arts quarterly summer 2016

Summer 2016Arts Quarterly New Orleans Museum of Art

Susan M. Taylor

DIRECTOR’S LETTER

As I write this letter, I know many of you are preparing for summer vacations, perhaps packing your bags and traveling to new destinations or family favorites. At NOMA, a dazzling group of teenagers are spending their summer vacation working hard at their new Creative Career Internships, a program designed by NOMA in partnership with the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and supported generously by the Walton Family Foundation. I'm inspired by the opportunities this internship creates. Both NOMA and Crystal Bridges have chosen to partner with KIPP public charter high schools in this endeavor. Select students from KIPP Renaissance High School in New Orleans are here at NOMA, learning and getting an in-depth experience of a museum environment. Over the next several weeks, they will shadow NOMA staffers across all departments and receive mentoring opportunities that will supply them with leadership skills and introduce them to best practices and workplaces in the arts and culture field. The Creative Career Internship program aims to create a pipeline for future arts professionals, by providing an opportunity for teenagers to be immersed in a professional, creative workplace. Additionally, NOMA has the benefit of being located in a culturally rich city like New Orleans, so the teens’ internship experience at NOMA will be augmented by visits to a number of local museums, as well as local universities that also offer arts-related curriculum as part of their academic offerings. I am eager to see where this type of immersive internship will take these bright minds. NOMA plans to mark their progress in the years to come, and watch where this experience will lead them in their educational and career journeys. As I have mentioned many times in this column, NOMA—the only museum in the Gulf South to host this type of program—is a place of lifelong learning where people of all ages and interests can engage with the arts. As we continue to expand our outreach to community members of all ages, I look forward to consulting this intelligent, resourceful group of students on future teen programming at NOMA as well. We’ll mark the end of the summer and the beginning of fall with our annual LOVE in the Garden fundraiser in September. This year’s chairs have been planning a spectacular evening in the scenic Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden, and I hope you will join us for what is sure to be a convivial night of dining and dancing among mature live oaks, magnolias, and other stunning elements of our Louisiana landscape. And, in other NOMA news, this summer we say goodbye to Bill Fagaly, our longtime family member and African art curator. In his fifty (!) years at NOMA, Bill worked just about every senior level position in the museum (including acting director!), organized nearly 100 exhibitions, and bolstered NOMA’s permanent collection with hundreds of works of art of the highest quality. His wisdom, experience and sense of humor will be missed around our hallways, but we wish him the best in his retirement.

Susan M. TaylorThe Montine McDaniel Freeman Director

Cover Claude Monet, En Paysage dans I’île Saint-Martin, 1881. Oil on canvas, 28 13⁄16 x 23 5⁄8 in., Paul G. Allen Family Collection

Left William Henry Fox Talbot,British, 1800 – 1877, View of the Paris Boulevards from the First Floor of the Hôtel de Louvais, Rue de la Paix, 1843 (detail), Salted paper print from a paper negative, Museum purchase, 1977 Acquisition Fund Drive, 77.66

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FEATURE

10 Seeing Nature

Fall exhibition explores the experience and inspiration of place

MUSEUM

INSPIREDBYNOMA

4 Elizabeth and Alexandra Stafford

EXHIBITIONS

5 Something in the Way: Photography and Obstruction

6 Design Minds: Sara Ruffin Costello and Lee Ledbetter Discuss The Essence of Things

COLLECTIONS

8 The Arts of the First Americans

Page 10 SEEING NATUREPage 8 THE ARTS OF THE FIRST AMERICANS

CONTENTS Summer 2016

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COMMUNITY

VISIT

14 Bastille Day Fête 14 New Orleans Museum Month14 The Essence of Things Summer Programming

LEARN

15 NOMA Launches Creative Careers Internship for KIPP teens

SUPPORT

16 NOMA Donors

17 Travel with NOMA: Denver and Aspen, Colorado

18 NOMA Friends Show Support for New Exhibitions and Initiatives

20 The 50th Odyssey Honors Past Chairs

21 Mark Your Calendars for LOVE in the Garden

22 National Endowment for the Arts Supports NOMA’s Landscape project

23 After Half a Century of Service, a Curator Retires

Page 22 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS SUPPORTS NOMA’S LANDSCAPE PROJECTPage 6 THE ESSENCE OF THINGS

Arts Quarterly New Orleans Museum of Art

Opposite left Kwakwaka’wakw (Kwakiutl) Peoples, Canada, British Columbia, Beaded Bear Apron, early 20th century, Felt, printed cloth, glass beads, copper bells, puffin beaks, Gift of Adele and Carl Adatto, 92.214

Opposite right Giovanni Antonio Canal, known as Canaletto, The Grand Canal, Venice, Looking South-East from San Stae to the Fabbriche Nuove di Rialto, c. 1738. Oil on canvas, 18 ½ x 30 5⁄8 in. Paul G. Allen Family Collection

Above Left Rody Graumans, 85 Lamps Chandelier, 1993, Droog Design, Amsterdam 100x70x70 cm., light bulbs, cables, and cable connectors, Collection Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein

Above Right Richard Clague, Back of Algiers, c. 1870-73, Oil on canvas, 13 1/2 x 20 inches, Gift of Eugenia Uhlhorn in memory of her husband, Major Benjamin Morgan Harrod, New Orleans Museum of Art, 13.5

4 Arts Quarterly New Orleans Museum of Art

I NS PI R E D B Y NOM A : E L I Z A B ET H A N D A L E X A N DR A STA F FOR D

Alexandra, how did your parents’ art collecting influence your own decisions as a collector?AS At age eight, I remember walking through the Marché aux Puces on Sundays with my parents. It was magical. Stalls and stalls of antiques and bric a brac! While they negotiated with merchants, my dad would hand me some francs so that I could go and buy one item that I liked. I still have them: a Napoleonic ivory coin purse, an Austrian enamel cigarette holder, and a picture frame.

Their collecting did not influence me as a collector but it broadened my knowledge of art, geography and history. As a teenager, I loved art nouveau and art deco, not eighteenth century French art! Once out of college, I reupholstered, reframed, refurbished, and decorated my apartment with items I found in my parents’ storage room. I mixed and matched mid-century with eighteenth century. My first “official” auction purchase was a Fantin Latour lithograph which still hangs on my wall.

Mrs. Stafford, we’re approaching the 50th anniversary of Odyssey, which celebrated your collection. What do you remember from that experience?ES Jim Byrnes, then director of NOMA contacted us. Hurricane Betsy had made a mess of the New Orleans area and he asked us to loan the museum some of our art. It ended up being most of our collection and became the Odyssey of an Art Collector exhibition. We loved it. The wall colors fit the art perfectly, the catalogue was beautiful and well presented. One thing I do remember is going to the museum a few days before the exhibition opened, and seeing one of my lady friends high up on a ladder installing the decorations in the grand lobby of the museum; and seeing all of my friends working so hard to prepare for the opening. That generation brought life to the museum: they started coming to it, and it came alive for New Orleanians.

You’ve both generously supported NOMA in numerous ways over the years. Why are art museums important to you?AS I can’t imagine a world without museums. I love the old-time institutions but also the more focused or esoteric collections. It gives you a sense of history of the place you are visiting. It is also fascinating to see what museums are doing to bring audiences in: digital interactions, creative docent tours, thought provoking programming... I think NOMA has really kept up with the trends, and with its Mini Masters program, has created some community outreach that is unsurpassed. I also support NOMA because we need museums for our children to experience what they read about in their history books.

ES These museums that I’ve been associated with, I’ve loved over many decades; they are important because they contain works of art that delight me and also instruct me in many ways.

