquise de Sévigné (1626-1696), one of the great chroniclers of French aristocratic life of her time. Mme. de Sévigné was comely, an heiress and well placed in society; she was therefore highly qualified to describe the great figures and events of her era.

The makers of this fine portrait cup, Dihl and Guérhard, were successors to the factory of the Duc d'Angoulême. One

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their innate significance, neither the “Fairyland” lustres nor the Tagliapietra piece are included in this Cameo Gallery show. This is the case with several other acquisitions made between 2005 and the present.

That federal, state and local funding for the arts continues to shrink is well known and documented. Less well known is the resultant fact that museums are therefore increasingly dependent upon the generosity of their friends and patrons for the continued growth of their collections. This has definitely been true of the Decorative Arts Department at the New Orleans Museum of Art in these post-Katrina years. The magnanimous support from the Museum’s friends is celebrated by this exhibition.

The Museum’s justly famed glass collection always figures in any acquisition plans. Since 2005, significant examples of glass have been added, largely in the areas of nineteenth- and twentieth-century production. These two areas were notably enriched in 2009 by the gift of

of their specialties was portrait painting on porcelain plaques, plates, and three-dimensional pieces. Portraits of the Marquise de Sévigné were especially prized during the Restauration since her life had spanned one of the greatest eras of French prosperity and prestige.

The Denuelle dinner plate is one of the most elegant known examples by a factory which specialized in the production of tablewares. Particularly noteworthy is the fine painting of the large floral spray centering the cavetto.

That Denuelle’s wares were highly regarded is confirmed by the fact that he was made supplier to the Duchesse de Berry by special appointment and was awarded a bronze medal at the 1823 Paris exhibition for his extraordinary tortoiseshell grounds. Dominique Denuelle also held a Royal Warrant from Queen Marie-Amélie from 1834 to 1848. Unusual in this lavish plate is the richly gilded green ground with its six equidistant reserves of butterflies, seashells, and insects.

The stylish covered sugar basin is by one of the rarer of the ancien régime Parisian manufacturers, Christophe Potter. An English entrepreneur, Potter established his porcelain works only after serious difficulties, calling it “the Factory of the Prince of Wales.” His was one of the few Parisian manufactories to survive the Revolution. In spite of these English associations, Potter’s wares were very French in taste. The style of this sugar basin is “Antique” and reinterprets ancient Greek red-figure painting to suit the tenets of the late Louis XVI style.

Photo by Judy Cooper.

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Double-handled Presentation Bowl, 1902-1904 Sterling silver, silver-gilt, USA: Tiffany and Company, New York, Ht. 16 inches, Gift of Walda and Sydney Besthoff III, 2007.85 Tiffany and Company had achieved world-wide recognition as the leader in both silver design and manufacture by the time of the 1878 Paris Exposition Universelle and continued to hold that eminence through the opening years of the twentieth century. It had achieved this coveted status through the use of highly innovative design and an extraordinarily high level of craftsmanship.

local collector Jack M. Sawyer of his entire collection, formed over nearly half a century. The Sawyer Collection neatly complements the glass from circa 1800 to 1960 already in the permanent collection. Included in this munificent gift was glass by such prominent makers as Louis Comfort Tiffany, Emile Gallé, Victor Durand, Johann Loetz-witwe, the Harrach Glassworks, and the Schneider brothers.

Longtime friend of the Museum and serious glass collector John W. Lolley presented eight important additions to the glass collection in 2008. In the previous year, Florence Jastremski presented a collection of American pressed glass in memory of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Stanwood Duval Jastremski. Funds from the sale of redundant pieces from that collection permitted the Museum to purchase a fine Argus pattern pressed glass covered compote in the Jastremski name. Another longtime friend of the Museum, Caroline Querbes Nelson, enriched the holdings of Lalique glass through the gift of a pair of Raisins vases and a Chardons bowl, both designed by René Lalique (French, 1860-1945). The Lalique holdings were significantly strengthened by the 2007 gift of Dr. Siddarth Bhansali of two works, the Sauterelles and Camargue vases, both considered major designs by René Lalique.

The Museum’s collection of Paris porcelains is one of the most important and comprehensive in the nation, covering that distinguished production from circa 1775 to 1870. Such prominence has attracted the attention of Louisiana collectors as well as those in other states. Gifts

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The form of this monumental bowl and its meticulously achieved neoclassical decorative vocabulary reflect the interest of American and foreign clients in such design following the enormous success of the 1893 Chicago Columbian Exposition and the “Great White City” setting of that exhibition.

The piece was presented to the Honorable Jacob Cremer with the compliments of the directors of the Dutch-American Plantation Society on Christmas Day, 1915, and is so engraved on one façade.

Photo by Judy Cooper.

from such interested parties as David Stone, American Society of Interior Designers, of Houston have helped to enrich and expand this major facet of the Museum’s decorative arts collection. During the past four years, purchases of Paris porcelain from the Decorative Arts Discretionary Fund have expanded the roster of Paris manufacturers represented in the collection with such well-known names as Christophe Potter and Dominique Denuelle. The H. Speed Lamkin Fund created by the friends of Mr. Lamkin on the occasion of his eightieth birthday facilitated the purchase of a handsome ewer attributed to the factory of prominent Paris manufacturer John Nast, circa 1810-1815.

Significant additions were made in other areas of the ceramic field due to the interest and generosity of our friends. Dr. William B. Zeiler, whose 1999 gift of his late wife’s collection of Belleek porcelain provided the Museum with the largest public collection of Belleek wares in this country, presented important examples in both 2008 and 2009 in memory of Geraldine Colby Zeiler. Those gifts will be displayed for the first time in this exhibition as well as a variety of English ceramics from other donors.

Small sculpture at this Museum has traditionally been looked after by the Decorative Arts Department, and notable additions have been made in the last several years. Collector George Roland presented a handsome Franco-Flemish gilt-bronze figure of the Roman warrioremperor Marcus Aurelius in 2007, a year also marked by the addition by gift of three 1950s sculptures by noted

NEW ORLEANS MUSEUM OF ART

American sculptor Benjamin Benvenuto Bufano (American, born Italy, 1898-1970) from Dr. and Mrs. Travis J. Harrison. Another longstanding friend of the Museum, Jetta Molter, continued her generosity with gifts of Antoine-Louis Barye’s (French, 1796-1875) bronzes, Seated Lion and Stalking Lioness. Mrs. Molter also provided the diminutive but powerful bronze, Seated Longhorn, by Charles M. Russell (American, 1864-1926).

In similar fashion, the areas of American and European silver have been notably strengthened through the support of generous friends. Sydney and Walda Besthoff enriched the American silver collection with a monumental Tiffany and Company presentation bowl in the neoclassical taste produced in 1902 to 1904. In 2007, George Roland presented a superb set of four Georgian candlesticks produced in 1773 by Sheffield smith John Winter working in the neoclassical style of Robert Adam (English, 1728-1792). In 2008, Dr. Daniel L. Hodges gave a silver and cut-glass compote by the celebrated Russian firm of Fabergé. A year later, Dr. Hodges provided a silver-mounted green onyx salt and a silver fruit basket, both by the House of Fabergé.

Objects de vertu fall under the aegis of the Decorative Arts Department and, if of the requisite quality, are always welcome additions. This, alas, does not occur frequently since prices for the best of these objects have

skyrocketed in recent years. However, in 2007, Dr. Hodges added a splendid Cartier table clock in enamelled silver to the collection. This too will be shown for the first time in this exhibition.

As may be deduced from reading this article, the exhibition presents a wide and diverse selection of works which, however disparate, are united by two factors: their high quality and their appropriateness for this collection. This show offers a cornucopia of visual riches since there is, literally, something for everyone. In presenting this varied but carefully selected array, the Department of the Decorative Arts offers sincere thanks to all of you, our generous friends, who have made this exhibition possible. n WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM OUR FRIENDS: Recent Accessions in the Decorative Arts opens on July 1, 2009 and runs through October 18, 2009. It is presented in the Cameo Gallery in The Lupin Foundation Center for The Decorative Arts on the second floor of the Museum.

Suite of Four Candlesticks, 1773 Sterling silver, England: by John Winter and Company, Sheffield Gift of George Roland in memory of his parents, Annabelle Ward Roland and Charles Thomas Roland, Sr., 2007.87.1-4 These stately candlesticks with their sophisticated decorative vocabulary of Greek Keys, paterae, horned ram masks, laurel leaf garlands, and flutes epitomize late eighteenth-century English neoclassicism. The rediscovery of the Antique had been made particularly fashionable by the architect Robert Adam (1728-1792) and his illustrious titled clients.

By the 1770s, the city of Sheffield was a center for the production of silver candlesticks in the newly modish neoclassical taste. In the forefront of the best makers of such sticks was John Winter, the smith for these elegant pieces. Although the neoclassical ornament of those candlesticks is rich and profuse, it remains utterly coherent and balanced.

A pair of candlesticks of the same design by Winter’s leading competitor, George Ashforth and Company, is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. This suite of four candlesticks is among the most important pieces of Georgian silver in the collection of the Museum.

Photo by Judy Cooper.

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Jeffrey Cook’s Art of Caring (1961-2009)

BY WILLIAM A. FAGALY The Françoise Billion Richardson Curator of African Art

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n April 7, 2009, the New Orleans art community was saddened by the death of visual and performing artist Jeffrey Cook.

Born in New Orleans on February 1, 1961, Cook graduated from McDonogh 35 Senior High School. In 1983, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in fine arts from Xavier University, where he studied with his mentor, John T. Scott. Cook continued his study of painting at the San Francisco Art Institute in the mid-’80s; he also studied dance, acting, and voice during those years.

Cook’s visual art career was interrupted temporarily when he was selected by the United States Information Agency to represent his country through break-dancing performances to hip-hop music that were enthusiastically received in Eastern Europe and Asia. With his acrobatic, muscular body, he modeled upon his return home for the painter and photographer George Dureau. Prior to joining the New Orleans Museum of Art staff for several years in the mid-’90s as an art handler, Cook served in similar positions at Galerie Simonne Stern and the HallBarnett Gallery in New Orleans and Rainbow Connections in Los Angeles.

Cook’s art has consistently been about history, memories, and ancestors. While at Xavier, he was introduced by John Scott to the shadow box constructions of American artist Joseph Cornell. “I identified with [them] immediately because I did similar things as a kid; I collected things and composed little environments. I made my first boxes around 1980, just

for me, not for sale. They were very personal, related to me and my past,” Cook wrote. Once, when asked how he could sacrifice one-of-a-kind, family memorabilia to his artwork, he said it was important that those precious papers and objects be original, not copies.

During his period of employment at NOMA, Cook took great interest in the Museum’s African collection, particularly those objects associated with ancestor recognition, as well as with “nail fetishes,” known as nkisi, with their accumulation of ritual objects. One work in particular, an Ejagham peoples’ Ngbe Society Lodge Emblem (illustrated) from Nigeria, had a profound influence on him, and this fascination with African art continued to inform Cook’s own artwork throughout his later career.

At the time of his receipt of the 1998 Seagram’s Gin “Perspectives in African American Art” program purchase award, Cook wrote about his winning work, Ancestral Guardian (illustrated), now in NOMA’s permanent collection. The essay eloquently speaks of the artist’s deep-seated beliefs and aspirations. “The inspiration for this piece has much to do with my ancestors: the unseen faces, the forgotten ones and their many years of suffering. I see suffering among the homeless everyday in my community. They remind me that everything results from something. My art is about my past and present. I feel a need to help and protect every living creature I see suffering. It is healing for me to create art about the victims I care about.”

He will be missed. n

Ngbe Society Lodge Emblem Ejagham peoples, Nigeria, Cross River Area Raffia, animal skulls, caning, wood, rope 48 x 42 x 11 inches (123.36 x 107.94 x 28.27 centimeters) Museum Purchase, 86.83

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Jeffrey Cook Ancestral Guardian, 1998 Mixed Media Gift from Seagram’s Gin to the New Orleans Museum of Art as part of the national program, “Perspectives in African American Art.”

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17

Marcus Coates: Animal Instincts

BY MIRANDA LASH Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art

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rnithologist, naturalist, artist, and shaman, Marcus Coates creates videos that examine humankind’s complicated relationship to other living species. As he explained in a 2005 interview: “I’ve always been interested in where the limits between human and nonhuman are.”1 In pursuit of this question, Coates has staged a variety of scenarios that attempt to capture the perspective of the animal world. In pieces such as Red Fox (Self Portrait), 1999, he crawls across the field wearing a red coverall assuming the guise of a fox; in Goshawk (Self Portrait), 1999, he ties himself to a spruce tree to obtain a bird’s-eye view. As he explains, “you can’t escape your humanness, but the point of my work has been to explore the degrees to which you can test that boundary and entertain the possibility of becoming something else.”

If the image of a grown man acting like a bird elicits a few laughs and an underlying sense of unease, that is part of the point. Consistently delivering his performances with deadpan earnestness, Coates throws the uncomfortable question out to his viewers—to what extent are his actions genuine or farce? Does the perceived strangeness of talking to animals illustrate the extent of the gap that now exists between humans and our planetary co-inhabitants? The dichotomy of human versus animal begins to appear specious as we are reminded that humans are in fact animals of a particular sort.

The potential and limits of cross-species dialogue are themes that Coates has explored in his videos over the past decade. His presentation at NOMA will feature a program of five pieces, covering a range of his work from the past ten years. Beginning with Stoat (1999), the earliest piece in this series, Coates emulates the scurrying of an ermine (an animal native to Britain) by tying double-pronged six-inch stilts to his feet and attempting to walk sideways down a dirt road. Awkwardly balanced, Coates teeters precariously down the path on his new four “legs.” In Finfolk (2003), filmed in Berwick-uponTweed in northern England near the Scottish border, Coates emerges from the North Sea assuming the persona of a seal. Updating a traditional folktale from Scotland, Iceland, and Norway, Coates films himself as a Selkie or Finfolk—a legendary creature capable of shedding its seal skin to appear human on land. Dressed in an Adidas tracksuit and sporting clip-on sunglasses, Coates climbs onto the pier and rants in an invented seal language.

Imagining the linguistic capabilities of a seal, Coates then attempts to speak like a human, creating intonations that recall everything from profanities to giddy squeaks and giggles. Just before a group of bystanders can approach him, Coates flips on his shades and returns to the sea, where he is spotted disappearing amidst the waves.

Humans mimicking animal behavior reoccur in Coates’s more recent piece, Dawn Chorus (2007) (designed also as a multi-channel video installation). For his background research, Coates worked with birdsong

Marcus Coates (British, born 1968) Finfolk, 2003 Digital video (production still, photo by Mark Pinder) Courtesy of the Artist and Workplace Gallery, UK

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expert Geoff Sample, placing fourteen microphones in the forests of Northumberland to record the dawn chorus of birds over a two-week period. The bird songs were then slowed down to a sixteenth of their original speed.

Coates asked members of the public to listen to and mimic these recordings while situated in their own natural “habitat”—at work, at home, or in the bath. The film was then returned to the speed of the original song.

The surprising result is a succession of human voices that sound eerily bird-like. Perhaps even more unnerving is the uncanny resemblance of their unconscious gestures to the movements of a bird when viewed at this rapid pace.

