Katrina Brings Monet, Degas and Others to Louisiana Art & Science Museum

Written by Mathew Gratz Thursday, 07 April 2011 00:35

BATON ROUGE, LA - Impressionists and Modern Masters from the New Orleans Museum of Art at the Louisiana Art & Science Museum.  More than 60 paintings and works on paper from NOMA’s collection, including several rarely seen works, will be on view through January 7, 2007, as a symbol of NOMA’s gratitude for Baton Rouge’s hospitality and kindness in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.  The exhibition marks the first time that so many works of art by renowned artists such as Monet, Degas, and Picasso on display together in Baton Rouge.

Impressionists and Modern Masters showcases major painters associated with the artistic movements occurring between 1860 and 1950, a period characterized by an explosion of artistic innovation.  Besides works by Renoir and other household names in art, the paintings of significant artists such as Amedeo Modigliani and Odilon Redon, whose paintings are rarely seen, will also be on display.  Although the exhibition features many different approaches to art—impressionism, cubism, and surrealism, among others—together they present a deliberate shift from the traditional forms of expression toward modernism.

The exhibition will be grouped into still lifes, portraits, and landscapes, which were favored subjects of the early modernists.  Within these three categories, the paintings will be arranged so as to open up new ways of seeing the work of these familiar masters.  For instance, Edgar Degas’ impressionistic pastel Dancer in Green (c.1909) and a line drawing by Toulouse-Lautrec hang alongside Joan Miró’s surreal Portrait of a Young Girl (1935).  Among the landscapes, Camille Pissarro’s softly setting sun in Soleil couchant á Eragny (1894) is beside the hard blue sky of Raoul Dufy’s Window at Nice (1923).

LASM executive director Carol Gikas said, “The New Orleans Museum of Art has been very generous with LASM through many years; we were pleased to be able to help them after the storm.  This exhibition is a continuation of our relationship, for which we are most grateful.”

For more information visit Louisiana Art & Science Museum at : www.lasm.org