Alexandra, what were your impressions of NOMA as a child? Do you have a favorite NOMA memory?AS I was lucky enough to work as an intern in 1976 in the photographs and prints department under Valerie Loupe. There I got to see my first Laughlin photographs and one of the gigantic Audubon prints. I still remember the effect it had on me. As a budding photographer, the haunting black and white images of ghosts, cemeteries and plantations captivated me. The beauty of Audubon’s life-size bird stunned me. His curiosity in the natural world, his artistic talent and effort, and his unique vision to create this folio tells you everything about that period of art and history—and mankind. And that is what art is all about: it should move you, please you, and make you fall in love!

Mother and daughter Elizabeth and Alexandra Stafford have been ardent supporters of NOMA and the New Orleans art community for decades. In 1966, NOMA’s inaugural Odyssey Ball fundraiser served as the premiere of Odyssey of an Art Collector, an exhibition of works spanning five thousand years of art history, from Elizabeth and her husband Frederick’s collection. Elizabeth is currently an Honorary Life Member of NOMA’s board of trustees. In addition to being a former NOMA trustee and past Odyssey chair, her daughter Alexandra also serves as a dedicated docent.

Mrs. Stafford, when did you develop your appreciation for art? When did you begin to collect it? ES My appreciation for art began in New Orleans, walking through the French Quarter on Royal Street and looking at all the antique spots; looking at nineteenth century furniture of eighteenth century originals. My first purchase of art was made on my first trip to Europe in 1950, where I bought a watercolor while on a walk along the Seine near the Notre Dame Cathedral. The interest in — the love of — art is still a very large part of my life.

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Since the earliest days of photography, photographers have had a contentious relationship with the real world. Unlike other forms of picture making, in which the author has total control over each element in the picture, every photograph is a negotiation between what exists in front of the camera and what the photographer is willing to include. Some photographers have employed methods to eliminate distracting parts of the picture—masking out sections of the negative, manipulating the print, etc.—but others have chosen to accept everything within the frame, even when certain elements in the picture obstruct others. Still others, especially in the twentieth century, intentionally sought out obstructions. These photographs draw attention to photography’s dependence on the real world and the photographer, who determines how much of that world we get to see. Even more recently, photographers have begun exploring how the photograph or the act of photographing is itself an obstruction to the real world. NOMA’s fall exhibition brings together a diverse group of photographic objects, from

the nineteenth century to the present, to explore these various relationships between photography and obstruction. In the nineteenth century, cameras were large and cumbersome, and the number of locations a photographer could place their camera was limited. Take for example, William Henry Fox Talbot’s view out of a window in Paris (detail pictured on inside cover). Talbot was probably most interested in the horse-drawn carriages and the façade of the building across the street, and yet the only view he had was interrupted by the streetlamp in the foreground. The resulting picture exists because Talbot decided to accept everything that the world provided. Made only four years after photography was introduced to the world, this picture demonstrates how quickly photographers began to accept photography’s omnivorous vision. Photography takes its subjects from the real world, but presents them in an altered way – things in the foreground merge with those in the background. Photographers realized that obstructions could consequently be exploited as abstracting elements.

Lee Friedlander’s photograph from the 1960s includes so many obstacles from different planes that the tightly cropped image becomes disorienting. Other photographers addressed different aspects of how the photograph was unlike the world it represented. In his “Images within Images” series, Ken Josephson held photographs in front of the camera to underscore the artifice of the photographic image. A picture of an ocean liner, as real as it may seem, is still only a picture, a flat surface that we cannot penetrate to experience the world beyond. As we look at Josephson’s photograph of the photograph, we have chosen to disregard the world of substance around us, in favor of focusing on a surface about surfaces, an obstruction of an obstruction.

Russell Lord, Freeman Family Curator of Photographs

Something in the Way: Photography and Obstruction will be on view from September 9, 2016 – January 1, 2017 in the Templeman and Pailet Galleries.

S OM ET H I NG I N T H E WAY: P HO T O GR A P H Y A N D OB ST RUC T ION

EXHIBITIONS

Lee Friedlander, American, born 1934, Atlantic City, New Jersey, 1969, Gelatin silver print, Museum purchase through the National Endowment for the Arts Grant, 75.29

Kenneth Josephson, American, born 1932, New York State, 1970, Gelatin silver print, Collection of Jim and Cherye Pierce © Kenneth Josephson, courtesy Gitterman Gallery and Stephen Daiter Gallery


DE SIGN M I N D S : S A R A RU F F I N C O ST E L L O A N D L E E L E DB ET T E R DIS C US S T H E E S S E NC E OF T H I NG S

We asked two New Orleans tastemakers to give us their thoughts on a few of the objects in the exhibition The Essence of Things – Design and the Art of Reduction: An Exhibition of the Vitra Design Museum. Don’t miss your opportunity to explore this exhibition, on view all summer, which brings together approximately 150 objects covering 100 years of design history.

Sara Ruffin Costello is the former editor and founding creative director of Domino magazine. She is also a regular contributor to T: the New York Times Style Magazine, and is the

co-author of The New York Times bestseller book, The Domino Book of Decorating. She is a decorator and style consultant for private clients in Los Angeles, New York, and New Orleans.

Lee Ledbetter is a practicing architect and founder of Lee Ledbetter & Associates. The firm’s projects have received numerous local, state and

regional American Institute of Architects (AIA) awards, and have been featured in numerous local and national publications. Ledbetter’s projects include the design of NOMA’s Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden and the Joan Mitchell Center studio building, among others.

MICHAEL THONET & SONS NO. 14 CHAIR, 1859–60 THONET BROTHERS, VIENNA, AUSTRIA, 92.5 X 42.5 X 50 CM BENT BEECH WOOD, CANE WORK COLLECTION VITRA DESIGN MUSEUM, WEIL AM RHEIN

LL It’s bentwood and it’s beautiful.

SC This is a personal favorite. I just love this bentwood movement; it’s feminine, and you get that beautiful curve. The ability to bend that wood so beautifully and perfectly is an engineering triumph.

LL I think this is a time machine. After 150 years it’s still in every beautiful restaurant that you go to.

SC That’s so true. It’s all over Pinterest. Every kitchen, this is the chair. It’s such an optimistic little chair, isn’t it? The way it splays out, its curves...

LL It fits your backside well, too. I think that’s another reason it’s used so much. It’s comfortable.

WILLIAM MIDDLEBROOK (INVENTOR) PAPER CLIP 1890 (INVENTION) 0 X 2.8 X 0.7 CM METAL WIRE COLLECTION VITRA DESIGN MUSEUM, WEIL AM RHEIN

LL My first thought was: it’s actually just as useful being unwound and stuck into the back of a computer. I think I unlocked a bathroom door with one at one point in my life. And this is reusable!

SC I think the paper clip may be the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. To me it symbolizes everything great about design. And whenever anyone says, “I wish I had invented something” they always say the paper clip. It’s one of those things that’s cited as thinking outside of the box as an invention. You wouldn’t necessarily come up with it. It’s just perfect.

RODY GRAUMANS, 85 LAMPS CHANDELIER, 1993,DROOG DESIGN, AMSTERDAM 100 X 70 X 70 CM LIGHT BULBS, CABLES, AND CABLE CONNECTORS, COLLECTION VITRA DESIGN MUSEUM, WEIL AM RHEIN

SC This is less beautiful than the paper clip.

LL 85 times less? [laughs]

SC I’m not sure how successful this is. I think it exists as a trendy moment; it’s not as ingenious. I like the idea of cables and light bulbs, but this is still too tricky for me.

LL I agree. To me, this is the least successful piece in the catalogue. I don’t understand why it’s in the catalogue, because it’s the antithesis of the idea. It’s not reductive, it’s repetitive. A single light bulb, as you said Sara, is a beautiful thing, but the light from a single light bulb is not great, so you multiply that times 85? It seems silly, gratuitous.