Coates’s immersion into the animal world goes one step further in performances where he assumes the role of a shaman with ties to the “lower world” of animal spirits. In Radio Shaman (2006), Coates provides his services to the people of Stavanger, a middle-class Norwegian town dealing with a sudden influx of Nigerian immigrants and a sharp rise in illegal prostitution. Dressed in a suit, spectacles, and stag skin, Coates probes the animal spirits while visiting Stavanger’s religious and political centers—the cathedral, city hall, and street corner—and reports his findings in an interview on Norwegian Radio. In Plover’s Wing (2009), Coates performs a parallel exercise in a meeting with the Mayor of Holon, Israel. After being asked what can be done about the problem of violence among the city’s youth, Coates enters a trance in the mayor’s office, and reports on his findings through a parable of an injured plover.

Featuring a yelping Englishman with a taxidermied animal on his head, Coates’s rituals at first seem designed as a comedy sketch. The purpose of his shamanistic trance, however, relates to more serious questions about whether shamanism (and perhaps spirituality in general) has a place in the twenty-first century. Having received his training in shamanism from a weekend workshop in Notting Hill, London, Coates remained skeptical of how shamanism has been adapted for Western use: “It seemed we are keeping only the nice bits, when actually a lot of the rituals in their traditional and historically accurate form could be violent, misogynistic and dangerous.” His desire to pursue shamanism in the end stemmed from a deep-seated interest in the historical role of the shaman as a curer of social ills and a problemsolver for the community.

Born in London in 1968, Marcus Coates studied Fine Art at Kent Institute of Art and Design and at the Royal Academy of Art in London. He has exhibited his work throughout the United Kingdom, at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Whitechapel Gallery, Tate Britain’s “Tate Triennial,” the Serpentine Gallery, and the Workplace Gallery in Gateshead. This is his first museum exhibition in the United States. n

Marcus Coates (British, born 1968) Radio Shaman, 2006 High-definition video still Courtesy of the Artist and Workplace Gallery, UK

Notes 1. Interview with the artist by Adriana Marques and Erica Berton for the exhibition Human Nature, London, 2005.

Marcus Coates: Animal Instincts is on view in the video room in the second-floor contemporary galleries through August 23, 2009.

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19

Mnemonic Devices: Rachel Jones and David Webber

BY MIRANDA LASH Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art

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onstituting the second installment of the Louisiana Contemporary exhibition series, Mnemonic Devices features the work of two emerging Louisiana artists, Rachel Jones and David Webber. Together their paintings and videos explore the process of selecting and assembling information from memories and pre-existing documents into new visual amalgams. Though they work in different mediums, the artists share an interest in dissolving imagery and narratives into expressive fragments. In her paintings, Jones operates through the power of suggestion. Snatches of human figures and landscapes hover on the edge of recognition. Webber, working in video, superimposes images on top of each other, evoking the cognitive process of recollection as it is built through associations.

The exhibition includes six new paintings by Jones.

Working with oil paint on thin sheets of plastic, Jones creates a lush array of textures in her paintings, ranging from watery dripping to thick impasto. The thin sheets of plastic attached directly onto the wall are designed to be site-specific. Time and distance are important to Jones, as she describes her paintings as constituting a “fourth degree of separation” from the original subject.

Beginning with old photographs found in magazines, Jones then photocopies the images on an old Xerox machine—deliberately allowing distortion to occur. After multiple generations of making copies from copies, the image begins to disintegrate into areas of shadow and light. These photocopies provide the basis for her painting compositions, although an additional layer of translation occurs as the image is recreated in paint.

To some extent, Jones’s process reveals an overall distrust with image making, both in art and historical documentation. At times using National Geographic as a source for her material, Jones questions the way so-called “straight” photography manipulates the subject to present a particular narrative. She explains: “Because photography is already a flat image, we can never be sure of the context in the first place. Once we have an image that is removed from its subject, we project a lot of things onto the context. Changing the image will change what we project.” Though she admits being drawn to photographs dealing with class or race issues or man’s relationship to nature, Jones is insistent that the specific content of her paintings remain a mystery. The work embraces its own subjectivity, as each filter that the image passes through requires another act of selection.

Instead of delving for the essential kernel of truth behind the original image, Jones instead is driven by the impulse to remake it into her own creation.

Working with video and film, Webber likewise explores the role of image filtering. “Without a protagonist or narrative,” he explains, “[my] work has much to do with one’s subjective interpretation of the subject matter and how the materials are composed.” In his video 22 Street, Philadelphia PA (2007), Webber uses multiple exposures to create a sensory memory of a street, focusing on “unremarkable places and scenes” seen on his walk to work: petrified gum, tree branch shadows, puddle reflections, and pavement. Things, he says, “we spend the most time looking at,” but which are also “the first things we forget.” Probing the retention of memory is also at work in his installation piece Residue

David Webber (American, born 1977) Stills from The Letter Y, 2006 Single-channel video projection (color with sound, 4:08 minutes) DV NTSC 720x480 (dimensions variable) Image courtesy of the Artist

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(2007). Displayed as a triptych of TV monitors, Residue uses footage from his father’s Super 8 family movies.

Webber explains: “I have vivid memories of events documented in this footage, but to my horror, I found out that this particular footage was shot long before I was born. These memories were actually constructed through our yearly ritual screening of these films.”

Webber’s method of presenting the footage, using twenty layers of intermodulated video, each fading in and out, is designed to echo the cognitive process of summoning memory. “When you see or remember something you are actually recalling multiple memory fragments together,” Webber explains. “Such a recollection process inspired this video; I wanted to represent what this process would possibly look like.”

Webber’s presentation of The Letter E and The Letter Y (2006), bridges his approach to video with Jones’s semi-abstract painting. Made of hand-painted 16mm filmstrips, the work engages with the tradition of “cameraless animation.”

A native of Oklahoma, Rachel Jones has lived in New Orleans since 2005. She received her MFA from the University of New Orleans in 2008. Her work has been exhibited locally at The Front, Arthur Roger “Project Space,” and Barrister’s Gallery, as well as nationally and internationally. In 2007 she had a solo-exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans. In 2008 she participated in a two-person exhibition at the Galerie in Amdechsdoff in Innsbruck, Austria, and in 2009 her work appeared in a group show at the Winkleman Gallery in New York.

Originally from outside Philadelphia, Webber currently lives in Lafayette. He received his BFA from Tufts University in 2001 while concurrently studying at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He received his MFA in Electronic Integrated Arts from Alfred University, New York, in 2007. He has exhibited his work in numerous film festivals, including the Cork Film Festival in Ireland, the LOOP 08 International Festival for Video Art in Barcelona, and the Dérapage festival in Quebec. He has participated in exhibitions in Philadelphia, Boston, the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, and most recently the Acadiana Center for the Arts 2008 “Southern Open.” Webber is currently an Assistant Professor of Media Art at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette where he teaches video, film, sound, installation, and performance art. In his spare time, he creates analog synthesizers and makes electro-acoustic music. n

David Webber (American, born 1977) Stills from Residue, 2007 Three channel CRT video installation (45 minutes) 6 feet wide, pedestals variable Image courtesy of the Artist

Mnemonic Devices: Rachel Jones and David Webber is on view in the Frederick R. Weisman Galleries through August 23, 2009.

A Gallery Walk-through will be given by the artists on Wednesday, July 29, at 6 p.m.

Rachel Jones (American, born 1979) Ritual, 2008 Oil on synthetic paper 8 x 5 feet Image courtesy of the Artist

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MORNING YOGA IN THE SCULPTURE GARDEN It’s hard to imagine a more serene and beautiful setting for a morning yoga session than the sculpture garden at the New Orleans Museum of Art. Presented by a certified yoga instructor from the EJGH Wellness Center, each session is designed to give your mind and body the perfect workout to start your day.

Classes are from 8 - 9 a.m. on the following dates in 2009: July 11, August 1, September 5, October 3 and November 7. Cost is $5 per session for NOMA members. Participants should bring a yoga mat, or can purchase one for $10.

All participants must pre-register by calling EJGH HealthFinder at 504-456-5000.

Presented by East Jefferson General Hospital and the Besthoff Sculpture Garden at the New Orleans Museum of Art.

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NEW ORLEANS MUSEUM OF ART

FLOATULENTS: Inflatable Photographs

by Martin von Haselberg

BY DIEGO CORTEZ The Freeman Family Curator of Photography, NOMA

M

artin von Haselberg (aka Harry Kipper) is a member of the infamous London and L.A. based 1970s performance art duo, The Kipper Kids. Also in the early ’70s, he began evolving his deeply psychological public performance work into personal photographic self-portraiture, a practice which he continues today. His musings and extreme muggings for the camera are both comical and aberrative. Their zaniness borders on the insane. His artistic lineage leads the viewer from the slapstick clowning of Spike Jones or Karl Valentin to the heightened abreaction and confrontational politics of the 1960s Vienna Aktionists.

In this, von Haselberg’s first U.S. museum show, his latest photographic experiments are presented as inflatable works, which instead of rising into the air, rest upon the floor as sculptures. “FLOATULENTS” are air balloons in the sense of Warhol’s 1964 “Silver Flotations,” but they are more than mere design. Von Haselberg describes these new works as “time-based,” as springing from the facial contortions and grimaces of his performances. But here the balloons are the performers, rather than Martin or Brian of The Kipper Kids.

A framed “balloon sections” study, included in the show, reminds us of Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion Maps (1936-1956). It could also serve as a bantam retrospective of von Haselberg’s photographic oeuvre—a retinal fragmentation of his work. Colors and shapes are intensified in much the same way late ’70s New York graffitists (Crash, Daze, Dondi, Zephyr, etc.) heightened their “tropicalist” palette and inflated the outlines of their calligraphy into the famous “bubble style.”

FLOATULENTS are made from images printed on glassine, a delicate archival material normally used to protect photographs and art. They are stitched together and then inflated. Their fragility conceptually alludes to the malleability and frailty of the artist’s ego. (Freud described the ego as a blase or bubble.) Images of the artist’s face stare out at us from the crinkly surfaces of the inflatables, which look crushed, in a procedure that John Chamberlain or Frank Gehry might employ, to lead the

way to abstraction. Their modernist shapes recall Isamu Noguchi’s “Akari” light sculptures, begun in 1951. Von Haselberg’s consistent use of his face as subject, from his earliest performances as Harry Kipper to his subsequent photo auto-portraits, is proof of his long-standing concern with issues related to the psyche, the id and ego of the artist, and the source of his own creative acts.

The photographic components of FLOATULENTS were shot in Austria, Germany, Hungary, Italy, and Argentina, usually under a single light, normally a chandelier or wall fixture, or in the natural illumination of churches. Others were shot in castles, junkyards, and even a forest. The black and white images were taken in the studio in New York. After they are photographed, images are digitally manipulated. Their torsion and distortion raises issues of the plasticity of the body in performance, and of the face in photography, particularly the face used as a solitary “theater” for the creation of other “selves,” perhaps in pursuit of the Anatta, or “nonself,” also found in the work of Claude Cahun or Cindy Sherman. Ultimately, von Haselberg’s work uses ironic procedures to subvert self-importance. “Self” and “ego” are everywhere undermined with humor and critical rigor. Perhaps the homonymic echo between FLOATULENTS and flatulence is von Haselberg’s ultimate comment on artistic production itself.

Martin von Haselberg was born in Buenos Aires in 1949 and lives in Los Angeles and New York. His work has been exhibited at P.S.1, New York; Galleria Emilio Mazzoli, Modena; Glenn Horowitz Booksellers, New York; Zabriskie Gallery, New York; Dokumenta, Kassel; and Black Dragon Society, Los Angeles and Vienna. n FLOATULENTS: Inflatable Photographs by Martin von Haselberg is the third in the _museological exhibition series curated by Diego Cortez, Freeman Family Curator of Photography. The exhibition remains on view until September 20, 2009.

Martin von Haselberg Untitled (FLOATULENT), 2009 Archival inkjet print on glassine Five panels each 62 x 38 inches

ARTS QUARTERLY

23

Fabergé Egg Hunt Brings Bunnies and Bounce to the Sculpture Garden

BY LAURA CARMAN NVC Publications Co-Chair

CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS

24

N

o doubt a few of the 6,000 candy eggs hidden under the irises in NOMA’s Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden are still lurking there, but not many! Thanks to the bountiful donation from Elmer’s Candy Corporation and other sponsors, the NVC’s fourth annual Fabergé Egg Hunt delighted hundreds of children on March 29, 2009.

Parents, grandparents, and friends of the children, as well as Chairs Jennifer Rareshide and Leila Gamard and their committee, all joined in to make sure the young crowd had a bundle of fun at the event and a basket of treats to take home. The little ones enjoyed visits from five real bunnies and from the Easter Bunny himself, whose sartorial splendor was another contribution from Elmer’s.

Attendees enjoyed lively music by Papillon and exquisite embellishments applied by face painters from Uncle Wayne’s Porta-Puppets. The children displayed lots of creativity at the arts and crafts table, and were equally enthusiastic at the refreshment tables, where they devoured sugar cookies and enjoyed cold water donated

by Kentwood, and activity drinks and popsicles donated

by Sqwincher. Attendees also quenched their thirst with water boxes by Aqua to Go. The Equestrian Angels, an organization that uses ponies therapeutically to help disadvantaged, disabled, and ill children, proved a huge attraction, with a pony to pet. And not only was the Easter Bunny bouncing, but the partygoers were too, thanks to the donation of a Bounce House and popcorn

by Bounce Across New Orleans. Plan to make this springtime party in the garden an annual tradition for your little loved ones! n

Walt Disney's world is coming to NOMA. Dreams Come True: Art of The Classic Fairy Tales from the Walt Disney Studio opens to the general public on Sunday, November 15, 2009. This blockbuster exhibition will run through March 14, 2010 and is expected to draw record crowds to NOMA. This means we will need a record number of volunteers to see that everything runs smoothly. There are many areas in which volunteers will be needed, including Logistics, Audio Tour, Membership Desk, Admissions Desk, Museum Shop, Auditorium and more. Shifts will be for four hours on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Be a part of the production and the excitement of a once-in-a-lifetime exhibition. New Orleans is the only North American venue for Dreams Come True, which will feature more than 600 original artworks that shaped the animated features.

Please call Gretchen or Molly in the volunteer office at 504-658-4137 so that you can plan to attend the first orientation in the fall. You may also e-mail mstpaul@noma.org. n

NEW ORLEANS MUSEUM OF ART

Taylor Scholars Honored at NOMA

BY JIM MULVIHILL Director of Communications and Marketing, NOMA

T

hanks to the Taylor Scholars Awards, at least 143,151 Louisiana students in seventh through twelfth grades will receive free memberships to the New Orleans Museum of Art and Audubon Zoo as a reward for their hard work during the recently concluded academic year.

The total number of qualifying students (those with a GPA of 2.5 or higher) is a record since Hurricane Katrina and nearly equals the 2005 number from before the flooding of New Orleans, reflecting positive trends in both repopulation and student achievement.

This year’s tally was announced in a May 6 ceremony at the New Orleans Museum of Art featuring Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu, NOMA Director E. John Bullard, Audubon Institute President and CEO Ron Forman, and Taylor Energy Company President and CEO Phyllis M. Taylor, who co-founded the Taylor Scholars Awards program with her husband Patrick Taylor in 1996.

