Walker Evans Sidewalk and Shopfront, New Orleans, 1935 Gelatin silver print, 1971 New Orleans Museum of Art: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Robert J. Newman, 73.9.11 © Walker Evans Archive, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

From March 10 through May 20, 2006, the AXA Gallery will host an exhibition of art made in Louisiana, on loan from the New Orleans Museum of Art.  The exhibition’s dual purpose is to enhance the appreciation for the art of the Louisiana region, and to heighten awareness for the Museum’s efforts to raise much-needed funds in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.   The Museum, which had been closed since the flooding, reopened its doors to the public on March 3^rd.  The Big Easy in The Big Apple gives New Yorkers a chance to see some of the regions finest art.

The exhibition comprises over 100 works of art from the collection of the New Orleans Museum of Art, including artifacts, paintings, photographs, drawings, prints, decorative arts, and sculpture, representing the many layers of culture that have converged on the region – and in the city of New Orleans in particular – over the past two hundred years.  The exhibition highlights artworks by Louisiana artists, and visiting artists who were inspired by the culture and landscape of the region.  Among the artists featured in the show are Diane Arbus, Ernest Bellocq, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Edgar Degas, Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, Jean Hyacinthe de Laclotte, Clarence John Laughlin, John T. Scott, Edward Weston, and William Woodward.

The exhibition was jointly organized by the New Orleans Museum of Art and AXA Gallery.  The AXA Gallery is sponsored by AXA Equitable, with additional assistance from AXA Art Insurance Corporation.

On August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast with unprecedented force.  New Orleans suffered catastrophic damage when canal levees broke and flooded 80% of the city.  Over one million residents evacuated the metropolitan area, 100,000 homes were severely damaged or destroyed and 1,200 people died.

Choctaw Peoples Beaded Sash, 18th-early 19th century Glass beads, linen, wool New Orleans Museum of Art: Promised and Partial Gift of Mercedes Whitecloud to the Tom and Mercedes Whitecloud Collection of Native American Art

The New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA), founded in 1910, is the oldest and largest cultural institution in the region – as important to New Orleans as the Metropolitan Museum of Art is to New York City.  While NOMA is located in the center of the badly flooded Mid-City area, its placement on a high ridge saved it from the surrounding flood waters.  Although the collection of 40,000 artworks survived intact and unharmed, the building and sculpture garden sustained multi-million dollar damages.  NOMA was forced to lay off 85% of its staff, a reduction from 90 to 15, and remained closed for six months.  The loss of both city funding and revenues from tourism have had a devastating impact on the Museum’s financial security.

Edgar Degas Portrait of Estelle Musson Degas, 1872 Oil on canvas New Orleans Museum of Art: Museum purchase through Public Subscription

With the successful start of a three-year national recovery campaign, NOMA reopened the museum on March 3, 2006, on a limited three day a week schedule.  There is still a long road ahead to full recovery.  It is absolutely essential that the New Orleans Museum of Art be fully restored – a powerful symbol of the City’s cultural rebirth and revival.  More than ever before the Museum will provide a beacon for the citizens of New Orleans as they rebuild their lives and their city.

 

Debbie Fleming Caffery Cane Worker, 1974 Gelatin silver print New Orleans Museum of Art: Gift of the Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, 80.51

The New Orleans Museum of Art has posted the following quote on their website:  “As soon as the storm and immediate crisis passed and the extent of the devastation was revealed, something else was crucially apparent: art and culture are not luxuries, but necessities – sources of solace, comfort, perspective, inspiration, and rejuvenation.”  Indeed, one of the larger questions that resulted from the flooding was how to comprehend the cultural meaning and historical magnitude of the loss. After the flooding, the artifacts left behind became even more loaded with meaning.  The Big Easy in the Big Apple celebrates the importance of art in sustaining the cultural history of New Orleans.  The objects in the exhibition demonstrate the diversity of experience and tradition that make the region so richly intricate.

On Monday, April 10, 2006, in coordination with the exhibition, the AXA Gallery will host an event to help raise financial support for the New Orleans Museum of Art.  An Odyssey: An Evening to Benefit the New Orleans Museum of Art, takes its name from a time-honored tradition – the Odyssey Ball – an annual gala that has served as the Museum’s principle fund-raising event for the past 41 years.  This year, the event makes its own Odyssey: to New York City, where Museum officials and their fellow New Orleanians will be welcomed in a show of support for, and a salute to, the Museum.

AXA Gallery showcases works from all fields of the visual arts, with a special interest in exhibitions that would not otherwise have a presence in the city. The gallery is located in the atrium lobby of the AXA Equitable Tower, 787 Seventh Avenue at 51st Street, in New York City. Hours are Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday, noon to 5 p.m.; closed Sundays. Admission is free.