LE CORBUSIER (CHARLES-EDOUARD JEANNERET), STOOL FOR THE PAVILLON DU BRÉSIL, CITÉ INTE NATIONALE UNIVERSITAIRE, PARIS, 1953–59, 43 X 33 X 25 CM, WOOD, COLLECTION VITRA DESIGN MUSEUM, WEIL AM RHEIN

LL I love this. If Wilma Flintstone had worn shoes, this is what they would have come in. I also love how kind of monastic it is.

SC How much does this go for? $50,000? [laughs] Don’t you just want to put it under Lucite on a plinth in your house? I love when things this far into being rigidly simple.

EXHIBITIONS

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DE SIGN M I N D S : S A R A RU F F I N C O ST E L L O A N D L E E L E DB ET T E R DIS C US S T H E E S S E NC E OF T H I NG S

Then someone puts them in their fancy house just to mess with people.

LL This to me is just like the paper clip.

SC I like that this object is ambivalent, it makes people say, “Why is this in a museum, are you kidding me?!” Is it beautiful, or is it not beautiful? It’s so coarse but so refined. I think it’s beautiful. But my father would be like, “What?!” The other interesting thing about the objects in this show is context. For instance, if that box in the garage with bikes and chainsaws and an old car up on cinderblocks, then it’s just an apple box.

LL Exactly. As opposed to someone’s living room. Is this “The Emperor’s New Clothes”? [laughs]

JONATHAN PAUL IVE MACBOOK AIR LAPTOP COMPUTER, 2008, APPLE COMPUTER INC., CUPERTINO, CA, 1.9 X 32.5 X 22.7 CM, MIXED MEDIA, COLLECTION VITRA DESIGN MUSEUM, WEIL AM RHEIN

SC So we go from that beautiful box filled with nothing, to this, which is filled with stuff… and I hate it! Make this go away, and bring back that box!

LL I agree, I love the comparison of this object to the previous one. This one is so sleek and beautiful but so filled with stuff, and incomprehensible, and to use it comfortably you have to plug about ten peripherals into it!

SC What has this really done for us? We’ve become transfixed by this machine.

LL Plus there’s obsolescence built into it. It’s made to make you go buy another one in three or four years!

MARCEL BREUER, B 3 (WASSILY) ARMCHAIR, 1925, STANDARD-MÖBEL LENGYEL & CO., BERLIN 72.5 X 76.5 X 69.5 CM, NICKELED TUBULAR STEEL AND FABRIC (POLISHED YARN), COLLECTION ALEXANDER VON VEGE-SACK, LESSAC-CONFOLENS

SC Stands the test of time.

LL I’ve used this chair in projects before, and it’s a bit deceptive. Although its transparent and light, it has a large footprint. It’s kind of odd, really.

SC These chairs suck the oxygen out of a room. They’re like Madonna. It is deceptive. It looks benign, and light and airy and stripped down, and yet it’s an attention hog.

EILEEN GRAY, OCCASIONAL TABLE FOR THE E-1027 HOUSE (FRANCE), 1925–28, ATELIER EILEEN GRAY, PARIS, 58 X 41.1 X 41 CM, TUBULAR STEEL AND LACQUERED WOOD, COLLECTION VITRA DESIGN MUSEUM, WEIL AM RHEIN

SC I love this, and I love Eileen Gray. She’s so out of the box, the way she interprets form. This table is very dystopian; it reminds me of that movie Brazil.

LL Her glass and chrome table is so much better known, but I like this one more. I like that the top is larger and thinner and the bottom is smaller and thicker. It’s functional because it weights it. And when you look at different views, different angles of it—it’s like a Picasso portrait in a way. It’s sort of cubist. I don’t have any idea if that’s how she was thinking when she designed this.

Is there anything else in the exhibition that you wanted an opportunity to talk about?

LL My favorites have to do with personal associations. For example, my dad was a big golfer, and I would caddy for him as a kid. He would let me wash the golf balls, and I remember being fascinated with the dimples in the golf ball. So that object stuck out for me. And also, I got an inflatable chair in 1970. The clear, bubble chair. I didn’t even know those were a thing until I saw it in this catalogue! I didn’t know it was a “design” thing, I just knew I wanted one.

SC That’s what’s so charming about this show—we’ve lived with so many of these objects.

Have any of the objects in this exhibition appeared in your everyday life? Use the hashtag #EssenceofThings to show us!

The Essence of Things— Design and the Art of Reduction: An Exhibition of the Vitra Design Museun is presented at NOMA in memory of H. Mortimer Favrot Jr. and supported in part by the Favrot Architecture and Design Endowment and AOS Interior Environments. The exhibition is on view through September 11, 2016 in the Ella West Freeman Galleries.


COLLECTIONS

Kwakwaka’wakw (Kwakiutl) Peoples, Canada, British Columbia, Beaded Bear Apron, early 20th centuryFelt, printed cloth, glass beads, copper bells, puffin beaks, Gift of Adele and Carl Adatto, 92.214

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NOMA’s extensive collection of Native American art is now highlighted in a new gallery space on the second floor. The first installation in this gallery presents the traditional arts of indigenous cultures from three regions of the North American continent: the Great Plains, the Northwest Coast, and the southern and northern Woodlands, spanning 1,500 years from the pre-contact period (before the arrival of Europeans) to contemporary times. This focused installation includes objects made by the Mandan, Kwakwakw (Kwakiutl), Tlingit, Nuxalt, Choctaw, Chippewa and Creek peoples. There are also objects from the Mississippian and Hopewell cultures and a display of exceptional Louisiana baskets made by the Chitimacha, Choctaw, Houma and Coushatta peoples. The ancestors of the people now referred to as Native Americans first arrived on this continent approximately 15,000 years ago; the first humans to inhabit the Americas. Over time people settled in different geographic areas and developed distinctive material cultures that reflected their ecosystems. Each region was home to multiple tribes that spoke a variety of languages. What we know of the art of these first Americans is limited to excavated objects made of materials that do not decay. Additional information comes from objects collected by early European traders and explorers who bartered for treasured objects from the peoples they encountered. In the early contact years, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, some pre-contact objects constructed from organic materials were collected and preserved. From these rare objects we know that there was a vibrant tradition of painting and decorating objects made of animal hide, and of painting, carving and sculpting wood objects. The artists, usually women, created designs that reflected her environment and served the ritual and everyday needs of her community. After the contact period,

T H E A RTS OF T H E F I R ST A M E R ICA NS

new materials became available through trade; glass beads, printed cloth, wool and silk from Europe became popular with native artists. The introduction of these new materials did not change the Native American aesthetic, rather these materials were incorporated into forms and designs that reflected ancient traditions and beliefs. The original owner of this dance apron was recently identified by Lee Everson, a member of the Kwakiutl First Nation in Canada and of the family that owned the apron. Everson provided NOMA with the photograph included here, and gave the museum additional insight into the object’s provenance, or origin. “The Beaded Bear Apron belonged to ‘Nagedzi’ Chief Andy Frank of the K’omoks First Nation and Gigal’gam Walas Kwagut on Vancouver Island,

British Columbia, Canada,” said Everson. “When he passed away in 1972, his wife ‘Umagalis’ (Mrs. Margaret Frank) sold several pieces of sacred family regalia to pay for a memorial potlatch to remember and honor him. One of those pieces was the Beaded Bear Apron.” The photograph above shows the object in its original context. ‘Nagedzi’ Chief Andy Frank on the right wears full dance regalia, including the dance apron, along with a Chilkat robe and a frontlet headdress. His wife ‘Umagalis’ (Mrs. Margaret Frank) is on his left. Today, Everson is keeping her family’s culture alive by learning traditional techniques and making a replica of the dancing apron Chief Andy Frank once wore years ago.