“It was my late husband’s dream to teach the valuable life lesson to the youth of Louisiana that rewards come from hard work,” said Taylor. “These students have shown that perseverance pays. We hope that they’ll continue to realize the importance of education and applying themselves academically.”

Landrieu, who made a special trip from Baton Rouge in the midst of a tense legislative session, stressed the importance of arts education while recognizing the unparalleled contributions of the Taylors to making higher education accessible to all Louisiana residents.

Bullard and Forman echoed the lieutenant governor’s sentiments regarding the generosity of Phyllis Taylor, a longtime supporter of both the Museum and the Audubon Institute.

The Taylor/Audubon Students and Scholars program was created in 1996 through a $750,000 gift (which has increased to $900,000 today) from Mr. Taylor to establish, in perpetuity, an incentive for Louisiana’s students. The Taylor/NOMA Scholars Awards program was created the

following year through a $360,000 endowment from the Patrick F. Taylor Foundation.

“Education is a key component of our mission at the New Orleans Museum of Art,” said Bullard. “Offering unlimited access to 4,000 years of world art history is a gift worth far more than just the cost of admission. This is an award that could inspire young adults to new experiences and opportunities, perhaps even careers, which will impact the rest of their lives.”

The ceremony also featured the Brother Martin High School NJROTC Color Guard; the Pledge of Allegiance by Cabrini High School student Shoendella Vadoe; the national anthem performed by Patrick F. Taylor Science and Technology Academy student Krysten Jones; a poem

by Cabrini High School senior Michelle Pizer, as read by her classmate, Kayla Wichterich; and a moving speech about the benefits of the Taylor Scholars Awards and the Taylor Opportunity Program for Students by Xavier University freshman Ariel Celeste Johnson.

The total number of Taylor Scholars for 2009 was unveiled in dramatic fashion. Five Patrick F. Taylor Academy students—John Fox, Edward Johnson, Krysten Jones, A.J. McGee and Kori Williams—danced down the stairs of the Great Hall, second-line style, before joining Phyllis Taylor to reveal the six-digit number on colorful parasols designed by members of the Museum’s Teen Advisory Board.

The Times-Picayune recognized the Taylor Scholars Awards on its May 8 Opinions page in a weekly feature called “Signs of Recovery.”

June 6 is the official “Taylor Scholars Awards Day” at Audubon Zoo, Audubon Aquarium of the Americas and the New Orleans Museum of Art. Students can bring their parents or guardians plus two guests for free that day as they visit the facilities to which they’ve been awarded a Taylor Membership. Information about the Taylor Scholars Awards has been sent to schools statewide.

Additional details can be found online at www.taylorplan.com/scholarsawards, or call the special hotline for teachers and parents at (504) 889-8882. n

Left: Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu, Phyllis M. Taylor, and NOMA Director E. John Bullard Right: Phyllis M. Taylor with students (left to right) Blake Reimmuth, Emily Chaplain, Colette Williams, Erin Doherty Photos by Judy Cooper

Left: Phyllis M. Taylor and students reveal the total number of Taylor Scholars for 2009 Right: E. John Bullard, Phyllis M. Taylor, New Orleans City Councilwoman Jackie Clarkson, and Audubon Institute President / CEO Ron Forman Photos by Judy Cooper

ARTS QUARTERLY

25

2009 Delgado Award Winner Celebrated at Fellows Dinner

BY JIM MULVIHILL Director of Communications and Marketing, NOMA

W

hen 2009 Isaac Delgado Memorial Award winner S. Stewart Farnet first addressed the Museum’s Board of Trustees as their new president in January 2005, he acknowledged that the year ahead would bring many difficult challenges. He was right, of course, but could not have known at the time just how right. Almost nine months later the New Orleans Museum of Art would be an island surrounded by the brackish floodwaters resulting from a massive levee failure.

While pundits across the nation questioned whether the city could ever come back, the staff and trustees of its premier fine arts museum had already committed to ensuring that it would. Farnet was the first trustee to make it back to the Museum in September and was among those who assisted with the physical cleaning of the building. With the city nearly deserted and paid labor almost impossible to come by, those who were able did whatever was necessary to protect the building and its contents from further damage, from bailing water out of the basement to removing water-damaged drywall. By October, Farnet had appointed a Recovery Committee to establish a strategic plan for soliciting and securing funds to reopen the Museum.

Farnet personally set the Museum’s economic recovery rolling, writing a significant check that established the momentum for fundraising in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. Following his example, other trustees and supporters stepped up to the challenge of saving the Museum despite the personal economic hardships everyone in New Orleans suffered at the time.

Desiring to maintain stability, as well as to retain his expertise and leadership, the Board of Trustees re-elected Farnet president for 2006. Thus, he continued managing or supporting many of the most important projects related to Katrina recovery: documenting Museum and Sculpture Garden losses for submission to FEMA; preparing an updated Emergency Preparedness plan; and

2009 Delgado Award recipient Stewart Farnet and NOMA Director E. John Bullard.

Photo by Judy Cooper.

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obtaining architects for repairs to the Museum and Sculpture Garden through the City of New Orleans.

“Stewart Farnet’s loyal devotion to NOMA and his strong leadership in the months after Katrina, in the face of great personal loss, were an inspiration to our staff and trustees,” said NOMA Director E. John Bullard. “The Museum would not have been able to reopen as quickly as it did, nor would we have been able to rebuild our exhibitions, programs and staff without his outstanding leadership.”

Farnet’s achievements as President of the Board of Trustees only added to a stellar service record that began when he was first elected a trustee in 1997. As a prominent New Orleans architect, he was the ideal chair of NOMA’s Building and Grounds Committee, serving every year since 1998, except for the two years he served as president of the board and the one year he served as vice president (2004). In this capacity, his dedication and expertise insured completion of the construction of NOMA’s Besthoff Sculpture Garden.

This year’s Delgado Award was presented, as is custom, at the annual Fellows Dinner, held April 19 at the Museum. Chaired by Adrea Heebe, the event attracted its largest crowd in recent memory. Kenny Lacour of Dakota Cuvee catered the exquisite dinner that included New Orleans crab cakes with jalapeno-dill aioli and basil-crusted salmon. Fat Cat Flowers provided arrangements of yellow snapdragons, orange parrot tulips, and lavender roses. The Joe Simon Jazz Trio entertained throughout the evening. n The Isaac Delgado Memorial Award 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1982 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

-

Arthur Feitel A.-Q. Peterson Edith Rosenwald Stern Mr. and Mrs. Frederick M. Stafford Elizabeth Wisner Armand Hammer Doris Zemurray Stone Muriel Bultman Francis Montine McDaniel Freeman Shirley Latter Kaufmann Beverley Muller Charles Kohlmeyer, Jr. Robert J. Newman Sunny Norman Moise S. Steeg, Jr. Louis M. Freeman Jack Aron Ernest A. Carrere, Jr. Françoise B. Richardson Freeport-McMoRan & James R. Moffett E. John Bullard James B. Byrnes Matilda Stream William Fagaly Mr. and Mrs. Patrick F. Taylor Dr. Kurt Gitter Mr. and Mrs. Sydney Besthoff III Zemurray Foundation Jacqueline L. Sullivan Paul J. Leaman, Jr. Prescott N. Dunbar S. Stewart Farnet

NEW ORLEANS MUSEUM OF ART

Marilyn Rusovich and Matilda Stream.

Photo by Judy Cooper.

NOMA Trustee Paul Leaman, NOMA Life Trustee Jeri Nims, and NOMA Trustee David Edwards.

Photo by Judy Cooper.

Ted and Julie George and NOMA Board President Steve Hansel.

Photo by Judy Cooper.

Front, seated AimĂŠe and 2009 Delgado Award Recipient Stewart Farnet, surrounded by their children and grandchildren. Photo by Judy Cooper.

NOMA Life Trustee Leah Chase and her son, NOMA Trustee Dr. Edgar L. Chase III. Photo by Judy Cooper.

ARTS QUARTERLY

Seated at left, NOMA Trustee Adrea Heebe with her aunt Marjorie Van Dervort and her husband Dominick A. Russo, Jr. Photo by Judy Cooper.

27

Spring in the Garden: A Look Back

BY PAMELA BUCKMAN

W

e had a sensational spring in the Besthoff Sculpture Garden, with Louisiana irises acting as a blooming backdrop for many activities. The festivities included the Fabergé Easter Egg Hunt, the Iris Viewing Festival, Saturday morning sunrise yoga classes with East Jefferson Hospital Wellness Center, and several garden tours. A beautiful new sculpture, affectionately called “Alphabet Man” by the Spanish master Jaume Plensa, has been installed in the Oak Grove. Enjoy these images!

Sculpture Garden Manager

© Coleen Perilloux Landry

© Judy Cooper

© Patrick O’ Connor

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© Coleen Perilloux Landry

© Coleen Perilloux Landry

© Patrick O’ Connor

© Judy Cooper

© Coleen Perilloux Landry

© Patrick O’ Connor

NEW ORLEANS MUSEUM OF ART

Flower Power: NVC Volunteers Bring Beauty to the Great Hall

BY LAURA CARMAN NVC Publications Co-Chair

H

ave you wondered which professional floral designers create those beautiful arrangements in the urns in NOMA’s Great Hall? None at all! Instead, volunteer Flower Teams exercise their creativity and share camaraderie while assembling the arrangements almost every week. The teams include garden and botanical clubs such as New Orleans Garden Society, Ikebana, New Orleans Town Gardeners, Junior League Garden Club, Covington Garden Club, Lake Vista Garden Club, and Ferran-Taft Garden Club. However, not every team is affiliated with a club. “Some teams are made up of folks who have just joined together for fun and to help NOMA,” explained NVC Vice Chair (Activities) Carol Hall.

Donations to the NVC NOMA Flower Fund make possible the purchase of the floral supplies. A budget is given to each team, and the flower selection is left to the aesthetic discretion of the group.

Creating arrangements that soar three or four feet above the two stately urns and may be viewed on all sides and from the balconies above takes quite a bit of expertise, planning, and work. “The team has to decide on logistics, the design, and the flowers to be used.

Considerations include the season, the current exhibit in the Great Hall, and most importantly, the budget,” noted Alice Lowry, leader of the Lake Vista Garden Club team.

In mid-April, that team was assigned to do the arrangements. Consisting of all new members since Hurricane Katrina, the team has been fortunate to have the assistance of a volunteer advisor, Wayne Christenberry of Evergreen Florist. Although Christenberry arranges many an urn for private parties and hotels, assisting the garden club with designs for the Great Hall is satisfying volunteer work “because the arrangements are enjoyed by more of the general public than arrangements in private venues,” he said.

Early on the designated morning, Lowry pulled up her truck loaded with huge boxes of flowers fresh from the wholesaler. Other team members soaked floral foam, propped up a ladder provided by the Museum at each

Starting with line. Renee Lehon, on ladder; Wayne Christenberry; Suzanne Tyler.

Photo by Laura Carman.

ARTS QUARTERLY

urn, and spread a rainbow of flowers across the base of the grand stairs.

Explaining to the team how to proceed, Christenberry advised, “First you start with line.” Team members Renee Lehon and Mary Costelloe, perched on the ladders, began to plant columnar stalks of purple leatrice, bells of Ireland, leatherleaf fern, and myrtle in the floral foam, which gave height and form to the design.

“Then you add mass,” Christenberry instructed. Team members not on the ladders, Alice Lowry, Suzanne Tyler, and I, trimmed stems of dozens of flowers and greenery, including pink stock, yellow spider mums, rose-hued alstroemeria, and daisy poms to give width and fullness, and passed those stems up to the ladder volunteers. For some bright colored “pop,” we inserted orange lily buds, which would open and look fresh at mid-week. Lowry and Tyler assisted in directing the ladder volunteers to balance the arrangements from all sides. I climbed to the second floor balcony to check the arrangements’ symmetry from above and photograph the fruits of our labor. More than 250 stems were used that morning to fill the two urns!

Clubs or individuals interested in participating should contact Carol Hall at (504) 887-6094, or her co-chair, Jerrye St. Martin, at (985) 653-6589. Don’t be daunted by the idea of mounting ladders. The urns can be moved for those who prefer to stay grounded. It is not necessary to have a design professional to advise your team; in fact, most teams go it alone. Sign up and use your creativity!

Please consider donating to the NVC Flower Fund, established to provide a means to honor or memorialize friends or loved ones or to commemorate an event.

Honorees, or the families of those memorialized, are notified and the gift will be acknowledged in the “Contributions” section of Arts Quarterly. For additional information on donating to the NVC Flower Fund or volunteering for Flower Teams, call the Museum at (504) 658-4121. n

Finishing touches. Left to right, front row: Alice Lowry, Suzanne Tyler, Laura Carman.

Back row: Renee Lehon, Mary Costelloe.

Photo by Wayne Christenberry.

Lake Vista Garden Club April Flower Team.

Left to right, front: Renee Lehon, Laura Carman, Mary Costelloe; back: Suzanne Tyler, Wayne Christenberry, Alice Lowry.

Photo by Kristin Jochem.

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ART IN BLOOM: A Blooming Success!

BY VIRGINIA PANNO NVC Reporter

F

or five glorious days in March, the twenty-first annual Art in Bloom graced the galleries of NOMA. A joint project of the New Orleans Museum of Art and the Garden Study Club of New Orleans, Le Jardin des Arts was a feast for the senses with more than 100 exhibitors highlighting the rich artistic culture that is New Orleans.

The Patron and Preview Party opened the festivities on Wednesday, March 11. Songstress Anais St. John and pianist Harry Mayronne set the stage for an exciting evening. Auctioneer Ruthie Winston kept tempo at the live auction, where White Empress, the stunning original oil created expressly for Art in Bloom by Auseklis Ozols, went to delighted high-bidder Jean Bragg.

The exquisite floral displays that make Art in Bloom a rite of spring in New Orleans did not disappoint. Every color of the rainbow was evident as the participating artists, designers, landscapers, garden clubbers, and celebrity guests interpreted a particular artwork from the Museum’s collection—some with whimsy, others with high drama, all simply gorgeous!

More than thirty of the area’s top restaurants and caterers were not to be outdone. The outstanding cuisine and libations added to the evening’s fun. Guests gushed as to their latest food discovery. The three floors of NOMA held one delicious gastronomic find after another.

The Thursday morning lectures had standing room only. Artist Tim Trapolin was quite the raconteur, delighting his audience with hometown anecdotes while filling the auditorium stage with his stunning arrangements. Popular author and journalist Julia Reed regaled audiences with stories from her Greenville, Mississippi youth and her days as food columnist for The New York Times Magazine. Slides of prandial delights

from her First Street dining room were accompanied by hints and how-to’s in Julia’s inimitable southern style. Her lively books were available for purchase after the lectures.

Highlights Catering provided the delicious luncheon at the Pavilion of the Two Sisters. Fabulous fashions for both men and women created quite the runway buzz, courtesy of Saks Fifth Avenue. The beautiful jewelry pieces of guest designer and philanthropist Joan Hornig were on display and were available at Saks for purchase.

