In the spring of 2016, the LSU Museum of Art unveiled the reinstallation of its permanent collection. The museum has devoted over 6,000 square feet to the finest examples of its collection of Louisiana fine and decorative arts from the 1700s to the present. Many works that have not been on display in over a decade are showcased in the reinstallation. A new education space provides children and families a place to explore the ideas presented in the galleries.
Five guest curators offer five views into the strengths of the museum’s collections. Together, these windows into the collection provide an overview of Art in Louisiana, as the reinstallation’s title suggests. Claudia Kheel provides an introduction to the history, culture, and art of Louisiana with examples of paintings and furniture from the 18th century to the present day. Charles C. Cage, in-house specialist on Silver and Books, Documents & Manuscripts at New Orleans Auction Galleries, brings life to the Museum’s collection of silver made in New Orleans and beyond. William Keyse Rudolph, Andrew W. Mellon Chief Curator and The Marie and Hugh Halff Curator of American Art at the San Antonio Museum of Art, places 19th- and 20th-century Louisiana landscapes and portraiture in a global context. Sally Main, curator emerita of the Newcomb Art Gallery, tells the story of arts and crafts at Newcomb College and Newcomb Pottery’s place in the national and international Arts and Crafts movement. Sarah Anita Clunis, Assistant Professor of Art History Arts of Africa and the African Diaspora at Xavier University, connects art by LSU faculty and modern and contemporary Louisiana artists with the major artistic movements of the 20th and 21st centuries.
LECTURES & PROGRAMS
PRESS
Now on view in LSU MOA’s Art in Louisiana: Views into the Collection landscape gallery is Mark Messersmith’s Summer 2010, a sculptural painting based on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. Learn more about this work’s symbolic imagery in this closer look blog post by LSU MOA Graduate Assistant Kirsten Campbell.