Paul Tarver, Registrar/Curator for Native American and Pre-Columbian Art

Chief Andy Frank with his wife Margaret Frank, and an unidentified child

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NOMA’s fall exhibition devoted to landscape explores the subject through an impressive range of styles and time periods from the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries in Europe, and the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in America. The thirty-nine masterpieces in Seeing Nature are selected from the collection of Paul Allen, Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist. The exhibition includes exemplary works by Jan Brueghel the Younger, J.M.W. Turner, John Singer Sargent, Paul Cézanne, Claude Monet, Georgia O’Keeffe, David Hockney, and Gerard Richter. Defining the role and status of landscape can be elusive. Landscape can convey mood and serve as a meditative release. In art it has long functioned to communicate religious or geologic praise, and the wonder of natural phenomena. Social concerns and historic events can also be identifiable or underlying, as in: the expression of nationalism and patriotism, cultural discovery and tourism, and the appreciation of landscape as an antidote to industrialization and outgrowth of a rising middle class. All of these fascinating aspects of landscape in art are explored though the paintings in the exhibition. The experience of the world through the senses is the subject of Jan Brueghel the Younger’s allegories of the five senses, which serve to ground and introduce the exhibition. Jan the Younger followed the signature style of his father, who was known as “Velvet” Brueghel, and painted copious flowers and greenery and lush fabrics and textures to epitomize sensuality. In the panel devoted to smell, a lounging Venus holds a flower to her nose, which she has plucked from the bouquet Cupid has brought her. The arbor she sits in is meticulously painted with hundreds of flowers, which can ingeniously be brought together only through art, for they all bloom in different seasons. The resplendent luxury of sensual experience reflects the courtly sphere Breughel worked in, also indicated by the royal residence in the left background. Monet’s home at Giverny provided the inspiration for his monumental water lily series. An avid gardener, Monet spent decades cultivating his garden at Giverny, adding contemplative elements common in Japanese gardens like bridges, bamboo and ginkgo, and he channeled water to make waterlily ponds. The artist made over 250 paintings of these ponds, which became his most recognizable subject. His later water lily paintings, like the one included in the exhibition, are increasingly abstract, where abbreviated, unfocused and dry brushwork evoke the impression of movement. The painting’s field of vision encompasses only the water’s surface. With no horizon line or baseline, the viewer is situated in the environment. The reflection of the blue sky within the water’s changing, fluid forms disorients. Monet’s goal in the series is achieved: to surround and envelop the viewer in the artist’s vision.

Gustav Klimt, Birch Forest, 1903. Oil on canvas, 42 1⁄4 x 42 1⁄4 in. Paul G. Allen Family Collection

Seeing NatureFALL EXHIBITION EXPLORES THE EXPERIENCE AND INSPIRATION OF PLACE


ABOVE Jan Brueghel the Younger, The Five Senses: Sight, c. 1625. Oil on panel, 27 5⁄8 x 44 5⁄8 in. Paul G. Allen Family Collection

“Reflected off the moving water, [Venice]’s effervescent light sparkles during the day while intensifying the darkness and mystery at night”

Impressionist and post-impressionist works form the core of the exhibition. In addition to six works by Monet and paintings by Cézanne and Signac, a high point of the show is the Birch Forest by Monet’s younger contemporary, Gustav Klimt. The wooded landscape is structured through the patterns of the forest floor: of the wood, of the leaves, of the mossy tree trunks. The effect is jewel-like and flat; the glistening leaves painted in gold highlights create a rhythmic tension with the two dimensional, dry birch tree trunks. This exceptional painting offers a rare view of Klimt, who was better known for his portraits of Viennese society. The artist turned to landscape in his final years, and concentrated his energies on studies of the Attersee Lake and its surrounding forest in lower Austria. Venice features prominently amongst this collection of paintings. Nine works by Canaletto, Turner, Manet, and Moran expound the glory and mystery of the city. Together they investigate the unique quality of light as part of the experience of the city and its canals. Reflected off the moving water, the city’s effervescent light sparkles during the day while intensifying the darkness and mystery at night. Joseph Mallord William Turner was captivated by Venice. He made numerous trips in the 1830s and made over thirty paintings of the city. Made during his final trip, Turner’s 1841 Depositing of John Bellini’s Three Pictures (..) is a tour de force of the painting of emotion and mood. Throughout his career, Turner traveled the continent extensively and his work focused exclusively on city-, sea- and landscape painting, often worked up from watercolor sheets done on site. This canvas exemplifies the increasing abstraction of his later work where diffused light, blurred vision and bleeding colors achieve a distinctive, seemingly intuitive performance that is highly personal and dramatic.

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More mundane but equally evocative, Manet’s cropped view from water level captures a bobbing gondola’s stern ornament, the brightly colored mooring poles, and a palazzo’s dilapidated steps leading to the water, all such familiar details for those who have visited the City of Canals. Manet’s open brushwork effortlessly conveys the behavior of light—sundrenched sky, moving water, sunbaked building. Thomas Moran made the Grand Canyon the main subject of his art for over thirty years. He first encountered the landmark in 1873 and continued to explore its endless compositional potential, creating paintings that single-handedly sparked tourism to the site. The exhibition’s Grand Canyon presents an aerial vista hovering just below the Canyon’s rim, the rocky outcropping of the composition’s right side situating the viewer below the clouds and in the canyon. The sense of place and awe achieved matches the experience of this natural wonder. This late painting of 1909 was made three years after Theodore Roosevelt designated the Grand Canyon a national monument. It offers an important example of the way the tradition of American grand landscapes of the last quarter of the nineteenth century reflected and played a role in the fulfillment of manifest destiny. The exhibition’s ranging view of landscape offers a remarkable opportunity to consider the meaning and role of landscape and art. Above all, the selected works pay homage to the individual experience of place balanced by the universal role of landscape in human experience.

Seeing Nature: Landscape Masterworks from the Paul G. Allen Family Collection will be on view from October 14, 2016 – January 15, 2017. This exhibition is co-organized by Portland Art Museum, the Seattle Art Museum and the Paul G. Allen Family Collection.

Vanessa Schmid, Senior Research Curator for European Art

TOP Joseph Mallord William Turner, Depositing of John Bellini’s Three Pictures in La Chiesa Redentore, Venice, 1841. Oil on canvas, 29 x 45 ½ in. Paul G. Allen Family Collection

ABOVE Thomas Moran, Grand Canyon of Arizona at Sunset, 1909, Oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches, Paul G. Allen Collection


VISIT

GET T O K NOW T H E E S S E NC E OF T H I NG S

If you haven’t had a chance to explore the exhibition The Essence of Things—Art and the Design of Reduction, now’s your chance. Don’t miss these related programs this summer. Visit noma.org for more details:

Artist Perspective

Friday, July 8 | 6:30 pmFISH FACTORY MEDIA

Design Documentary Film Series

All held indoors in NOMA’s Stern Auditorium

Friday, July 1 | 7:30 pm

A LEGO Brickumentary


Between the Folds


Charles & Ray Eames: The Architect & The Painter

Friday, September 2 | 7:30 pm

Milton Glaser: To Inform and Delight

NOMA Late Night: Design It!

Friday, August 9 | 5 pm – midnight

NOMA’s annual late night event will celebrate the exhibition The Essence of Things with art making activities, films, a cooking demo with Cafe NOMA, gallery talks, 3D printing demos, music by Quintron, a cash bar, and more.