Art in Bloom received one hundred percent of the profits from the jewelry sales. Flower Magazine editor Margot Shaw, who was in attendance, supplied each luncheon guest with a copy of her handsome publication.

Marilee Hovet of the Garden Study Club, and Caroline Calhoun, her NOMA counterpart, co-chaired Art in Bloom 2009. The event’s great success was due in no small measure to the enthusiasm and panache of these two lovely young women. “Working on Art in Bloom was a pleasure from beginning to end,” remarked Hovet.

“It was truly a collaborative effort and I loved watching the whole event come together. The most rewarding part of the whole experience was having the opportunity to work with so many wonderful people. From the absolutely phenomenal staff and volunteer committee at NOMA, to the AIB committee and, of course, the talented exhibitors and speakers—everyone was generous with their time and talent, and I feel fortunate to have been a part of that.” Calhoun echoed those sentiments: “Art in Bloom is so well recognized in the community. All of New Orleans wants to participate. I feel so lucky to have chaired such a wonderful event! I now have such a strong feeling for the Museum and the Garden Study Club. They are both treasures to our beloved city.” ■

Left: Artists JoAnn Greenberg and Auseklis Ozols Right: Tommy Westervelt, Susan Gundlach, and Bill Hines Photos by Judy Cooper

Left: E. John Bullard; AIB Auction Co-Chair Kay McArdle; NVC Chair Diane Walmsley and spouse, Hughes Walmsley

Right: Le Jardin des Arts Co-Chair Caroline Calhoun; Saks Fifth Avenue’s Steven Putt; and Le Jardin Co-Chair Marilee Hovet Photos by Judy Cooper

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NEW ORLEANS MUSEUM OF ART

Tablescapes Co-Chair Sallee Benjamin; Flower Magazine’s Margot Shaw; Garden Study Club President Sally Suthon; and AIB Luncheon Co-Chair Susan Wormser. Photo by Judy Cooper.

NOMA Trustee Edgar L. Chase III; Joel Dondis, Sucré; Ashley and Timothy Francis, NOMA Trustee. Photo by Judy Cooper.

Adele Wallace and Matilda Stream. Photo by Judy Cooper.

The Montine McDaniel Freeman Director of NOMA, E. John Bullard, with James Carville. Photo by Judy Cooper.

Art in Bloom gratefully acknowledges the following: Underwriters Eugenie and Joseph Jones Family Foundation Friend of Art in Bloom Auseklis Ozols Saks Fifth Avenue Sponsors Iberia Bank Luzianne Superior Energy Services, Inc.

Magnolias Ashley and Scott Bohn Marion and Pepper Bright Dana and Steve Hansel Harrah’s New Orleans J. Edgar Monroe Foundation Paul J. Leaman, Jr. Paula Maher Holly and Fred Mentz Mr. and Mrs. Nat P. Phillips, Jr. Sally Richards Francoise Richardson Suzanne and Gregory Rusovich Anne Strachan and Skip Eichin

The Lupin Foundation Boh Bros.

Dr. and Mrs. Walter Cockerham First NBC Flower Magazine HRI Properties Jones Walker King Company, LP

***Patrons who missed print deadline for the Art in Bloom program listed below***

Orchid Caroline and Murray Calhoun Marcia Riemer Calhoun, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. John J. Charpentier Dathel and John Georges JoAnn Flom Greenberg Susan and Jimmy Gundlach Jennifer and Fred Heebe Marilee and Andrew Hovet Eugenie Jones Huger Mr. and Mrs. Charles Buck Mayer Elizabeth and Chris Thompson Diane and Hughes Walmsley Sibyl M. White

Hibiscus Susan and Ralph Brennan Helen and Kim Butcher Mamie and Kirk Gasperecz Pam and Peck Hayne Sally and Jay Lapeyre Courtney LeClercq Mr. and Mrs. Donald P. Mitchell Michael Valentino

ARTS QUARTERLY

Gardenia Kia Silverman and Christy Brown Kathleen Van Horn Julia Nuzum

Camellias Mrs. Richard Currence Lorraine Friedrichs Caroline Nelson

2008 Art in Bloom Co-Chair Dana Hansel and husband Stephen Hansel, president, NOMA Board of Trustees. Photo by Judy Cooper.

Azaleas Faye Ballard Molly Baumer Burton E. Benrud Robert Bracken Winnie and Mark Brown Beverly Church Edgar L. Chase III Robin and Bruce Crutcher JoAnn Christopher and Jozsef Toth Dr. and Mrs. Hugh M. Collins Pam Cooper Mignon Faget Mr. and Mrs. James H. Fenner Carolyn Fitpatrick Elaine Gleason Claus Grassell Elizabeth Goodyear Sanda Groome Gregory Holt Rachel Hoormann Allison Kendrick Neela N. Kulkarni Mary Lucy Lane Julie LeCorgne Carol and Al Merlin Greer Monteleone Priscilla O’Quinn Nicole Provosty Sulas & Co. Calvin D. Sanders Leigh Smith Beth Terry Yvonne La Fleur Walsh Denise Williams Anna Whitlow

Chris Owens. Photo ©Sheri M. B. McKee of Where Y’at Magazine.

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Circles and Fellows of the New Orleans Museum of Art

T

he two most prestigious levels of annual giving in support of the New Orleans Museum of Art are the Circles and the Fellows. We invite you to consider upgrading your support of NOMA and join the following Circles and Fellows of the New Orleans Museum of Art. For information, please call 504-658-4107. n

Circles CIRCLES

ircles

PRESIDENT’S CIRCLE

Mrs. Jack R. Aron Mr. and Mrs. Sydney J. Besthoff III The Booth-Bricker Fund Mr. and Mrs. Ralph O. Brennan Collins C. Diboll Private Foundation Mr. and Mrs. David F. Edwards Mr. and Mrs. S. Stewart Farnet Dr. and Mrs. Ludovico S. Feoli Mr. and Mrs. Stephen A. Hansel Ms. Adrea D. Heebe and Mr. Dominick A. Russo, Jr. Helis Foundation Mr. Jerry Heymann Heymann-Wolf Foundation Mrs. Killian L. Huger, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. David A. Kerstein Mr. Paul J. Leaman, Jr. Mrs. Paula L. Maher Mr. and Mrs. Charles B. Mayer Mrs. Robert Nims Mr. and Mrs. Gray S. Parker Mr. and Mrs. Charles S. Reily, Jr. Mrs. Françoise B. Richardson Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin M. Rosen Mr. and Mrs. Robert Shelton Mrs. Patrick F. Taylor Zemurray Foundation

PATRON’S CIRCLE Mr. and Mrs. William D. Aaron, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Wayne F. Amedee Mr. E. John Bullard Mr. and Mrs. Mark Carey Mr. and Mrs. William K. Christovich Dr. and Mrs. Isidore Cohn, Jr. Mr. Leonard A. Davis Mr. and Mrs. Prescott N. Dunbar Mr. and Mrs. H. M. Favrot, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Timothy Francis Mr. Richard W. Freeman, Jr. Mrs. Sandra D. Freeman Mr. and Mrs. James J. Frischhertz Mr. and Mrs. Edward N. George Mrs. John D. Guthrie Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Heebe Ms. Allison Kendrick Mr. Henry M. Lambert and Mr. R. Carey Bond Mr. and Mrs. Thomas B. Lemann Dr. Edward D. Levy, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. J. Thomas Lewis Dr. and Mrs. E. Ralph Lupin Mr. and Mrs. Paul J. Masinter Mr. and Mrs. Edward C. Mathes Ms. Kay McArdle Dr. and Mrs. Alvin S. Merlin Mr. and Mrs. R. King Milling Mrs. Ellis Mintz Mr. and Mrs. Michael D. Moffitt Robert and Myrtis Nims Foundation Dr. Howard and Dr. Joy D. Osofsky Mr. and Mrs. R. Hunter Pierson, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. James J. Reiss, Jr. Dr. and Mrs. Edward F. Renwick Mr. and Mrs. R. Randolph Richmond, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Brian A. Schneider Mr. and Mrs. Edward Shearer Mr. and Mrs. Bruce L. Soltis Mrs. Harold H. Stream, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. James L. Taylor Mrs. John N. Weinstock Mrs. Henry H. Weldon Mr. and Mrs. Louis A. Wilson, Jr.

DIRECTOR’S CIRCLE Mr. and Mrs. F. Macnaughton Ball, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. John D. Bertuzzi Ms. Tina Freeman and Mr. Philip Woollam Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence D. Garvey Mrs. Harry Greenberg Mrs. Charles W. Ireland Mr. and Mrs. Erik F. Johnsen Mr. and Mrs. Peter R. Monrose, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Robert J. Patrick Dr. and Mrs. James F. Pierce Mr. and Mrs. George Rodrigue Ms. Debra B. Shriver Mrs. Margaret B. Soniat and Mr. Joel J. Soniat Dr. and Mrs. Richard L. Strub Mrs. Nan S. Wier

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FELLOWS Mr. John Abajian and Mr. Scott R. Simmons Mrs. Adele L. Adatto Dr. and Mrs. Kenneth N. Adatto Mrs. Jimi Andersen Mrs. Jack R. Anderson Mrs. H. W. Bailey Mr. and Mrs. William F. Banta Mrs. Howard T. Barnett Ms. Roberta P. Bartee Mr. and Mrs. Beauregard L. Bassich

NEW ORLEANS MUSEUM OF ART

Mr. Robert M. Becnel and Ms. Diane K. Zink Mr. and Mrs. Edward B. Benjamin, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. W. Mente Benjamin Mr. and Mrs. Dorian M. Bennett Mr. and Mrs. Michael A. Berenson Mrs. Marian Mayer Berkett Ms. Virginia Besthoff and Ms. Nancy Aronson Dr. Siddharth K. Bhansali Mr. and Mrs. Robert H. Boh Mr. and Mrs. Donald T. Bollinger Mrs. Jane Bories and Mr. Sam Corenswet Ms. Jean M. Bragg Dr. and Mrs. Joseph Brenner Mr. and Mrs. Edgar E. Bright, Jr. Mrs. B. Temple Brown, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Perry S. Brown Mr. and Mrs. William D. Brown Mr. and Mrs. Christopher Bruno Ms. Debra Bryant and Mr. Fred Riddlemeyer Ms. Pamela R. Burck Mr. Harold H. Burns Mr. and Mrs. Joseph C. Canizaro Mr. James Carville and Ms. Mary Matalin Dr. and Mrs. Edgar L. Chase III Mr. and Mrs. William J. Chaucer, Jr. Dr. Victor P. Chisesi Mr. Stephen W. Clayton Mr. and Mrs. John Clemmer Mr. and Mrs. Thomas B. Coleman Ms. Shirley Colomb and Don Clausing Mr. Barry J. Cooper and Mr. Stuart H. Smith Mr. and Mrs. Orlin Corey Mr. and Mrs. Camille A. Cutrone Mr. and Mrs. Charles B. Davis III John W. Deming and Bertie Murphy Deming Foundation Mr. and Mrs. Con G. Demmas Drs. Raja W. and Nina Dhurandhar Mrs. Albert S. Dittmann, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Clancy DuBos Dr. Clayton B. Edisen Dr. and Mrs. John Ollie Edmunds, Jr. Mrs. Eleanor T. Farnsworth Dr. and Mrs. K. Barton Farris Mr. and Mrs. C. Allen Favrot Mr. and Mrs. D. Blair Favrot Mr. and Mrs. Edward Feinman Mr. and Mrs. Darwin C. Fenner Ms. Natalie Fielding Mrs. Julia Fishelson Ms. Anne A. Fitzhugh Mr. and Mrs. Richard B. Fox Mr. and Mrs. Louis M. Freeman Mrs. Gore Friedrichs Mr. and Mrs. Louis L. Frierson Mrs. Anne Gauthier Dr. and Mrs. Charles F. Genre Mrs. Dennis A. Georges Dr. Kurt Gitter and Mrs. Alice Rae Yelen Mrs. Luba B. Glade Mrs. Louis A. Glazer Mr. and Mrs. Mason Granger Ms. Susan Talley and Mr. James C. Gulotta, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. James O. Gundlach Mr. and Mrs. John W. Hall Mrs. H. Lloyd Hawkins, Jr.

ARTS QUARTERLY

Mr. and Mrs. Edward M. Heller Mr. and Mrs. Theo M. Heller Mrs. S. Herbert Hirsch Mrs. William H. Hodges Joan Von Kurnatowski Hooper and Julian Feibelman Mr. and Mrs. John C. Hope III Mr. Harry T. Howard III Mr. and Mrs. Arthur W. Huguley III Mr. and Mrs. Alex T. Hunt, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Marvin L. Jacobs Mr. and Mrs. Harold B. Judell Mrs. Arthur L. Jung, Jr. Mrs. Gloria S. Kabacoff Mrs. Irene Klinger Mr. and Mrs. John E. Koerner III Mrs. E. James Kock, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. John P. Laborde Dr. and Mrs. W. Wayne Lake, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Charles W. Lane III Mr. and Mrs. James M. Lapeyre, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. John H. Lawrence Rita Benson LeBlanc Mr. Victor C. Leglise, Sr. Mr. and Mrs. Frank L. Levy Dr. and Mrs. Samuel Logan Mrs. Russell Long Mr. Edward B. Ludwig, Jr. Dr. and Mrs. George D. Lyons Dr. Cris Mandry Mr. and Mrs. Stephen D. Manshel Mr. and Mrs. Adam B. Marcus Mrs. Shirley R. Masinter Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Mason Ms. Elizabeth R. McCall Mr. and Mrs. John McCollam Mr. and Mrs. William McCollam, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Michael J. Mestayer Mr. and Mrs. Albert Mintz Mrs. Bernard D. Mintz Mr. and Mrs. Saul A. Mintz Mr. and Mrs. Donald P. Mitchell Mrs. Louise Moffett Ms. Stephany S. Monteleone Mrs. George R. Montgomery Dr. and Mrs. Lee Roy Morgan, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Walter Morton Mrs. Andrée Moss Dr. and Mrs. Bert Myers Mrs. Elizabeth S. Nalty Mr. Max Nathan, Jr. Mrs. Isidore Newman II Mr. and Mrs. John B. Noland Mr. and Mrs. W. D. Norman, Jr. Dr. and Mrs. John L. Ochsner Mr. Roger H. Ogden Mr. and Mrs. Richard E. O’Krepki Dr. Sanford L. Pailet Mr. and Mrs. Norvin L. Pellerin Mrs. Ben J. Phillips Mr. and Mrs. Dick H. Piner, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Arthur C. Pulitzer Ms. Sally E. Richards Mr. and Mrs. Leon H. Rittenberg Mr. and Mrs. John K. Roberts, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. James C. Roddy

Mr. Andre Rodrigue Mr. Jacques Rodrigue Mr. Arthur Roger Mrs. Carol H. Rosen Mr. and Mrs. Paul S. Rosenblum, Sr. Mr. and Mrs. Louie J. Roussel III Mr. and Mrs. Hallam L. Ruark Mrs. Basil J. Rusovich, Jr. Ms. Nadine C. Russell Miss Courtney-Anne Sarpy Mr. and Mrs. Richard Schornstein, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Aaron Selber, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. William H. Shane, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Lester Shapiro Mr. and Mrs. Michael J. Siegel Mr. and Mrs. Edward M. Simmons Mr. and Mrs. Richard L. Simmons Dr. and Mrs. Julian H. Sims Mrs. Evald L. Skau Mr. and Mrs. Timothy C. Slater Mrs. Joe D. Smith, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Rodney R. Smith Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Snyder Mr. and Mrs. Harry C. Stahel Mrs. Frederick M. Stafford Mrs. Mary E. Stern Ms. Anne Reily Sutherlin Ms. Jude Swenson Dr. Nia K. Terezakis Ms. Catherine Burns Tremaine Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Van der Linden Mr. and Mrs. George G. Villere Mr. and Mrs. St. Denis J. Villere Mr. and Mrs. R. Preston Wailes Dr. and Mrs. Cedric Walker Mr. Albert J. Ward, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Hugo Wedemeyer Dr. and Mrs. Robert G. Weilbaecher Ambassador and Mrs. John G. Weinmann Mrs. Karolyn Kuntz Westervelt Mrs. Donald L. White Mr. Robert J. A. Williams and Mrs. Norris Williams Mrs. James A. Wysocki Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Young, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Robert E. Young

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CORPORATE MEMBERSHIP

W

e are deeply grateful to the following member firms whose investment in the Museum makes it possible for NOMA to pay dividends in service to the public, to the business community, to the City of New Orleans, to the greater metropolitan area, and to the State of Louisiana.

