Presented by BancorpSouth Insurance Services and PURE Insurance

From April 22 to August 5, 2016, the LSU Museum of Art will present, "Hunt Slonem: Antebellum Pop!" The exhibition explores New York- and Louisiana-based painter Hunt Slonem’s strong ties to Louisiana art and culture, and to the larger history of the American South. Slonem is widely celebrated for his colorful canvases filled with bunnies, birds, and butterflies, but less known for his preservation and interior design work on antebellum Louisiana plantation homes. “This state has the most fabulous old houses,” Slonem says of Louisiana. “They have a certain smell—cigarettes, bourbon, and mildew in the ceilings—that just sends chills down my spine. I feel like I have a mission to bring back the magnificence that’s been tarnished by lack of time and lack of understanding.”

"Hunt Slonem: Antebellum Pop!" is the first major museum exhibition to display Slonem’s Pop art - inspired canvases alongside his signature "Antebellum Pop" plantation style. The exhibition will feature a selection of the artist's work from the 1980s to the present, placed among magnificent antiques, elaborate wallpapers, sumptuous paint colors, and exotic textiles, all adorned with mystical images from Slonem's intense imagination. The artist's surreal patterned expressionism is magnified by its juxtaposition with the traditional furniture design of the nineteenth-century antebellum South, including signature international styles such as Gothic, Rococo, and French Revival. Slonem's homes are the inspiration for these vibrant and decadent interiors. In addition to Slonem’s art, the exhibition will include personal touches such as his top hat collection and other treasured memorabilia.

This exhibition is organized by the LSU Museum of Art and curatored by Dr. Sarah Clunis, assistant professor of art history, Xavier University of Louisiana.

Take a 360° tour of the Hunt Slonem: Antebellum Pop! exhibition below.

EXHIBITION SPONSORS

Major support for the exhibition is provided by BancorpSouth Insurance Services and PURE Insurance.

Generous support is provided by Beth and Butler Fuller, Fran and Leroy Harvey, Elizabeth B. Miller, Cary Saurage Fund in Honor of Alma Lee and H. N. Saurage Jr., Lynne and Craig Smith, John Turner and Jerry Fischer, Ellen Kennon Design, PPG Paints, Aimee English, ARE' CustomWorks, Annette D. Barton, Groundwords @ Lee Jofa, Mr. and Mrs. J. Terrell Brown, Helen and Mac Bullock, Leslie and Larry Chauvin, Margaret Champagne Hart, Mr. and Mrs. Stokes McConnell, and Mr. and Mrs. Craig Saporito.

Additional in-kind support is provided by M.S. Rau Antiques, which generously loaned many antiques for the exhibition. 

LECTURES & PROGRAMS

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