Noontime TalksWednesdays in August | Noon

Mel Buchanan, RosaMary Curator of Decorative Arts and Design, will lead weekly, informative gallery talks of the exhibition.

The Essence of Design Film Series

All held indoors in NOMA’s Stern Auditorium

This film series, curated by UNO film professor Laszlo Fulop, showcases three distinct facets of design through the “Design Trilogy” of documentary filmmaker Gary Hustwit.

Friday, August 12 | 7:30 pm Helvetica

Friday, August 26 | 7:30 pm Objectified

Friday, September 9 | 7:30 pm Urbanized

Artful Palate

Café NOMA’s annual summer cooking demonstrations, led by chefs from the Ralph Brennan Restaurant Group, will be themed to The Essence of Things. Join us every Friday between July 15 and September 9 at 6:30 p.m.

Mini-Design Symposium in partnership with the New Orleans AIA and the Tulane School of Architecture

Friday, September 9 | 5:30 pm

Presentations by New Orleans-based designers including architect Ammar Eloueini with a panel discussion moderated by Abbott Miller (Pentagram design consultancy)

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NOMAlate night:

design it!

B A ST I L L E DAY F ÊT E

Friday, July 154–10 pmAdmission | $5 Free for NOMA members

Bastille Day Fête is excited to announce its new home at NOMA. Now in its fifth year, the celebration will be bringing even more of its French flair to New Orleans. 2016 highlights will include live music by Giselle Bonfaire, Bon Bon Vivant, and Lost Bayou Ramblers, French and English museum tours, a French cooking demonstration, kids’ activities in partnership with The French Library, mini French language lessons, and more! In addition, Bastille Day Fête is taking the celebrations onto the grounds of City Park with activities including pétanque demonstrations and contests, kids’ activities and French-inspired food trucks. Bastille Day Fête is presented by the Alliance Française, the Consulate General of France in Louisiana, the French-American Chamber of Commerce (Gulf Coast Chapter), the New Orleans Museum of Art and the New Orleans Tourism and Marketing Corporation. For more information, visit noma.org or bastilledaynola.com.

It’s that time of year again! NOMA is partnering with several museums and institutions in the Greater New Orleans Area to offer reciprocal membership privileges during the entire month of August. For more information, check noma.org in the coming weeks.#N

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LEARN

NOM A L AU NC H E S C R E AT I V E CA R E E R S I N T E R NS H I P FOR K I P P T E E NS

This summer, NOMA debuts the Creative Careers Internship (CCI), a new, immersive job training program for teens. NOMA introduces rising high school seniors to the many career options available within the museum field by providing job shadowing and mentoring opportunities within a professional museum environment. The program is made possible by the Walton Family Foundation. “We find that many students don’t know about the types of positions available in museums,” says Allison Reid, NOMA’s Deputy Director for Interpretation and Audience Engagement. “We hope this experience will increase awareness about the variety of job opportunities available in the museum field and other arts organizations.”

Job Shadowing & MentoringNOMA is launching the internship program, modeled after a similar program at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, in partnership with KIPP high schools. NOMA has paired with KIPP Renaissance High School located in New Orleans’s Bywater neighborhood, where students were selected after participating in an interview process. Interns shadow museum staff as they

complete their daily responsibilities, working in departments such as Visitor Services, Curatorial Affairs, Graphic Design, Public Programs, Education, Accounting, Public Relations, Security, Administration, External Affairs, Human Resources, and Gift Shop. Through these experiences in a creative workplace, students gain an understanding of how museums function, including best practices, initiatives, services and departments. Working in a professional office environment alongside museum staff, interns learn teamwork, collaboration, and time management. The internship also provides mentoring in workplace practices and procedures. Local organizations including The Links, Inc., UNCF, and the Arts Council of New Orleans provide mentoring sessions for interns, focusing on topics such as resume building, interview skills, meeting manners, and leadership. At the end of each work day, interns reflect and record their experiences in a journal.

Group Projects & PresentationsStudents participating in the internship play a key role in helping the museum develop new, innovative programs for a teen audience. They assist museum staff in researching trends and best

practices in teen programs around the country, building on the information gathered earlier this year at NOMA’s first Teen Summit. Interns will make their recommendations for engaging teen audiences to the museum staff in a formal presentation in August.

Community ConnectionsRounding out their experience, interns are visiting a number of cultural organizations around the city to compare and contrast the functions of various types of museums. Excursions are planned to the National World War II Museum, McKenna African American Museum, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, Louisiana State Museums, among others. Additionally, interns are touring local universities such as Xavier University of Louisiana, University of New Orleans, Tulane University, Dillard University and Delgado Community College to learn about arts-related academic programs. "This is a wonderful opportunity for students,” says Talia Pennington, KIPP Through College Counselor and Teacher at KIPP Renaissance High School. “It touches on many important aspects of the professional work environment that will serve our students well in the future.”


Foundation and Government Support

$500,000 and aboveCollins C. Diboll Private Foundation

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

The Elise M. Besthoff Charitable Foundation

The Helis Foundation

$150,000 - $199,999City of New Orleans

$100,000 - $149,000Lois and Lloyd Hawkins Jr. Foundation

$50,000 - $99,999 American Council of Learned Societies

Eugenie and Joseph Jones Family Foundation

The Gulf Seafood and Tourism Promotional Fund

Hearst Foundations

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

SUPPORT

$20,000 - $49,999 The Harry T. Howard III Foundation

The Institute of Museum and Library Sciences

Louisiana Division of the Arts

The Lupin Foundation

The RosaMary Foundation

$10,000 - $19,999Evelyn L. Burkenroad Foundation

The Garden Study Club of New Orleans

Goldring Family Foundation

The GPOA Foundation

John Burton Harter Charitable Trust

New Orleans Theater Association

Ruby K. Worner Charitable Trust

Zemurray Foundation

Corporate and Individual Support

$100,000 and aboveSydney and Walda Besthoff

IBERIABANK

Joshua Mann Pailet

Estate of Françoise Billion Richardson

Donna and Benjamin M. Rosen

Estate of Daniel Henry Yeoman

$50,000 - $99,999The New Orleans Convention &

Visitors Bureau

Janice Parmelee and Bill Hammack

$20,000 - $49,999Joseph and Sue Ellen Canizaro

Tina Freeman and Philip Woollam

Regions Bank

Sheila and H. Britton Sanderford

Estate of Warren and Sylvia Stern

Whitney Bank

$10,000 - $19,000Chevron

Mr. and Mrs. Charles B. Davis

Entergy New Orleans

Estate of Albert and Rea Hendler

Sandra and Russ Herman

Elizabeth and Willy Monaghan

Jacki and Brian Schneider

NOM A BUSINESS COUNCIL

PlatinumSuperior Energy Services

GoldChevron

Hyatt Regency New Orleans

International-Matex Tank Terminals

Jones Walker

The New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau

SilverBellwether Technology

Corporate Realty

NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

World Trade Center of New Orleans

BronzeCrescent Capital Consulting

Eskew + Dumez + Ripple

Kim Starr Wise Floral Events

Le Meridien New Orleans

Solomon Group

H. Russell Albright

Barbara and Wayne Amedee

Larry W. Anderson

Honorable Steven R. Bordner

E. John Bullard

Joseph and Sue Ellen Canizaro

Mrs. Carmel Cohen

Mrs. Isidore Cohn Jr.

Prescott N. Dunbar

Lin Emery

William A. Fagaly

Randy Fertel

Lyn and John Fischbach

Tim and Ashley Francis

Mr. and Mrs. Richard W. Freeman

Sandra D. Freeman

Tina Freeman and Philip Woollam

Mr. and Mrs. Stephen A. Hansel

Abba J. Kastin, MD

Lee Ledbetter and Douglas Meffert

Thomas B. Lemann

Dr. Edward D. Levy Jr.