GUARANTOR Jones, Walker, Waechter, Poitevent, Carrere & Denegre Superior Energy Services, Inc. Whitney National Bank of New Orleans Willoughby Associates, Ltd.

BENEFACTOR Antenna Audio, Inc.

PATRON Brian Schneider Company The Sydney and Walda Besthoff Foundation

MASTER Christie’s Fine Art Auctioneers Dooky Chase’s Restaurant Energy Partners, Ltd. McIlhenny Company MPress The Schon Charitable Foundation

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LEADER Boh Bros. Construction Company, L.L.C. Gambit Communications, Inc. Hotel Monteleone Laitram, L.L.C Neal Auction Company, Inc. New Orleans Silversmiths Rathborne Companies East, L.L.C. Republic National Distributing Company The Times-Picayune

UNIVERSITY MEMBERS Delgado Community College Dillard University Loyola University Our Lady of Holy Cross College Saint Scholastica Academy (High School) Tulane University University of Louisiana at Lafayette University of New Orleans

ASSOCIATE Bockman Forbes + Glasgow, Architecture + Design Bowie Lumber Associates M.S. Rau Antiques, L.L.C. Royal Antiques, Ltd. Waggonner & Ball Architects

CONTRIBUTOR A. L. Lowe Picture Framing Company Aquatic Gardens As You Like It Silver Shop Bolton Ford The Edgar Degas House Gulf Coast Bank Hirsch Investment Management, L.L.C. Milling Benson Woodward L.L.P. Mudbug Media, Inc. Teri Galleries, Ltd.

NEW ORLEANS MUSEUM OF ART

Join the Circles and Upgrade Your Support of NOMA

T

he Board of Trustees of the New Orleans Museum of Art cordially invites you to upgrade your support and become a member of the Patron’s Circle, Director’s Circle or President’s Circle.

These categories, our most prestigious levels of annual giving, are comprised of individuals who contribute $5,000, $10,000 or $20,000 each year in unrestricted funds.

NOMA is pleased to extend unique privileges including Fellows and Collector’s Society memberships to those who demonstrate their commitment at these levels. We are most grateful for your generous and continuing support.

President’s Circle

$20,000

Director’s Circle

$10,000

Patron’s Circle

$5,000

• A special reception in a private collector’s home • Invitations to attend behind-the-scenes events with Museum curators • Advance announcements for special travel programs • Annual listing on Donor Wall as a member of the Circle group • Special recognition in Arts Quarterly

Circles

GENERAL MEMBERSHIP PRIVILEGES, PLUS: • Free admission to the Museum and Sculpture Garden at all times • Reciprocal membership in major art museums across the U.S. and Canada • Complimentary membership in NOMA’s Fellows and Collector’s Society • All Members’ Previews of special exhibitions

_________________________________________

ircles

These circles recognize cumulative giving in a calendar year, restricted to gifts of Annual Appeal and membership dues. Contributions to capital projects and special events do not apply. _________________________________________ For further information on NOMA’s Circles, please call 504-658-4107. n

• An opportunity to have a private tour with the director or curator of a collection or special exhibition

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35

C

O N T R I B U T I O N

T

he New Orleans Museum of Art has established a number of special funds for gifts in honor of or in memory of friends or family members or to commemorate an event. Recipients or their families will be notified of the gift and will be acknowledged in Arts Quarterly.

For information on NOMA special funds, call (504) 658-4100. Donations for all funds should be mailed to the New Orleans Museum of Art, PO Box 19123, New Orleans, Louisiana 70179-0123. ■

BESTHOFF SCULPTURE GARDEN FUND IN HONOR OF WALDA & SYDNEY BESTHOFF Gerard Henry

IN MEMORY OF

MRS. JEAN HEID MEMORIAL FUND Edward Bonin & René Fransen E. John Bullard Mr. & Mrs. Edward Bernier Dorothy & Alvin Caplan Mr. & Mrs. Michael Conefry Judy Cooper Mr. & Mrs. Richard Hyland John W. Keefe Ms. Mary Knight Winifred M. Kullman, Jr. Mr. & Mrs. Robert Killeen Sharon & John Lonczynski Mr. & Mrs. Charles B. Mayer Barbara and Donald Meyer Mr. & Mrs. Gary Miller Ms. Victoria Picca George Roland Dale & Mike Strickland Dr. Aelita J. Pinter Eddy & Bill Rosen Sam & Gail Rubin James E. Ryder Jean & Kemper Sublette

S

NVC FLOWER FUND IN HONOR OF ARTIST AUSEKLIS OZOLS AND ART IN BLOOM SPEAKERS TIM TRAPOLIN AND JULIA REED Art in Bloom

NVC PORTICO RENOVATION FUND IN HONOR OF MARY ANN VALENTINO Margie Scheuermann San Miguel Jewelry

IN HONOR OF KAY MCARDLE’S PRIX D’ELEGANCE AWARD Cammie and Charles Mayer

PHOTOGRAPHY FUND

DR. PHILIP RONALD LORIA

LIBRARY FUND Paul J. Leaman, Jr.

IN MEMORY OF IN HONOR OF

DR. GENE USDIN

EDUCATION FUND

MRS. BETTY KOHN’S BIRTHDAY

Kimberly & Harry Rosenberg

IN MEMORY OF

Mrs. Irene Klinger

KATHRYN DEVEREUX DANNA Jay Danna Rosemary Korndorffer Cynthia Rauchle Ann H. Hamilton Charlotte Travieso Charles and Jane Aprill Don and Lynne Perschall

IN MEMORY OF IN MEMORY OF MRS. JUDY MILLER

JACK SCHENK Kimberly & Harry Rosenberg

Bert & Joel Myers

IN MEMORY OF IN MEMORY OF

MO CHARLOT

THOMAS MICHAEL GARDES

Kimberly & Harry Rosenberg

Kay Dawes Mattei

IN MEMORY OF IN MEMORY OF MARC COOPER

BERNIE KLEIN Kimberly & Harry Rosenberg

Dorian Bennett

IN MEMORY OF IN MEMORY OF DOROTHY GRANT BLAINE FOX Susan and Jimmy Gundlach

IN MEMORY OF

JOAN KERSTEIN Kimberly & Harry Rosenberg

IN MEMORY OF

THOMAS HUGHEY

WILLIAM S. “BILL” CHAPMAN

Dorian Bennett

Kimberly & Harry Rosenberg

IN MEMORY OF HENRY BYRON ASHE Christopher Ralston

36

NEW ORLEANS MUSEUM OF ART

WAYS OF GIVING

T

he future of the New Orleans Museum of Art depends to a large degree on the foresight and generosity of today’s visionaries— our members—who are willing to consider new ways to make gifts.

Here are a few suggested methods of making a difference for NOMA:

GIFT OF CASH OR MARKETABLE SECURITIES Gifts may be restricted to a designated program or applied to NOMA’s general operating fund.

GIFT OF LIFE INSURANCE Name NOMA as policy owner and beneficiary and receive immediate tax deductions on your premium.

GIFT OF PROPERTY Gifts of real estate, boats, or artwork provide NOMA with marketable assets and may enable you to avoid capital gains taxes.

NAMED ENDOWMENT FUND The principal of a fund established in your name—or for someone you wish to honor or memorialize—is managed for growth, while the income from the fund supports Museum programs.

CHARITABLE REMAINDER TRUST/CHARITABLE LEAD TRUST Provide NOMA or yourself with a steady income stream and, with a remainder trust, leave a significant future gift to NOMA. Both arrangements entitle you to considerable tax savings.

BEQUESTS Name NOMA as a beneficiary in your will and make a lasting contribution to the Museum.

For more information about any of these suggested methods of giving to NOMA, call (504) 658-4107.

I SUPPORT

THE PORTICO RENOVATION FUND Yes, I want to help support the NOMA Volunteer Committee’s Pledge to the NVC Portico Renovation Fund.

Funds collected defray expenses associated with a new entry ramp, refurbished decking, urns and torchieres flanking NOMA’s main entrance at Lelong Avenue, and for providing attractive trash receptacles.

NAME _________________________________________________________________________ ADDRESS _________________________________________________________________________ CITY/STATE/ZIP _________________________________________________________________________

RECEIVE NOMA E-NEWS ON UPCOMING ACTIVITIES Would you like to receive emailed updates on events and exhibitions coming to the New Orleans Museum of Art? If so, Go to http://www.noma.org/enews.html to sign up for E-News from NOMA.

Enclosed is my donation in the amount of: ❑ $10 ❑ $15 ❑ $25 ❑ $50 ❑ $100* Other __________ Please make checks payable to the NOMA Volunteer Committee.

Mail to: New Orleans Museum of Art • NOMA Volunteer Committee PO Box 19123 • New Orleans LA 70179-0123 We will be happy to accept credit card payments for contributions of $50 or higher.

Please call the NVC Office, 504-658-4121, to donate by credit card.

We will alert you to upcoming festive events, programs and new exhibitions, and we will provide links back to the NOMA website for more details.

Thank you! *All contributions in the amount of $100 or more will be acknowledged in Arts Quarterly.

ARTS QUARTERLY

37

The Felix J. Dreyfous Library

Library Happenings NOMA Library Book Club Join us as we read and discuss fiction and non-fiction books related to art, art museums, NOMA’s collections and NOMA’s exhibitions. NOMA’s Book Club also provides special programming, “Meet the Author” receptions, field trips, and other events.

The Book Club is an informal group. If you are interested in the overall program and wish to receive information about upcoming events, add your name to the contact list by calling 504-658-4117 or emailing the librarian, Sheila Cork, at scork@noma.org. Call or email to reserve a space at specific programs as their dates approach.

All NOMA Book Club events are published in Arts Quarterly and reminders are sent out via the Internet and, whenever possible, by phone before each event The Book Club has several types of programs:

Book Club Discussion Groups The Book Club meets monthly at noon in the Felix J. Dreyfous Library (unless otherwise posted) to discuss selected books. Bring a sack lunch and come ready to discuss books and art. NOMA will provide soft drinks and water. Seating is limited, so call 504-658-4117 or email scork@noma.org to reserve a place.

Book Club members select the books we read. Each year the librarian solicits the group for ideas for the upcoming year. The reading list is composed of authors and titles sent in response to the request.

As a courtesy to other Book Club members, please only come to book discussions if you have read that month’s selection and are interested in joining the discussion and/or listening to the ideas of other members of the group.

The Museum Shop can pre-order books for you. Call at least two weeks in advance—504-658-4133—or e-mail museumshop@noma.org to request a book. Books can also be purchased from local new and used book stores and online booksellers; they may be available for loan at your local library.

Curatorial Programs and Presentations Periodically a curator will present a program that relates to the collection, an exhibition, or the book that we are reading. The curatorial programs are open to all, and no book has to be read to attend.

Special Events Other special events occur as the opportunity arises and include “field trips” and other activities related to the book we are reading. You do not have to have read the book to attend.

“Meet the Author” Receptions The Library hosts “Meet the Author” receptions and author discussions that coincide with book signings at the Museum Shop. These events are open to all, and you do not have to have read the book to attend. Please call a few days ahead to reserve a place—refreshments are served so a head count is needed.

Contact the librarian at 504-658-4117 or email her at scork@noma.org to reserve a place at any of these events.

July, August, September 2009 Book Club Schedule JULY 2009 The Hound in the Left-hand Corner by Giles Waterfield. Washington Square Press, 2004. ISBN: 9780743475532.

“In his delightful send-up of the art world, museums, their trustees, and conservators, author Giles Waterfield recreates one tumultuous day in the life of the BRIT, the Museum of British History, as it prepares for a major exhibition, the centerpiece of which is an almost unknown painting by Gainsborough.” (Mostly Fiction Book Reviews, http://www.mostlyfiction.com/humor/waterfield.htm) Wednesday, July 15, 12 to 1 p.m.: Book Discussion Group

AUGUST 2009 Picasso: Portrait of Picasso as a Young Man by Norman Mailer. Abacus, 1997. ISBN: 9780349108322.

“Not just another book about Picasso or another book by Mailer but a book about Picasso by Mailer— worth a look at least. ... The relationship of Picasso and Fernande Olivier is seen by Mailer as the definitive impetus of the artist's early period of incredible productivity and imagery. … ‘No man ever loved and hated women more’—-Picasso or Mailer.” (Paula Frosch, Metropolitan Museum of Art Lib., New York, quoted on Amazon.com) Friday, August 7, 12 to 1 p.m.: Special Event George Roland, Curator of Prints and Drawings, will lead the Book Club in a walk-through of his exhibition, The Mind’s Eye: Without Subject Matter, What Does the Artist See? We will meet in the library, eat a quick lunch and then proceed to the galleries.

Thursday, August 20, 12 to 1 p.m.: Book Discussion Group Photo by Aisha Champagne

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NEW ORLEANS MUSEUM OF ART

SEPTEMBER 2009 Abby Aldrich Rockefeller: The Woman in the Family

by Bernice Kert. Random House, 2003. ISBN: 9780812970449.

“Nelson’s beloved mother (1874-1948) was just as fascinating as he, though considerably less driven. Abby Aldrich's relaxed, worldly attitude differed markedly from the rigid Baptist views of the Rockefellers. Yet she handled her in-laws with aplomb, and her shy, reserved husband, John D. Jr., adored her. While keeping him happy, she pursued her own interests as a pioneering champion of both modern and folk art, helping to found the Museum of Modern Art in 1929. Kert’s elegant, perceptive biography does full justice to a warm-hearted, lovable woman.” (Amazon.com review) Thursday, September 10, 12 to 1 p.m.: Special Event John Keefe, the Rosamary Foundation Curator of Decorative Arts, will lead us in a walk-through and discussion of his exhibition, With a Little Help from My Friends: New Acquisitions in the Decorative Arts.

