Steeg Law is delighted to shine the community spotlight on the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA). New Orleans’ oldest fine arts institution opened on December 16, 1911 with only nine works of art. Today, the museum hosts an impressive permanent collection of almost 40,000 objects. The collection, noted for its extraordinary strengths in French and American art, photography, glass, and African and Japanese works, continues to expand and grow, making NOMA one of the top art museums in the south.
Among its French treasures is a group of works by the French Impressionist Edgar Degas who visited maternal relatives in New Orleans in the early 1870s and painted just 20 blocks from the Museum. NOMA’s collection of works by masters of the School of Paris includes paintings and sculptures by Picasso, Braque, Dufy and Miro, among others.
As a Trustee, Board Member and Chair of the Accessions Committee, managing partner, Robert M. Steeg, is excited to share some of the new developments at NOMA and the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden as well as exhibits you can view through the summer.
New Developments at the New Orleans Museum of Art
Marking the city of New Orleans’ Tricentennial in 2018, the Zemurray Foundation has generously provided NOMA with a gift to support a renovation of the museum’s auditorium complex. The museum is committed to being an integral part of New Orleans’ renaissance by serving as a multi-faceted cultural convener for all audiences, and providing programming for visitors with diverse backgrounds and differing expectations. Built in the 1970s, a renovation of the auditorium complex is key to the museum’s ability to fully realize this ambition. The renovation will allow for seating for up to 360 people, an increase from the current theater, which seats 220, providing NOMA with a state-of-the-art platform for interdisciplinary arts experiences. Construction is anticipated to begin in 2019.
Another exciting development is that the museum is expanding the renowned Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden, which is home to 64 sculptures by renowned artists from around the world. The sculpture garden expansion is privately funded, with sites for sculpture, as well as an outdoor amphitheatre and stage, pedestrian bridges and walkways, a new gallery, and an outdoor learning environment.
Upcoming Exhibits at NOMA
Carlos Rolón: Outside/In
The exhibition Carlos Rolón: Outside/Infeatures the work of Puerto Rican artist Carlos Rolón. It opened in March and will be on view through August 26 of 2018. Carlos Rolón is internationally recognized for paintings, sculptures and installations that break down walls. Rolón’s project for NOMA explores the rich connections between New Orleans, Latin America and the Caribbean, from their shared tropical landscape to the intricate wrought iron fences—rejas in Spanish—that define the architecture of both places.
Working with materials such as shattered glass, wrought iron fences, and construction cinderblocks, Rolón takes these barriers to access and transforms them into new points of entry, creating intricate constructions that connect indoors to outdoors, private to public, and local to global. Through artworks that draw upon popular culture, craft and art history, the show examines the nature of identity, integration and aspiration in immigrant and diasporic communities across the globe.
Lee Friedlander in Louisiana
This major exhibition of Lee Friedlander (American, born 1934), one of the most famous living American photographers, opened April 27 and will be on view through August 12. Lee Friedlander in Louisianaexplores the ways in which Louisiana, and New Orleans in particular, have had a profound impact on the career of this important artist, while also highlighting Friedlander’s significance as a documentarian of the local music community. Comprised of vintage prints and never before seen images, the photographs of jazz musicians, monuments, and street life demonstrate how Louisiana has been central to the development of one of the country’s most influential photographers.
Veronese in Murano
Veronese in Muranois a focused exhibition featuring two Renaissance masterpieces by the celebrated artist Paolo Veronese (1528–1588). NOMA is honored to be the second and final venue for the paintings, titled St. Jerome in the Wilderness and St. Agatha Visited in Prison by St. Peter. They will be on view through September 3, 2018. Though known to scholars, the paintings’ remote location in a church in Murano, an island in the lagoon of Venice known today for its glassmaking studios and shops, made them difficult to access and study. Veronese in Murano marks the first time the restored masterworks have been exhibited outside Italy since their creation 450 years ago.
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