John and Tania Messina

Anne and King Milling

James A. Mounger

Judith Young Oudt

Mrs. Charles S. Reily Jr.

Pixie and James Reiss

Mr. and Mrs. Edward F. Renwick

Arthur Roger

Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin M. Rosen

Brian Sands

Jolie and Robert Shelton

Margaret and Bruce Soltis

Mrs. Frederick M. Stafford

Nancy Stern

Mrs. John N. Weinstock

Mercedes Whitecloud

ISA AC DELGADO SOCIETY

For more information about supporting NOMA, please contact Brooke Minto at 504.658.4107 or [email protected].

GreenBasin St. Station

Boh Bros. Construction Company, LLC

Ernst & Young

Gulf Coast Bank & Trust Company

Hotel Monteleone

Johnson Rice and Company, LLC

Laitram, LLC

Neal Auction Company

New Orleans Auction Galleries

Regions Bank

Reily Foods Company

17www.noma.org

NOM A CIRCLES

President’s CircleMr. and Mrs. Tom Benson

Mr. and Mrs. John D. Bertuzzi

Mr. and Mrs. Sydney J. Besthoff III

Mr. and Mrs. David F. Edwards

Mrs. Lawrence D. Garvey

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

Mr. and Mrs. Charles B. Mayer

Mrs. Robert Nims

Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin M. Rosen

Mr. and Mrs. Stephen C. Sherrill

Mrs. Patrick F. Taylor

Director’s CircleMr. and Mrs. Robert H. Boh

Mr. Daryl G. Byrd

Mrs. Marianne M. Cohn

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas B. Coleman

Dr. and Mrs. Scott S. Cowen

Ms. Deborah Augustine Elam and Mr. Cary Grant

Mrs. H. Mortimer Favrot Jr.

Mr. Jerry Heymann

Mr. Robert Hinckley

Mr. and Mrs. William Monaghan

Dr. and Mrs. James F. Pierce


Jolie and Robert Shelton

Ms. Debra B. Shriver

Mr. and Mrs. Michael J. Siegel

Mr. and Mrs. Bruce L. Soltis

Mr. and Mrs. Robert M. Steeg

Mr. and Mrs. Robert S. Taylor

Mr. and Mrs. Robert E. Thomas

Patron’s CircleDr. Ronald G. Amedee and Dr.

Elisabeth H. Rareshide

Mr. and Mrs. Luis Baños

Mr. Brent Barriere and Ms. Judy Barrasso

Mr. and Mrs. Alvin Baumer Jr.

Ms. Dorothy Brennan

Mr. and Mrs. Joseph C. Canizaro

Mrs. Marjorie J. Colomb

Mr. Leonard A. Davis and Ms. Sharon Jacobs

Mr. and Mrs. James J. Frischhertz

Mr. and Mrs. Edward N. George

Mr. and Mrs. Charles W. Goodyear

Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Heebe

Mr. and Mrs. H. Merritt Lane III

Dr. Edward D. Levy Jr.

Mr. and Mrs. J. Thomas Lewis

Mrs. Louise H. Moffett

Dr. Howard and Dr. Joy D. Osofsky

Mr. Joshua Mann Pailet

Mr. and Mrs. James C. Roddy

Mr. and Mrs. Brian A. Schneider

Mr. and Mrs. Edward Shearer

Ms. E. Alexandra Stafford and Mr. Raymond M. Rathle Jr.


Mr. Stephen F. Stumpf Jr.

Mr. and Mrs. James L. Taylor

Ms. Catherine Burns Tremaine

Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Brent Wood

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T R AV E L W I T H NOM A

September 15 – 18Denver and Aspen, ColoradoTravel Package$2,150 per person | double occupancy$2,750 | single occupancy

Current Fellows, Fellows Circle and Circles members are invited to join NOMA director Susan M. Taylor on an exciting travel opportunity that includes a unique look at top museums, exhibitions and private collections in Denver and Aspen, Colorado. Fellows and Circles members will enjoy special access to the top institutions in the region, including the Denver Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, the RedHOUSE, the Aspen Art Museum, the American Museum of Western Art and the Clyfford Still Museum. We will visit a private collection in an Aspen home, dine in top tier restaurants and enjoy the fall foliage in the picturesque Rocky Mountains. Accommodations are at The Art Hotel in Denver and the Jerome Hotel in Aspen. This price includes three nights lodging with breakfast, lunch and dinner included as well as ground transportation and museum admissions. While airfare is not included, flight arrangements will be facilitated by travel planner. Space is limited! For more information, please contact Brooke Minto at 504.658.4107 or [email protected].

In celebration of our summer exhibition The Essence of Things,

we’re offering a MEMBERSHIPSPECIAL!

Join or renew at the Sustaining level or above and you’ll

receive 15MONTHSOFBENEFITSFORTHEPRICEOFAYEAR.

Just use the code 2016ESSENCE online at noma.org or

renew by phone at 504.658.4130.


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This spring, NOMA announced the Friends of the Sculpture Garden membership group, formerly known as the Advocates. On April 13, supporters gathered for a reception inaugurating the group, whose members are dedicated to supporting and honoring the legacy of the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden. New Orleans artist Lin Emery is the honorary chair of this special initiative. On April 19, NOMA welcomed photographer Vera Lutter to the museum to give a lecture on her work, in honor of the opening of the exhibition Vera Lutter: Inverted Worlds.

Lutter’s large-scale negative prints of landscapes and industrial subjects are one-of-a-kind, made inside a room-sized pinhole camera with exposures that range from hours to days. After the lecture, NOMA trustee Dr. Sid Bhansali treated Lutter and guests to an intimate reception and dinner honoring the artist at his home. NOMA also officially launched a major digital initiative this spring. On May 26, the museum held a press conference to announce a partnership with the Google Cultural Institute. Through this collaboration, NOMA and Google have created an online archive of

NOM A F R I E N D SS HOW SU P P ORT FOR N E W E X H I BI T IONS A N D I N I T I AT I V E S

SUPPORT

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Vera Lutter: Inverted Worlds is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in association with the New Orleans Museum of Art. The New Orleans presentation is sponsored in part by Milly and George Denegre and Adrea Heebe and Dominick Russo. Additional support is provided by Dr. Siddharth K. Bhansali.

The Essence of Things: Design and the Art of Reduction is presented at NOMA in memory of H. Mortimer Favrot Jr. and supported in part by the Favrot Architecture and Design Endowment and AOS Interior Environments.

highlights from the museum’s permanent collection. These high-resolution images provide detailed views of works of art, and are accessible to anyone with a computer or mobile device. (Download the Google Arts & Culture app and explore NOMA today!) NOMA kicked off the summer season on June 23 with an exclusive preview opening of the exhibition The Essence of Things – Design and the Art of Reduction: An Exhibition of the Vitra Design Museum. The first exhibition dedicated to modern design at NOMA, The Essence of Things covers one hundred years of design history through 150 objects.