Wednesday, September 23, 12 to 1 p.m.: Book Discussion Group

Notable New Additions to the Library (The number in parentheses following the review is the number where the book is shelved in the library.)

These selections are two books of photographic images. Each represents one of those happy events where the book’s format, content, and design achieve a perfect balance. The result: two very different books, each in its own way satisfying to look at, hold, and browse.

The first book, The Infinite Tulip by Harold Feinstein, is very small (7 x 7.25 inches). Tulips in a variety of forms and colors are the subject. Simply stated, the book consists of a photograph of a tulip on one page, and the title of each photograph (the tulip’s name) on the opposite page.

A quotation from Feinstein’s introduction warns us that there are great delights to come: “When I was photographing the extraordinary variety of tulips, with my mouth dropping open almost continuously, the phrase ‘the infinite tulip’ burst from my mouth.”

Feinstein has shared that “mouth dropping” experience with us. His photographs are stunning and uncomplicated: images of tulips against a stark black background. Yet the book is alive with color; flaming yellow and crimson, cool green, delicate peach and pink.

Texture is not forgotten; frilled petals curl demurely, begging the reader to reach out to ruffle and tease them.

Smooth petals demand attention also, as do fuzzy, pollen-heavy anthers. The names of the tulips excite the imagination—“Arabian Mystery,” “Green Wave,” and “Open Dream.” Altogether a book that appeals to the senses. (The Infinite Tulip by Harold Feinstein. Bullfinch Press, 2004. [778.9 F299tit]) If The Infinite Tulip burns you with hot colors, then the next book cools you down. True North is an exhibition catalogue published by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. The exhibition at the Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin, 2008 “seek(s) to trace the influences of Northern European Romantic landscape painting in the works of contemporary photographers and video

ARTS QUARTERLY

artists … [T]he works of art … contradict the idealized image of an unchangeable, untouched North.”

The images chosen to illustrate the catalogue are a testament to the successful fulfillment of that goal, showing as they do the interactions of humanity with the landscape. An icy blue field of snow is crossed with darker, shadow-filled parallel lines of ski tracks (Thomas Flechtner, Glaspass [Walks #10], 2001, p. 45-47). The image (taken from a video loop) of a barefoot girl rolling pads of felt gives us a startling comprehension of the cold that she is enduring (Orit Raff, Palindrome, 2001, p.

63-67). A hockey arena is filled with people in team uniforms, the bright colors all but overwhelmed and swallowed by the coldness of the arena itself (Armin Linke, Ski Dome, Tokyo, Japan, 1998, p. 59-61).

It is not just the images inside that are worthy of note. It is also the book’s aesthetic presentation—the color of the binding, the choice of image for the dust jacket, the way the themes of ice and cold are reflected even in the color of the text and the typeface of the title page—that make this book such a pleasurable read.

(True North. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 2008. [778.9436 B647tn])

The Infinite Tulip

Featured Catalogues Hurricane Katrina had a devastating effect on many people’s private libraries. Floodwater, humidity, and mold led to the loss of many books. Fortunately, the Museum Shop (504-658-4133) has current and past exhibition catalogues for sale. Two of them are featured here.

True North

Five Thousand Years of Chinese Ceramics: From the Robin and R. Randolph Richmond, Jr. Collection

by Lisa Rotondo-McCord. Hard cover $59.95; soft cover $29.95.

This catalogue was published for the exhibition of the same name on view at NOMA February 12-April 17, 2005.

Resonance from the Past: African Sculpture from the New Orleans Museum of Art. Edited by Frank Herreman with an introduction by William A. Fagaly. $39.95.

This catalogue was published for an exhibition organized by the Museum of African Art, New York, in collaboration with the New Orleans Museum of Art. The exhibition features pieces of NOMA’s permanent collection and has been exhibited at eight museums nationwide.

About the Library The Felix J. Dreyfous Library is located in the basement of the New Orleans Museum of Art. The library’s services and collection (20,000 books and 70+ periodicals) are available for use by members of NOMA. Members of the public, local students and educators are also welcome. The library is staffed by a librarian, Sheila Cork, who holds a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science, with an extensive background in reference and research. In addition, the library is fortunate to have volunteers who help on a regular basis.

Use of the library is by appointment only during the librarian’s regular working hours, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Call 504-658-4117 or email the librarian at scork@noma.org to make an appointment to use this valuable resource. n

39

NOMA Book Club Goes Back to School

BY SHEILA CORK Librarian, NOMA

T

he students at East St. John High School in Reserve, LA are fortunate. They have a principal (Mrs. Patricia Triche) and staff who bring enthusiasm and energy to support school programming and who work together to enrich students’ lives.

At a time when divisiveness seems to be the norm, it is a welcome change to see a school where the head coach (Coach Dautrieve) supports the work of the Visually Talented Arts Program’s (VTAP) students, and where the choir teacher (Mrs. Angela Tsuruda) brings her children for an impromptu performance during a special luncheon created and served by students in the Culinary Arts Program to visitors to the school. That this level of cooperation exists every day at East St. John High is evidenced through the good behavior and friendliness of its students, the welcoming atmosphere and the exuberant art work that is present throughout the school.

The New Orleans Museum of Art’s Book Club was invited to visit the school to view the history mural that the seniors in VTAP (taught by Mrs. Janine Ward) had created. The first stop on the trip was a special dining area, where students in the school’s Culinary Arts Program (taught by Mrs. Goudia and Mrs. Washington) served a meal that they had planned, budgeted and cooked themselves. The food—corn soup, baked chicken, dirty rice, green beans with almonds, mocha ice cream cupcakes and bread pudding—was delicious.

During the visit the choir, under the direction of Angela Tsuruda, performed for the group—another example of the way in which the cooperation of the staff leads to outstanding results from students.

A Corridor Filled with History The VTAP students took us to see their mural, which was constructed on sheets of plywood and ran the length of one corridor. The students explained the process of designing and building the mural, including the choice of image, how that was transposed to a larger size for the panel, and how they completed the work. Book Club members paid special attention to the World War II section of the mural. (The Book Club’s visit to the school was a result of the reading and discussion of The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe’s Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War by Lynn H. Nicholas, which Mrs. Ward’s class attended.) At one point, a teacher brought the history class to walk through the corridor and see the historical overview presented by the art students.

“… We are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants …”

The idea for a mural embracing world history was based on the above quotation from Bernard of Chartres (dates unknown, but believed to be twelfth century), who went on to say, “we can see more than they, and things at a greater distance … because we are carried high and raised by their giant size.” The student’s mural certainly allows us to see the broad scope of human endeavor—from Classical times to the challenges of today—and gives us a context for facing the unknowns of tomorrow.

VTAP students Tammy Lopinto and Madison E. Smith talk about the mural process with members of NOMA’s Book Club.

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NEW ORLEANS MUSEUM OF ART

All of the artists—Madison Smith, Tammy Lopinto, Kendall Andrews, and Blair Fleming—did an excellent job. Their choice of images captured the spirit of each period depicted. Elvis was there; so was the mini skirt.

The soldiers of World War I were represented, as were the technical and social achievements that sprang from World War II. Spaceships and astronauts were side by side with images of rock ’n’ roll. All of the images were executed with spirit and ability.

“I have never seen a school so filled with art” Art is not just confined to the interior of the school.

Outside the athletic building, walls and pillars are decorated. Some of the art works are memorials to 9/11 and to Hurricane Katrina. Some are pictures of sporting events and celebrate the school’s team, the Wildcats. The school’s art students have carried their talent into the community. Over the years, the arts program has completed other works of art in the parish. One is a mural at the early childcare center in Garyville, where the class covered the walls with pictures of Big Bird and other child-friendly images. Another public project was the design of four huge murals based on Lake Pontchartrain. These murals depict morning, noon, sunset, and night. In this way, art is integrated throughout the school, and reaches out into the community.

Has art influenced the lives of the students in the school? Here are the thoughts of the students themselves: “[Art] has benefited me in many ways I can’t even explain. It is not only a hobby but it is part of my personality” (Kendall Andrews). “I believe that the skills I have gained not only from Mrs. Ward, but also from my friends in these classes … [and] from being in this program will carry me to much higher levels” (Madison E. Smith). “My passion for art has been a major contribution to my lifestyle and who I’ve become” (Tammy Lopinto).

“Through it all [the VTAP program] I have learned many important life skills through many forms of art. I now have a completely different view on life” (Blair Fleming).

Three of the four students who created the mural have definite plans to go on to college, one on a full scholarship to Memphis College of Art, one to Nicholls State University to major in graphic design and illustration, and one to Nicholls State University as a psychology major and art minor. One student’s plans are undecided, but college is being considered.

When is a school more than the sum of its parts?

When it is a school where the principal and the teachers work together to the benefit of the children, and see students that mature into thoughtful and accomplished adults, some of whom are college-bound, as their greatest achievement.

Thanks to Mrs. Patricia Triche (Principal), Mrs. Janine Ward (VTAP teacher), Carol Jane Myer (VTAP teacher), Kendall Andrews (VTAP student), Madison E. Smith (VTAP student), Tammy Lopinto (VTAP student), Blair Fleming (VTAP student), Patti McGehee (ART 1 & 2 and Arts Survey Teacher), Angela Tsuruda (Choir & Arts Survey Teacher) and the members of the choir, Mrs. Goudia and Mrs. Washington and the students of the Culinary Arts Program, and to all the students and staff at East St. John High for making our visit so pleasant. n

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Student Kendall Andrews describes the theme and the images present in a section of the mural.

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NOMA EDUCATION: Lectures and Walkthroughs

Wednesday, July 1, 6 p.m.

Summer Openings: Permanent Collection Exhibitions Decorative Arts—New Acquisitions Prints and Drawings—Sketches by Steinlen, Forain & Tchelitchew

exhibited her work locally, in New York, and in Austria. Webber is currently an Assistant Professor of Media Art at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and has exhibited his work in numerous international film festivals.

Sunday, July 12, 2 p.m.

The Art of Caring

Social Animals: Locating the Human in the Natural World (Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden—meet at entrance) Sculpture Garden Walk-through with Curatorial Intern Sara Hoffman Sara Hoffman discusses three works in the Besthoff Sculpture Garden by artists Louise Bourgeois, Deborah Butterfield, and Rona Pondick, highlighting the sculptors’ use of animal forms to examine uneasy social and environmental relationships and trouble the definition of humans as distinct from animals.

Wednesday, July 15, 6 p.m.

WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM OUR FRIENDS: Recent Acquisitions in the Decorative Arts (Lupin Cameo Gallery)

by John W. Keefe, the RosaMary Foundation Curator of the Decorative Arts, NOMA Walk-through of Exhibition In an era of shrinking local, state, and federal funding for the arts, the Museum is increasingly dependent upon the generosity of its patrons and friends. This latest Cameo Gallery presentation gratefully acknowledges that generosity while also showing recent purchases in the decorative arts.

Included in the exhibition are ceramics, glass, metalwork, small sculpture, and works by the great Russian artistjeweler, Peter Carl Fabergé.

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Highlights of the Chinese Collection (Asian Galleries, third floor)

by Lisa Rotondo-McCord, Assistant Director for Art/Curator of Asian Art, NOMA Lisa Rotondo-McCord will give a walk-through of highlights of the Chinese collection.

Wednesday, August 5, 6 p.m.

AN INSTANT ARRESTED IN ETERNITY: Sketches by Steinlen, Forain & Tchelitchew (Stafford Gallery)

by George Roland, Doris Zemurray Stone Curator of Prints and Drawings, NOMA Walk-through of Exhibition Today, when we want to remember something we have seen, we photograph it with our cell phone.

A century ago, we made a sketch. This was especially important to professional observers of the day-today passing scene. ThéophileAlexandre Steinlen roamed his beloved Montmartre filling his sketchbooks with the images he would draw upon to create vivid lithographs for weekly publications. Jean-Louis Forain haunted the law courts, pen in hand, to capture his popular caricatures. Pavel Tchelitchew recorded the incidents from his personal life, planning more comprehensive compositions. These rapid and fluent images bring us closer to the spirit of the artist than many more highly developed works and give us the pleasure of seeing the artist at work.

Featuring approximately forty sheets selected from the recent gift of 135 drawings by the late Joseph F. McCrindle, the exhibition will be shown in NOMA's Stafford Gallery July 1-September 27, 2009.

Wednesday, August 19, 6 p.m.

The Art of Caring: A Look at Life through Photography (Ella West Freeman Galleries)

by Alice Webb Dickinson, Institutional Curator for The Art of Caring, Associate Collections Manager, NOMA Walk-through of Exhibition Through photography and film, The Art of Caring examines how key life events are celebrated and honored and how pivotal life decisions are made by a number of different world cultures. Each stage of life is depicted by simple everyday situations experienced in moments of joy and gratification as well as by poignant events of passage. The tour will look at the themes and artists highlighted in the show as well as discuss the way in which photography is used to document life.

Wednesday, September 2, 6 p.m.

New Asian Art Installation (Asian Galleries, third floor)

by Lisa Rotondo-McCord, Assistant Director for Art/Curator of Asian Art, NOMA Lisa Rotondo-McCord will give a walk-through of highlights of newly installed works in the Asian galleries.

Wednesday, September 16, 6 p.m.

Wednesday, July 29, 6 p.m.

Mnemonic Devices: Rachel Jones and David Webber (Frederick R. Weisman Galleries, second floor) Gallery walk-through with artists Rachel Jones and David Webber Two Louisiana artists working in painting (Jones) and video (Webber) explore the process of selecting and assembling information from memories and pre-existing documents into new visual amalgams. Though they work in different mediums, the artists share an interest in dissolving imagery and narratives into expressive fragments.

Based in New Orleans, Jones has

Wednesday, August 12, 6 p.m.

FLOATULENTS

Artist talk by William Sooter (Stern Auditorium) Discussion by William Sooter on his video art practice. “My investigation is centered on the conflict between my fascination with and repulsion toward the war machine. I am questioning the paradox which I feel many confront between the romanticized depiction of organized violence and the realities which have severe repercussions in our culture. I am interested in the paradox between what is portrayed as entertainment but in reality is a perpetuation of violence. This causes a desensitization toward perceptions of organized violence.”

NEW ORLEANS MUSEUM OF ART

PROGRAMS & ACTIVITIES Films

Art of Caring Community Partners Day

Wednesday, July 22, 6 p.m.

13 Most Beautiful ...

(Stern Auditorium) “Released in conjunction with The Andy Warhol Museum, 13 Most Beautiful ... Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Tests features 13 of Warhol's classic silent film portraits. Subjects include Nico, Lou Reed, Edie Sedgwick, Dennis Hopper, and more.

Shot between 1964 and 1966 at Warhol's Factory studio in New York City, the screen tests are presented with newly commissioned soundtracks performed by Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips. Between 1964 and 1966, Andy Warhol shot nearly 500 screen tests, beautiful and revealing portraits of hundreds of different individuals, from the famous to the anonymous, all visitors to his studio, the Factory.

Subjects were captured in stark relief by a strong keylight, and filmed by Warhol with his stationary 16mm Bolex camera on silent, black and white, 100foot rolls of film. The resulting twoand-a-half-minute film reels were then screened in slow motion, resulting in a fascinating collection of four-minute

Wednesday, August 26, 6 p.m.

