Arts: January 2019
Art-Minded: The NOLA 300 for 300 exhibition is now on view at The Old No. 77 Hotel & Chandlery.
In celebration of the Tricentennial, and the trailblazers and innovators who have paved the way to make New Orleans a creative hub, The Old No. 77 Hotel & Chandlery and Where Y’Art have installed the NOLA 300 for 300 exhibition at the hotel, on view through Jan. 31. The editors of The Times-Picayune and Nola.com (and its readers) hand-picked the 12 artists who were each tapped to create portraits of 300 influential figures who have helped shape New Orleans over the past three centuries. Each portrait reimagines the past through contemporary art pieces, with styles ranging from folk art and photo-realism to graffiti.
More than 50 portraits will be on display during the exhibition at The Old No. 77 Hotel & Chandlery in what is the first time that the collection has been shown to the public. There also is a full digital gallery of the entire collection of 300 works available for viewing onsite. The 12 artists — Connie Kittok; D. Lammie Hanson; Sean Randall; Jeremy Paten; Jeff Morgan; Alexandra Kilburn; Maddie Stratton; Saegan Swanson; Michael McManus; Queen Hope Parker; Gabriel Flores; and Jessica Strahan — have centered their work on notables ranging from artists, writers and musicians to chefs, and civic and religious leaders. Each piece in the collection is available for purchase at whereyart.net. 535 Tchoupitoulas St., (504) 527-5271, old77hotel.com
Art of our Namesake: The Orleans Collection at the New Orleans Museum of Art closes this month.
If you have not yet been to NOMA to check out The Orléans Collection, be sure to do so this month. The exhibition, which features art from the magnificent collection of the city’s namesake, Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (1689-1723), closes this month on Jan. 27.
Bringing together for the first time a selection of 50 masterpieces from institutions such as the Uffizi Gallery, the Louvre and the National Gallery of London, The Orléans Collection tells the story of the collection’s formation, its reputation and its impact in early 18th century Paris. The exhibition also is part of the city’s tricentennial celebration.
Philippe II was the preeminent collector of his time. The astounding number of paintings recorded at the time of his death (772) demonstrate the scope of his collection. He was most passionate about Renaissance Florentine and Venetian art, and he was France’s first great collector of Dutch and Flemish art. The large collection of artwork remained in his family for two generations until it was sold in London during the French Revolution. The dispersal of the collection contributed to the formation of Europe’s first public museums, including the National Gallery of London.
Four themes in the exhibition serve to give The Orléans Collection further context: the Duke’s residence, the Palais Royal, and its grand redecoration as a center for the arts and exchange in Paris; the diplomatic and personal display of the collection in public and private spaces; the Duke of Orléans’ personal taste and psychology as a collector; and the impact the collection had for visitors, contemporary artists and collectors in Paris.
The exhibition is accompanied by a full color 300-page catalogue by project director Vanessa Schmid, NOMA’s Senior Research Curator for European Art. Related programs include curator-led noontime talks, gallery tours, lectures and more. 1 Collins Diboll Circle, (504) 658-4100, noma.org
Gallery Grandeur: The BIG exhibition at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art features grand works of art.
Drawn from the Ogden Museum’s Permanent Collection, the works of art in the new BIG exhibition are those that are typically hidden from sight — due to their large and complicated size. These works, by artists such as Willie Birch, Nicole Charbonnet, Gregory Saunders, Kendall Shaw and Hunt Slonem, are on view through Feb. 17.
The idea for the exhibition came about due to a continual challenge that most museums face: a lack of storage space for large-scaled works. BIG embraces these grandiose works in one exhibition for the first time in the museum’s history. Tip: The Ogden Museum is free to Louisiana residents on Thursdays from 10 a.m.-5 p.m., courtesy of The Helis Foundation. 925 Camp Street, (504) 539-9650, ogdenmuseum.org