1. Lin Emery, Cammie Mayer

2. Judith Oudt, Michael Liebaert, Ruth Austin

3. Scott Hutcheson

4. Mayra Rodriguez, Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez, Pam Friedler

5. Shirley Trusty Corey, Claude and Mimi Schlesinger

6. Kent and Charlie Davis, Julie George

7. Nicholas Varney, Vera Lutter

8. Elena and Louis Werner, Russell Lord

9. Teens interact with the Google Cultural Institute app at NOMA's press conference

10. Susan M. Taylor, Lucy Schwartz

11. Mel Buchanan, Reiner Packeiser, Kay Favrot, Susan M. Taylor

12. Shelby and Susan Russ, Steve Dumez

13. Lee Ledbetter, Melissa Gibbs, Douglas Meffert

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ODY S S E Y HONOR S PA ST C H A I R S

Fifty years of planning, fundraising, and celebration at the New Orleans Museum of Art have made it possible for the museum to present hundreds of engaging programs and exhibitions for the whole family. On Saturday, November 12, this year’s Odyssey presented by IBERIABANK will not only continue that tradition of service, but will honor all those previous event chairs who have paved the way. Guests will enjoy cuisine by 1718 Events of the Hyatt Regency New Orleans, and a silent auction with works of art, jewelry, antiques, and one-of-a-kind vacations. DJ and violinist Timothee Lovelock will provide entertainment for Patron Party guests and the IBERIABANK Champagne Lounge, and all guests will enjoy dancing along with the music of Karma in the Great Hall. Sponsors at a certain level are also invited to the Audubon Place home of Drs. Rupa and Tarun Jolly for a private party and reception on November 10, catered by Ralph Brennan Catering & Events and featuring music by singer and recording artist Phillip Manuel. Event chairs Susu and Andrew Stall are planning an unforgettable Odyssey to commemorate fifty years of supporting NOMA. Be a part of this milestone event!

Thank you to those who have already made contributions to The 50th Odyssey.

Become a Sponsor!For more information, contact Kristen Jochem at 504.658.4121 or [email protected].

$50,000 | SIGHT • 16 Odyssey Sponsor Party tickets• 16 Odyssey Patron tickets with

reserved tables• Recognition with company name or logo in

all press materials• Recognition as a lead sponsor at all

Odyssey events• Sponsor recognition on 3,000 invitations,

NOMA.org, social media feeds, and e-blasts

$25,000 | SOUND• 12 Odyssey Sponsor Party tickets• 12 Odyssey Patron tickets with

reserved table• Recognition with company name or logo in

all press materials• Recognition as a sponsor at all

Odyssey events• Sponsor recognition on 3,000 invitations,

NOMA.org, social media feeds, and e-blasts

$10,000 | TASTE• 8 Odyssey Sponsor Party tickets

• 8 Odyssey Patron tickets with reserved table

• Recognition as a sponsor with company name or logo in all press materials

• Recognition as a sponsor at all Odyssey events

• Sponsor recognition on 3,000 invitations, NOMA.org, social media feeds, and e-blasts

$5,000 | TOUCH• 4 Odyssey Sponsor Party tickets

• 4 Odyssey Patron tickets with reserved table

• Recognition as a sponsor at all Odyssey events

• Sponsor recognition on 3,000 invitations, NOMA.org, social media feeds, and e-blasts

SUPPORT

Mrs. J. Frederick Muller, Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Stafford, and Jane Favrot at the first Odyssey Ball in 1966

21www.noma.org

ODY S S E Y HONOR S PA ST C H A I R S M A R K YOU R CA L E N DA R S

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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2016

NOMA’s annual fall bash in the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden is just around the corner. Mark your calendars! Enjoy cuisine from seventy local restaurants and caterers, live music, and a craft cocktail competition presented by SKYY Vodka featuring some of the city’s brightest bartenders, all under the stars and live oaks in the sculpture garden. This year’s LOVE in the Garden presented by Whitney Bank is chaired by Penny Baumer, Jennifer Heebe, and Shelby Sanderford, and will honor the following New Orleans-based artists:

Elenora Rukiya Brown

Skylar Fein

Gene Koss

Ashley Longshore

Alexa Pulitzer

Josephine Sacabo

PATRON PARTY | 7 PM | Storyville Stompers Brass Band

GARDEN PARTY | 8 PM | Mojeaux

LATE NIGHT PARTY | 9 PM |DJ Nikki Pennie

For tickets: go to www.noma.org/love or call 504.658.4121

1966 Mrs. Muriel B. Francis, Mrs. Samuel Logan, Mrs. J. Frederick Muller Jr. and Mrs. Edgar B. Stern

1967 Mrs. David Dixon, Mrs. Alfred Hill Glenn, Mrs. Charles C. Henderson and Mrs. J. Frederick Muller Jr.

1968 Mrs. James C. Roddy and Mrs. Charles C. Henderson

1969 Mrs. C. Allen Favrot

1970 Mrs. Richard W. Freeman Jr.

1971 Mrs. John O. Roy Jr.

1972 Mrs. Robert P. Normann

1973 Mrs. John Davies Jackson

1974 Mrs. Geroge E. Conroy Jr.

1975 Mrs. Rodney Davis

1976 Mrs. Robert E. Eckstein

1977 Mrs. Owen Q. Niehaus

1978 Mrs. James L. Taylor

1979 Mrs. Edward Feinman Jr.

1980 Mrs. Shepard H. Shushan

1981 Mrs. Sandra D. Freeman

1982 Mrs. Robert I. Reisfeld and Mrs. Leslie L. England

1983 Mrs. Theodore S. Buchanan Jr.

1984 Mrs. Robert Kohlmann

1985 Mrs. John A. Mmahat and Mrs. Thomas Davidson

1986 Mrs. James A. O’Neill Jr.

1987 Mrs. Shepard H. Shushan and Mrs. James L. Taylor

1988 Mrs. Peter B. Schulman

1989 Mrs. Thomas B. Favrot and Mrs. Adrian A. Illes, Sr.

1990 Mrs. J. Frederick Muller Jr.

1991 Mrs. Edward P. Lobman

1992 Mrs. Isidore Cohn Jr.

1993 Mr. and Mrs. Lee Richards McMillan II

1994 Mrs. Thomas H. Hayden III

1995 Mr. and Mrs. Richard Freeman Jr.

1996 Mr. and Mrs. Robert Weinmann

1997 Mr. and Mrs. Charles Buck Mayer

1998 Judge and Mrs. David R.M. Williams

1999 Leslie Taylor Curran and W. Mason Curran Jr. and E. Alexandra Stafford and Raymond M. Rathle Jr.

2000 Mr. and Mrs. Lynes Sloss

2001 Mr. and Mrs. Michael M. Christovich

2002 Freda and Ralph Lupin

2003 Debbie and Rick Rees

2004 Janet and Jimmy Frischhertz

2006 Judy and Tom David and Julie and Ted George

2007 Sandra and Louis Wilson

2008 Mimi and Claude Schlesinger

2009 Lori and Kevin Frischhertz and Marc and Charlotte Hebert

2010 Adee Heebe and Dominic Russo

2011 Brenda and Michael Moffitt

2012 Melanee and Steve Usdin

2013 Marilee and Andrew Hovet

2014 Gayle Benson, Margo DuBos, Juli Miller-Hart, Britton Sanderford

2015 Robin Burgess and Terence Blanchard

2016 Susu and Andrew Stall

Honoring Odyssey Chairs—50 Years


NAT IONA L E N D OW M E N T FOR T H E A RTS SU P P ORTS NOM A’ S L A N D S CA P E P R O J E C T

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) recently awarded NOMA a $25,000 Art Works grant to support research for the 2018 exhibition Louisiana Landscapes in the Wider World. The Art Works category supports the creation of work and presentation of both new and existing work, lifelong learning in the arts, and public engagement with the arts. “The arts are all around us, enhancing our lives in ways both subtle and obvious, expected and unexpected,” said NEA Chairman Jane Chu. “Supporting projects like the one from NOMA offers more opportunities to engage in the arts every day.” Louisiana Landscapes in the Wider World, organized by NOMA’s curator of modern and contemporary art Katie Pfohl, will bring together over seventy works of art from public and private collections across Louisiana, the United States, Europe, and Central America to reveal Louisiana’s role in a global narrative about the emergence of landscape painting. Drawing from a range of media including painting, photography, natural history illustration, and the decorative arts, the exhibition will include American landscape paintings by Thomas Cole, Asher Brown Durand, and Frederic Edwin Church shown alongside those by the Louisiana painters they influenced and inspired. Several large-scale murals completed

by the experimental early twentieth century Louisiana landscape painter Alexander John Drysdale will also be on public view for the first time in decades. “Louisiana Landscapes in the Wider World will be the first major exhibition of this subject in over thirty years, and the only exhibition that places Louisiana landscape painting in a national and international context,” said NOMA director Susan M. Taylor. “This upcoming presentation offers a new global vision of American landscape painting and shows the connections not just between North and South, but

between the United States, Europe, and Central and South America. Pfohl has already begun extensive research for this exhibition, This grant will also support the publication of an accompanying exhibition catalogue that will include thematic essays by experts in Southern art and culture. This catalogue will be the first comprehensive study of the influential Louisiana landscape school.