Last of the Czars: Death of a Dynasty (Stern Auditorium) “Decades of social unrest coupled with the privations of World War I brought Russia to revolution; yielding to the people’s will, Czar Nicholas II abdicated the throne. This finely crafted program presents the final years of the Romanovs, from the outbreak of revolt and the return of Lenin to their brutal execution, the culmination of the Bolshevik leader’s lifelong plan of revenge. The program uses an incredible array of rare film footage, diaries, letters, and interviews with survivors of the era, to include Prince Nicholas Romanov, the present head of the family. DNA evidence is also examined, proving finally the identities of the Romanov remains. A Discovery Channel Production.” (47 minutes) —Films for the Humanities and Sciences

HBO Film: Alzheimer’s Project, 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

August 29: Disaster

July 11: Aging Featured Organizations: New Orleans Council on Aging, Jewish Family Service-LifeLine Program, AARP, PACE Program for Seniors/Catholic Charities Film: Young at Heart and Aging in America: The Years Ahead, 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

JULY 25: Caregiving and Healing Featured Organizations: LSU School of Nursing; Ochsner Blood Bank (will hold a blood drive at the Museum); Covenant House Film: See Me/Look at Me and The Sandwich Generation, 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

August 8: Alzheimer’s Featured Organization: Greater New Orleans Alzheimer’s Association ARTS QUARTERLY

masterpieces that startle and entrance, mesmerizing in the purest sense of the word.” (60 minutes) —Microcinema

Featured Organizations: American Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, Make It Right Foundation, Disaster Management at Tulane University, Hyogo-NOMA Art Therapy Initiative A reading of names will memorialize the victims of Katrina. The day will also feature photographs from Dean Ron Marks of Tulane University School of Social Work and community art-making for everyone as part of the HyogoNOMA Art Therapy Initiative.

HBO Film: When the Levees Broke, 11 a.m.

Wednesday, September 23, 6 p.m.

What About Style? Alex Katz: A Painter's Painter (Stern Auditorium) “For over 50 years, painter Alex Katz has bucked trends in modern art to pioneer and refine his own style of flat, elegant, and realistic figure painting. What About Style? offers an uncluttered view of this American maverick. Filmmaker and art critic Heinz Peter Schwerfel captures the elusive Katz working in his Maine studio and his SoHo flat, laboring over a 32-foot painting called The Black Brook. Interviews, archival footage, images of his subjects, and a virtual tour of 20 Katz paintings are combined to convey his unique style to the viewer.” (56 minutes) —Microcinema

homeopathy, and herbal therapy; Elmwood Fitness Center—Personal Training Program and Weigh No More Program Film: Autism: The Musical, 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

September 26: Love Featured Organizations: American Heart Association; LASPCA (will offer a dog adoption program); Magnolia School Film: Andrew Jenks, Room 335, 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

September 12: Wellness Featured Organizations: East Jefferson General Hospital Wellness Center—Yoga Program in the Sculpture Garden; Integrative Medicine Specialist, Irene Sebastian, M.D., Ph.D., will discuss nutrition, classical

October 10: All Partners All Art of Caring participating organizations will be invited back for a community awareness day.

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NOMA EDUCATION: HyogoNOMA Art Therapy Initiative Events

The New Orleans Museum of Art received a grant from the Prefecture of Hyogo, Japan, in spring 2007 to pilot an art therapy program in New Orleans public schools. As part of the HyogoNOMA Art Therapy Initiative, the Museum is offering a series of events to promote a sense of support and community in the post-Katrina environment.

Community art-making is supported by the Hyogo Prefecture of Japan.

Wednesday, July 8 Wednesday, September 9 Drop in 6-8 p.m.

Summer Art Studios

Summer Art Studios at NOMA!

July 6-10, Ages 4-6 Mid-Summer Mardi Gras

Photo by Marney Robinson

Looking for ways to engage your children or teens this summer?

Consider the New Orleans Museum of Art Summer Art Studio for ages 4 to 17, which features nine sessions designed for particular age groups highlighting different media and subjects. Weeklong art workshops for children ages 412 and all-day Saturday workshops for teens ages 13-17 are taught by professional art teachers and artists.

Each class offers an in-depth exploration of a variety of art mediums and approaches, spanning both traditional and non-traditional methods.

All workshops are based on different aspects of NOMA’s permanent collection and special exhibitions.

Call the Education Department at 504-658-4128 to register for workshops. Registration is taken on a first-come, first-served basis.

Please register early to reserve a spot. Payment methods accepted are check or credit card. Please remember that registration is not complete until tuition is paid in full! All programs are non-refundable unless canceled due to low enrollment and a substitute session cannot be found.

Summer Art Studio at NOMA for Children Cost is $100 for Museum Members and $125 for NonMembers. Both morning and afternoon classes are available. All classes run Monday through Friday for two hours a day. Morning classes are from 10 a.m. to noon. Afternoon classes are from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Class size is restricted to twenty. As art can sometimes be messy, students should wear old or play clothes to the workshops!

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Community Art Studio For Adults

by Holly Wherry, Art Therapist, NOMA Explore your creative side in a relaxing and inspiring environment with other adults. Art therapists will guide you in expressing yourself with a large selection of art materials provided in this open studio. No artistic experience is necessary. This event is free for Louisiana residents.

Who doesn’t love Mardi Gras?

Participants will be inspired by local artists and themes within the Museum’s galleries as we celebrate our favorite holiday and learn about art! New Orleans-themed projects involving float-making, food, costuming, music, and more will conclude with our own parade around NOMA. Associated art elements, techniques, and imagination will be highlighted with each project.

July 13-17, Ages 7-9 PAINT, PAINT, PAINT… Artists will delve into color, materials, and classic painting techniques as well as off-the-wall methods of paint application. Drawing inspiration from the wide variety of painting styles in the galleries of NOMA, participants will explore their creativity with everyone’s favorite medium, PAINT! Develop basic painting skills using watercolor, tempera, and acrylic paints, exploring texture, color, composition, light, and shadow. Prepare to be messy!

July 20-24, Ages 10-12 Mixed Media Mish-Mash A great way to introduce young artists to different art mediums! This is a workshop with classes focusing on drawing, painting, and sculpture as well as other fun and interesting materials. Each session focuses on different mediums and artistic styles; we will also study famous artists featured in NOMA’s galleries.

Saturday, August 29, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

Commemorating Hurricane Katrina through Community Art-Making Celebrate the growth of New Orleans and commemorate the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina through art. The Hyogo-NOMA Art Therapy Initiative will be holding an art-making event for people of all ages, and no artistic ability is required. Come contribute to the creation of a community art project as well as create a piece of personal artwork to express your own thoughts and feelings.

or credit card. Please remember that registration is not complete until tuition is paid in full! All programs are nonrefundable unless canceled due to low enrollment. Each workshop will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on a Saturday, and students should bring a brown-bag lunch. Regrettably, there are no restaurant facilities on the premises. Class size is restricted to twelve.

July 11, Ages 13-17 2-D to 3-D Students will choose a favorite two-dimensional work of art from NOMA’s galleries that will serve as the inspiration for their own threedimensional masterpiece. Instructors will be on hand to introduce innovative methods of construction and a wide variety of traditional and nontraditional materials will be available.

August 8, Ages 13-17 Drawing Studio Designed for the beginning to intermediate artist, this course is an introduction to many drawing approaches with a variety of media and subject matter. Basic figure-drawing techniques will be introduced as well as drawing from life with a clothed model.

Summer Art Studio at NOMA for Teens Cost is $45 for Museum Members and $60 for NonMembers. Registration is taken on a first-come, first-served basis. Please register early to reserve a spot.

Payment methods accepted are check

Photo by Marney Robinson

NEW ORLEANS MUSEUM OF ART

PROGRAMS & ACTIVITIES

Photos by Marney Robinson

Docent Recruiting

Call for Docents!

Are you interested in playing an active role in the New Orleans Museum of Art? Consider joining the Education Department’s volunteer corps of docents! The New Orleans Museum of Art is currently accepting applications for a new class of docents. Please review the following information carefully before submitting an application. Applications are due August 24, 2009. Program begins September 8.

What are the docent training requirements?

Docents are at the heart of the museum experience. The word docent comes from the Latin word “docere,” meaning “to teach.” NOMA docents represent a corps of trained volunteers who serve as a vital link between the public and Museum exhibitions and facilitate learning by helping audiences of all ages understand and enjoy the art in the galleries.

Docents-in-training are expected to attend the entire training course. The training runs weekly from September 8, 2009 to mid-May 2010, except for holidays. Following the initial training year, continuing education for all docents is required during the academic year in addition to touring and shadowing. Training is comprehensive but rewarding. It includes classes and workshops in teaching theories, museum education, art history, the elements of art, as well as methods of interpretation and touring. These sessions provide information on the history of NOMA, the Museum’s permanent collections, and special exhibitions.

Who should apply to become a docent?

What are the benefits of becoming a docent at NOMA?

What is a docent?

If you enjoy learning and sharing knowledge, the docent program offers the opportunity to learn about other cultures, historical periods, artwork, and artists. All ages are welcome.

Volunteer docents must have a genuine appreciation for all visitors, including adults and children from diverse backgrounds, and must convey information in a clear, concise, and articulate manner. No prior background in the arts or gallery

ARTS QUARTERLY

tours is necessary, but a love of learning and art is crucial.

Volunteers should be prepared to make a two-year commitment.

n Satisfaction from sharing your interest in art with Museum visitors n Active involvement with the Museum and its staff n Opportunities to work and socialize with others who share a common interest n Lectures by Museum curators, visiting scholars, and artists n Unlimited free admission to the Museum n Discount in the Museum Shop

How are docents selected?

The first step in the application process is to fill out the application form available online at http://www.noma.org/docents.html or by request through the mail. Return the completed form by mail, fax, or email to the Education Department by August 24, 2009. Applicants will be contacted for in-person and/or phone interviews with NOMA education staff and experienced docents. The docent program strives to include people who represent the diversity of the greater New Orleans area and nearby communities. The number of docents selected for each training class varies depending upon the needs of the Museum. If you would like more information, please contact Marney Robinson, Associate Curator of Education, at 504-658-4113 or mrobinson@noma.org.

Education Department New Orleans Museum of Art P.O. Box 19123 New Orleans, LA 70179 504-658-4128 504-658-4199 (fax) education@noma.org

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PROGRAM SPONSORS A

nnual operating support for NOMA’s exhibitions, the “Van Go,” free admission for Louisiana residents, family workshops, films, lectures, art classes, and numerous other special programs enjoyed by visitors from throughout the city, the state, the country, and, indeed, the world, are made possible through the generosity of our many sponsors. The New Orleans Museum of Art and its thousands of visitors are deeply grateful to these friends for their continued commitment. If you would like additional information on sponsorship, please contact the Museum’s development department, (504) 658-4100. ■

BECOME A NOMA SPONSOR

$99,999 – $50,000 CHEVRON: Dreams Come True: Art of the Classic Fairy Tales from the Walt Disney Studio Exhibition Support Handbook of School Programs Teacher’s Packets LOUISIANA DIVISION OF THE ARTS: Institution Stabilization Arts in Education General Operating Support THE LUPIN FOUNDATION: General Operating Support Art in Bloom 2009 LOVE in the Garden 2008

$100,000 + THE AZBY FUND: General Operating Support Besthoff Sculpture Garden Operating Support Security Equipment FORD FOUNDATION: Planning and Exploration of New Orleans Audiences GETTY FOUNDATION: Conservation of the Besthoff Sculpture Garden THE HELIS FOUNDATION: Free Admission for Louisiana Residents THE PATRICK F. TAYLOR FOUNDATION: Taylor NOMA Scholars Program ZEMURRAY FOUNDATION: General Operating Support

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SELLEY FOUNDATION: General Operating Support SHERATON NEW ORLEANS HOTEL: The Baroque World of Fernando Botero Exhibition Support Dreams Come True: Art of the Classic Fairy Tales from the Walt Disney Studio Exhibition Support

$34,999 - $20,000 GAIL AND JOHN BERTUZZI Dreams Come True: Art of the Classic Fairy Tales from the Walt Disney Studio Exhibition Support ELIZABETH HEEBE-RUSSO: Dreams Come True: Art of the Classic Fairy Tales from the Walt Disney Studio Exhibition Sponsor D. LEE HODGES SHERRI S. LOGAN: Objects of Desire: Fabergé from the Hodges Family Collection Exhibition Catalogue Support Odyssey Ball 2008 LAKESIDE SHOPPING CENTER AND THE FEIL ORGANIZATION: Dreams Come True: Art of the Classic Fairy Tales from the Walt Disney Studio Exhibition Support LOUISIANA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES: Living Color: Photographs by Judy Cooper Exhibition, Programming and Catalogue Support PAN AMERICAN LIFE INSURANCE GROUP: The Baroque World of Fernando Botero Exhibition Support THE ROSAMARY FOUNDATION: Family Workshops Handbook of School Programs Annual Support LUTHER AND ZITA TEMPLEMAN FUND: Dreams Come True: Art of the Classic Fairy Tales from the Walt Disney Studio Exhibition Support

NEW ORLEANS MUSEUM OF ART

$19,999 - $10,000

$9,999 - $5,000

REILY FOODS: Art in Bloom 2009

DOWNMAN FAMILY FOUNDATION: NOMA Exhibitions

ENTERGY LOUISIANA: Educational Programs

RUTH’S CHRIS STEAKHOUSE: LOVE in the Garden 2008

EAST JEFFERSON GENERAL HOSPITAL: LOVE in the Garden 2008

MRS. JEAN R. HEID: Art Acquisition Fund

SUPERIOR ENERGY SERVICES, INC.: Art in Bloom 2009

EUGENIE AND JOSEPH JONES FAMILY FOUNDATION: Art in Bloom 2009

IBERIABANK: Art in Bloom 2009

FRIEND OF ART IN BLOOM: Art in Bloom 2009

J. ARON AND COMPANY, INC.: Educational Programs

MACY’S: Dreams Come True: Art of the Classic Fairy Tales from the Walt Disney Studio Exhibition Support

THE GPOA FOUNDATION: Educational Pre-Visit Video of African Art Collection

THE JOHN BURTON HARTER CHARITABLE FOUNDATION: Gentlemen Callers Exhibition Support

NATIONAL FEDERATION OF COFFEE GROWERS OF COLOMBIA: The Baroque World of Fernando Botero Exhibition Support RUBY K. WORNER CHARITABLE TRUST: Mid-Week in Mid-City SAKS FIFTH AVENUE: Art in Bloom 2009

THE LUPIN FOUNDATION: Art in Bloom 2009 LUZIANNE: Art in Bloom 2009 MR. AND MRS. FRANK NORMAN: P. R. Norman Fund Art Acquisition

A recent luncheon in honor of past NOMA Board Presidents was attended by: front row, left to right: Paula Maher, Sydney Besthoff, Sandra Freeman, and Harry Stahel; back row, left to right: Charles Mayer, Stewart Farnet, Beverley Muller, Steve Hansel, and Paul Leaman. Photo by Judy Cooper.

ARTS QUARTERLY

47

MUSEUM NEWS MUSEUM NEWS MUSEUM BOARD OF TRUSTEES PRESIDENTS' LUNCHEON On Wednesday, June 10, current NOMA Board President Steve Hansel hosted a luncheon for past Board Presidents in honor of their service to the Museum. Of the fifteen living past presidents, eight attended the event: Beverley Muller, Paul Leaman, Charles Mayer, Harry Stahel, Sandra Freeman, Paula Maher, Stewart Farnet, and Sydney Besthoff. The presidents heard a report from NOMA Director E. John Bullard about the acquisition of a new art repository building and plans for the Museum's 2011 Centennial celebration.

BOARD MEETING SCHEDULE The board of trustees will not meet in July or August. The next meeting of NOMA’s board of trustees is Wednesday, September 23 at 4 p.m.

NVC STUDIO SALONS May 5, also known as Cinco de Mayo, was a hot and sunny day.

What better place to spend the afternoon on such a day than the penthouse of the Ritz-Carlton, home of glass artist Juli Juneau and her husband!

Studio Salon Chairs Mimi Schlesinger and Betty Kern provided festive Latin Americanthemed refreshments, which the group enjoyed while surveying the bright cityscape and Ms. Juneau’s sparkling glasswork. The artist’s newest series—featuring Caribbean and animal prints—echoed the tropical theme. The artist, who began to show and sell her work only in the last four years, described the challenges of the delicate craft of glassblowing.

The blending of traditional, period pieces and spicy colors in the space complemented the nature of the sprawling City of New Orleans, visible from the penthouse’s wrap-around windows. This view was surely an inspiration for art.

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A LOVE-LY EVENING Want to put stars in your eyes?

The al fresco fun takes place Friday, September 25, 2009 at LOVE in the Garden.

Chairs Jennifer Rowland and Grace Kaynor promise a fantastic event in one of the most beautiful settings in New Orleans, the Besthoff Sculpture Garden. Delicious food and beverage stations will dot the meandering paths of the garden, decorated and lighted for the occasion. Michele Prokop and her committee are securing the tempting treats, courtesy of some of the area’s top restaurants. The Patron Party kicks off at 7 p.m. with Joe Simon’s Jazz, followed by Deacon John and the Ivories from 8 to 11 p.m. An impressive outdoor video display and ceremony honoring local artists is also on the agenda.

Put your table together now!

Dancing under the stars, a casual dress code and balmy, end-ofsummer breezes are a perfect mix.

Visit www.noma.org for ticket information.

ODYSSEY BALL Magic will be in the air Friday, November 13, 2009 as the New Orleans Museum of Art joins with the Walt Disney Animation Research Library to present Dreams Come True: Art of the Classic Fairy Tales from the Walt Disney Studio.

Odyssey Ball 2009 will be the official unveiling of this exhibition of more than six hundred original artworks. Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and The Little Mermaid will all be in attendance, in both sketch and celluloid form.

From early sketches to final film clips, Disney animation will be an enchanting backdrop for Odyssey 2009. A gala kick-off celebration was hosted by Ball Co-Chairs Lori and Kevin Frischhertz and Charlotte and Marc Hebert in May for the enthusiastic Odyssey committee members, who are already hard at work. They promise a fairy tale evening you simply cannot miss.

Friday, November 13, 2009— make a date with your favorite prince or princess and attend Odyssey Ball and Dreams Come True. n

SENIOR STAFF E. John Bullard, The Montine McDaniel Freeman Director Jacqueline L. Sullivan, Deputy Director Marilyn Dittmann, Director of Development Lisa Rotondo-McCord, Assistant Director for Art/Curator of Asian Art Alice Rae Yelen, Assistant Director for Education Gail Asprodites, Controller Pamela Buckman, Sculpture Garden Manager Aisha Champagne, Director of Publications and Design Sheila Cork, Librarian Diego Cortez, The Freeman Family Curator of Photography Sarah Davidson, Coordinator of Special Events William A. Fagaly, The Françoise Billion Richardson Curator of African Art Julie Galstad, Grants Officer Caroline Goyette, Editor of Museum Publications Susan Hayne, Human Resources Manager Jennifer Ickes, Assistant Registrar Kristin Jochem, Development Associate for NVC John W. Keefe, The RosaMary Foundation Curator of The Decorative Arts Miranda Lash, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art Elizabeth Levy, Membership Assistant Katherine Marquette, Education Assistant James Mulvihill, Director of Communications and Marketing Karl Oelkers, Facilities Manager Marney N. Robinson, Associate Curator of Education George Roland, The Doris Zemurray Stone Curator of Prints and Drawings Paul Tarver, Registrar/Curator of Native American and Pre-Columbian Art Steve Thompson, Computer Coordinator Patricia Trautman, Museum Shop Manager Laura Wallis, Development Associate for Membership and Annual Appeal Holly M. Wherry, Art Therapist, Katrina Initiative

NOMA BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Subhash V. Kulkarni Henry Lambert Paul J. Leaman, Jr. Paul Masinter Edward C. Mathes Kay McArdle Alvin Merlin, M.D. Councilmember Shelly Midura Mrs. R. King Milling Michael Moffitt Mayor C. Ray Nagin Howard Osofsky, M.D. Mrs. Robert J. Patrick Thomas Reese, Ph.D. Mrs. James Reiss Mrs. George Rodrigue Bryan Schneider Mrs. Lynes R. Sloss Charles A. Snyder Mrs. Richard Strub Mrs. Patrick F. Taylor Mrs. Hughes P. Walmsley, Jr. Louis A. Wilson, Jr.

Stephen H. Hansel, President Leonard Davis, Vice-President Mrs. Charles B. Mayer, Vice-President Mrs. James Frischhertz, Vice-President William Aaron, Treasurer David Edwards, Secretary Mrs. Françoise Billion Richardson, Assistant Treasurer Mrs. John Bertuzzi Sydney J. Besthoff III Mrs. Mark Carey Edgar L. Chase III Isidore Cohn, Jr., M.D. S. Stewart Farnet H. Mortimer Favrot Mrs. Ludovico Feoli Timothy Francis Roy A. Glapion Lee Hampton Adrea Heebe Ms. Allison Kendrick

HONORARY LIFE TRUSTEES H. Russell Albright, M.D. Mrs. Jack R. Aron Mrs. Edgar L. Chase, Jr. Prescott N. Dunbar Mrs. Richard W. Freeman, Jr. Kurt A. Gitter, M.D. Mrs. H. Lloyd Hawkins Mrs. Killian L. Huger Mrs. Erik Johnsen Richard W. Levy, M.D. J. Thomas Lewis Mrs. Paula L. Maher Mrs. J. Frederick Muller, Jr. Mrs. Jeri Nims Mrs. Charles S. Reily Mrs. Françoise Billion Richardson R. Randolph Richmond, Jr. Mrs. Frederick M. Stafford Harry C. Stahel Mr. and Mrs. Moise S. Steeg, Jr. Mrs. Harold H. Stream Mrs. James L. Taylor Mrs. John N. Weinstock

NATIONAL TRUSTEES Joseph Baillo Mrs. Carmel Cohen Mrs. Mason Granger Jerry Heyman Herbert Kaufman, M.D. Mrs. James Pierce Mrs. Benjamin Rosen Mrs. Robert Shelton Ms. Debra Shriever Mrs. Henry H. Weldon

NEW ORLEANS MUSEUM OF ART

NOMA Exhibition Schedule

Marcus Coates: Animal Instincts (organized by NOMA) (Contemporary Galleries) Through August 23, 2009

Mnemonic Devices: Rachel Jones and David Webber (organized by NOMA) (Weisman Galleries) Through August 23, 2009

With a Little Help from Our Friends: Recent Accessions in the Decorative Arts (organized by NOMA) (Lupin Cameo Gallery) Through October 18, 2009

William Woodward: Impressionist in Louisiana (organized by HNOC and NOMA) (Louisiana Galleries) October 17, 2009 - February 28, 2010

Women Artists in Louisiana, 1825-1965: A Place of Their Own (organized by HNOC and NOMA) (Lupin Cameo Gallery) Through September 13, 2009

FLOATULENTS: Inflatable Photographs by Martin von Haselberg (organized by NOMA) (Norman Gallery) Through September 20, 2009

An Instant Arrested in Eternity: Sketches

by Steinlen, Forain & Tchelitchew from the Joseph F. McCrindle Collection (organized by NOMA) (Stafford Gallery) July 1, 2009 - September 27, 2009

The Art of Caring: A Look at Life through Photography (organized by NOMA) (EWF Galleries) Through October 11, 2009

The Mind’s Eye: Without Subject Matter, What Does the Artist See?

Dreams Come True: Art of the Classic Fairy Tales from the Walt Disney Studio (organized by NOMA) (EWF Galleries) November 15, 2009 - March 14, 2010 Dreams Come True showcases original artwork from legendary Disney animated films, including Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, and will feature a children’s section celebrating Disney’s connections with jazz music and the Crescent City. The artworks, on loan from the Walt Disney Studio Animation Research Library, will be accompanied by film clips to demonstrate how individual sketches and paintings lead to a finished celluloid masterpiece. Organized by the Walt Disney Animation Research Library and the New Orleans Museum of Art, this once-in-a-lifetime exhibition, which cannot be seen anywhere else, is set to coincide with the premiere of Disney’s upcoming animated feature, The Princess and the Frog, set in New Orleans during the 1920s Jazz Age.

Käthe Kollwitz: Graphics from the Stein Collection (organized by NOMA) (Templeman Galleries) November 15, 2009 - March 14, 2010

For further information on upcoming exhibitions and events at the New Orleans Museum of Art, call 504-658-4100, or visit our website at www.noma.org. n

(organized by NOMA) (Templeman Galleries) Through October 11, 2009

ARTS QUARTERLY

49

NOMA Calendar of Events LEGEND: ●

Art Therapy Events

✣

Art of Caring Community Partners Day

¶ Exhibitions ■

Films

❃

Lectures and Walk-Throughs

❂

Library Events

❖

Mid-Week in Mid-City (Museum Hours on Wednesdays: 12 - 8 p.m.)

✖

Sculpture Garden Events

◆

Summer Art Studios

Monday

Sunday

Tuesday

JULY 2009

❖ ¶❖

5

◆

❃✖

12

19

◆

6

1

2

3

Saturday ✖

4

8 - 9 a.m.

Yoga in the Sculpture Garden

◆

7

Art Studio for Children Mid-Summer Mardi Gras Ages 4-6

◆

8

Art Studio for Children Mid-Summer Mardi Gras Ages 4-6

◆

9

Art Studio for Children Mid-Summer Mardi Gras Ages 4-6

◆

10

Art Studio for Children Mid-Summer Mardi Gras Ages 4-6

●

13

◆

14

Art Studio for Children PAINT, PAINT, PAINT Ages 7-9

◆

15

Art Studio for Children PAINT, PAINT, PAINT; Ages 7-9

❂

◆

11

Art Studio for Teens 2-D to 3-D Ages 13-17

✣

6 p.m.

Community Art Studio (for adults)

AGING 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Films: Young at Heart and Aging in America: The Years Ahead

◆

16

Art Studio for Children PAINT, PAINT, PAINT Ages 7-9

12 - 1 p.m.

Book Discussion Group: The Hound in the Left-hand Corner by Giles Waterfield

◆

18

17

Art Studio for Children PAINT, PAINT, PAINT Ages 7-9

❃❖ 6 p.m.

WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM OUR FRIENDS: Recent Acquisitions in the Decorative Arts (Lupin Cameo Gallery)

20

Art Studio for Children Mixed Media Mish-Mash Ages 10-12

26

Friday

Prints & Drawings - AN INSTANT ARRESTED IN ETERNITY: Sketches by Steinlen, Forain & Tchelitchew

Art Studio for Children PAINT, PAINT, PAINT Ages 7-9

◆

Thursday

6 p.m.

Decorative Arts - WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM OUR FRIENDS: Recent Acquisitions in the Decorative Arts

Art Studio for Children Mid-Summer Mardi Gras Ages 4-6

2:00p.m.

Social Animals: Locating the Human in the Natural World (Besthoff Sculpture Garden)

Wednesday

◆

21

Art Studio for Children Mixed Media Mish-Mash Ages 10-12

◆

22

Art Studio for Children Mixed Media Mish-Mash Ages 10-12

◆

23

Art Studio for Children Mixed Media Mish-Mash Ages 10-12

◆

24

Art Studio for Children Mixed Media Mish-Mash Ages 10-12

■❖ 6 p.m.

13 Most Beautiful... (Stern Auditorium)

27

28

❃❖

29

6 p.m.

Mnemonic Devices: Rachel Jones and David Webber (Frederick R. Weisman Galleries, second floor)

30

31

✣

25

CAREGIVING & HEALING 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Films: See Me/Look at Me and The Sandwich Generation

Sunday

Monday

Thursday

Wednesday

Tuesday

Saturday

Friday ✖

1

AUGUST 2009

8 - 9 a.m.

Yoga in the Sculpture Garden

2

9

16

¶

23

3

10

17

24

4

Sunday

Monday

SEPTEMBER 2009 20

11

18

27

❃❖

8

✣

12

❃❖

19

6 p.m.

The Art of Caring: A Look at Life through Photography (Ella West Freeman Galleries)

25

13

14

15

■❖

26

❂

20

21

22

12 p.m. - 1 p.m.

Book Discussion Group: Picasso: Portrait of Picasso as a Young Man

by Norman Mailer

27

28

✣

29

DISASTER 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Film: When the Levees Broke

6 p.m.

Last of the Czars: Death of a Dynasty (Stern Auditorium)

Tuesday

7

14

21

28

❃❖

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

2

3

4

6 p.m.

New Asian Art Installation (Asian Galleries, third floor)

8

●

9

16

15

Saturday ✖

5

8 - 9 p.m.

Yoga in the Sculpture Garden

10

11

6 p.m.

Community Art Studio (for adults)

✣

12

WELLNESS 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Film: Autism: The Musical

17

18

24

25

19

❃❖ 6 p.m.

Artist talk by William Sooter

22

❂

23

12 p.m. - 1 p.m.

Book Discussion Group:Abby Aldrich Rockefeller: The Woman in the Family

by Bernice Kert

Last Day: FLOATULENTS

Last Day: An Instant Arrested in Eternity: Sketches by Steinlen, Forain & Tchelitchew

12 - 1 p.m.

Special Event: George Roland— Exhibition Walk-through

◆

Art Studio for Teens Drawing Studio Ages 13-17

6 p.m.

Highlights of the Chinese Collection (Asian Galleries, third floor)

Last Day: Women Artists in Louisiana

¶

7

ALZHEIMER’S 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Film: Alzheimer’s Project

1

¶

❂❃

●

31

13

6

11 a.m. - 3 p.m.

Community Art-Making

30

¶

5

6 p.m.

An Instant Arrested in Eternity: Sketches by Steinlen, Forain & Tchelitchew (Stafford Gallery)

Last Day: Marcus Coates and Mnemonic Devices

6

❃❖

■❖ 6 p.m.

What About Style? Alex Katz: A Painter’s Painter (Stern Auditorium)

29

30

✣

26

LOVE 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Film: Andrew Jenks, Room 335

Post Office Box 19123 New Orleans, Louisiana 70179-0123

NON-PROFIT ORG. US POSTAGE PAID NEW ORLEANS PERMIT #108