Additional support for this project is provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.

Joseph Rusling Meeker, American, 1827-1889, Bayou Plaquemines, 1885, Oil on canvas, Museum purchase, gift of Bernard Bruen, by exchange, 2003.2

SUPPORT

William Henry Buck, Swamp Scene, 1887, Oil on canvas, 16 x 28 inches, New Orleans Museum of Art

23www.noma.org

A FTER H A LF A CENTURY OF SERV ICE , A CUR ATOR R ETIR E S

After fifty years of mounting exhibitions, publishing scholarly volumes, and building the museum’s world-class art collection, curator William “Bill” Fagaly is retiring from the New Orleans Museum of Art. A graduate from Indiana University in Bloomington, Fagaly served as assistant registrar for the university museum prior to his arrival in New Orleans. During his tenure with NOMA, Fagaly held a variety of positions within the museum. He began in 1966 as Registrar and Curator of African Art, but quickly moved to Curator of Collections, Acting Director during a search for a new director, and then Chief Curator, a position he held from 1973 until 1980. In 1981, Fagaly was appointed as the Assistant Director for Art with additional curatorial responsibilities for Ethnographic and Contemporary American Self-Taught Art. In 1997, he was named the museum’s first Françoise Billion Richardson Curator of African Art. In 2001, Fagaly partially retired from his position at NOMA while retaining his title as African art curator in a part-time position until 2016, marking his fiftieth anniversary this year. “Since joining NOMA in 1966, then the Isaac Delgado Museum of Art, Bill has been recognized as an internationally renowned curator and scholar,” said Susan M. Taylor, The Montine McDaniel Freeman Director at NOMA. “Bill’s extraordinary work to expand the institution and build the African art collection over the past fifty years will always remain a legacy of his role as a critical partner in NOMA’s evolution. His legacy extends to the self-taught arena as well where groundbreaking exhibitions helped to establish a fuller perspective on that under-appreciated field.” During his fifty years at NOMA, Fagaly has organized over ninety

exhibitions that span several genres. The list is diverse, including the widely respected series, the New Orleans Triennial (1967-2001), Moon Rock and Earthworks (1970), David Butler: Louisiana Folk Sculptor (1976), Five from Louisiana (1977), Roots of American Jazz: African Musical Instruments from New Orleans Collections (1995), “He’s the Prettiest:” A Tribute to Big Chief Allison “Tootie” Montana’s Fifty Years of Mardi Gras Indian Suiting (1997), Ancestors of Congo Square: African Art in the New Orleans Museum of Art (2011) and Pierre Joseph Landry: Patriot, Planter, Sculptor (2015). “It has been gratifying to have witnessed the growth of a small, local art museum to become one of America’s leading art institutions,” said Fagaly. “I am pleased that I had a part in building a great African art collection for a city I love and whose majority population is African-American.” Fagaly’s final contribution to NOMA’s African art collection was securing the significant acquisition of a rare ivory fertility staff (pictured on the back cover), carved by an unidentified Ijo artist from the Niger Delta Region. Dated circa the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, this monumental piece in remarkable condition depicts a seated female, wearing an elaborate headdress and holding a child. Below her a kneeling male figure holds a musket and wears a gunpowder pouch across his torso. This unique ivory—the only known carved ivory by the Ijo—profoundly enriches NOMA’s collection.

Retirement party details will be announced soon! Check noma.org for details.

William “Bill” Fagaly

Unidentified Ijo Artist, Niger Delta Region, Nigeria, Fertility Staff, ca. 17th-18th centuries, Ivory, traces of pigment, 30 x 4 ¾ x 3 ¼ in., Museum Purchase: Robert Gordy Fund, Françoise Billion Richardson African Art Fund, and African Art Deaccession Fund, 2016.9


2016 BOA R D OF TRUSTEES

Julie Livaudais George President

Mike Siegel First Vice President

Sydney J. Besthoff III Vice President

Suzanne Thomas Vice President

Herschel L. Abbott Jr. Secretary

Janice Parmelee Treasurer

Donna Perret Rosen At-Large

Tommy Coleman At-Large

David F. Edwards Immediate Past President

MEMBER SJustin T. Augustine III

Gail Bertuzzi

Siddharth (Sid) Bhansali

Eric Blue

Elizabeth Boone

Robin Burgess

Daryl Byrd

Scott Cowen

Margo DuBos

Stephanie Feoli

Penny Francis

Adrea D. Heebe

Russ Herman

Robert Hinckley

Dennis Lauscha

Louis J. Lupin

Cammie Mayer

Juli Miller Hart

Brenda Moffitt

Elizabeth Monaghan

J. Stephen Perry

Thomas F. Reese

Britton Sanderford

Jolie Shelton

Kitty Duncan Sherrill

Lynes R. (Poco) Sloss

Michael Smith

Susu Stall

Robert M. Steeg

Frank Stewart

Melanee Gaudin Usdin

The Honorable Mayor Mitch J. Landrieu

Susan G. Guidry, New Orleans City Council Member

Dana Hansel, NVC Chairman

NATIONA L TRUSTEES

Joseph Baillio

Mrs. Carmel Cohen

Mrs. Mason Granger

Jerry Heymann

Herbert Kaufman, MD

Mrs. James Pierce

Debra B. Shriver

Mrs. Billie Milam Weisman

HONOR A RY LIFE MEMBER S

H. Russell Albright, MD

Mrs. Jack R. Aron

Mrs. Edgar L. Chase Jr.

Isidore Cohn Jr., MD

Prescott N. Dunbar

S. Stewart Farnet

Sandra Draughn Freeman

Kurt A. Gitter, MD

Mrs. Erik Johnsen

Richard W. Levy, MD

Mr. J. Thomas Lewis

Mrs. Paula L. Maher

Mrs. J. Frederick Muller

Mrs. Robert Nims


R. Randolph Richmond Jr.


Harry C. Stahel

Mrs. Harold H. Stream

Mrs. James L. Taylor

Mrs. John N. Weinstock

ACCR EDITATION

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


E D I TO R

Taylor Murrow

A RT D I R E CTO R

Mary Degnan

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

© 2016, New Orleans Museum of Art. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced or reprinted without permission of the publisher.

Facing pageGeorgia O’Keeffe, Black Iris VI, 1936. Oil on canvas, 36 x 24 in. Paul G. Allen Family Collection. © 2016 Georgia O'Keeffe Museum/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Back cover Unidentified Ijo Artist, Niger Delta Region, Nigeria, Fertility Staff, ca. 17th-18th centuries, Ivory, traces of pigment, 30 x 4 ¾ x 3 ¼ in., Museum Purchase: Robert Gordy Fund, Françoise Billion Richardson African Art Fund, and African Art Deaccession Fund

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arts quarterly summer 2016

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