On view January 23, 2015-April 5, 2015
NEW ORLEANS, LA- In Salutations, Josephine Sacabo (American, b. 1944) combines collaged and distorted photographic images with a wet collodion on metal process that dates back to the 19th century to create a world that is barely recognizable as such, hovering like a memory or a dream in the space between the concrete and the ineffable.
“NOMA has long appreciated Josephine Sacabo’s work, which first entered the collection in 1986, but we are especially excited to be able to premier this newest project, which also complements the current photography exhibition, Photo-Unrealism. Sacabo’s Salutations is a profound new body of work by an artist working in the tradition of the history presented in Photo-Unrealism,” said Susan M. Taylor, NOMA’s Director.
Throughout the work, half-materialized visions of certain elements appear and reappear-an apple, a bird, a window, the female form-as if to suggest some kind of narrative is buried under the layers of fractured representation. But the project as a whole resists any linear reading, and instead concerns itself with establishing an enigmatic set of conditions-loss, solitude, melancholy, nostalgia, etc.-that create a space for interpretation. In other words, rather than tell any particular story, these works set the stage for a number of potential stories that hinge upon these broader concepts. In balancing on the threshold between the real and the surreal, these images favor the poetic over the prosaic and the symbolic over the literal.
“Josephine Sacabo’s work has long challenged assumptions about the documentary nature of photography. In this new body of work, this challenge takes center stage. It pushes the boundaries of photography in serious, intellectual ways while at the same time providing a powerful emotional experience,” said Russell Lord, Freeman Family Curator of Photographs.
Josephine Sacabo: Salutations is generously underwritten by Donna and Benjamin M. Rosen.
About Josephine Sacabo
Sacabo divides her time between New Orleans and Mexico. Both places inform her work, resulting in imagery that is as dreamlike, surreal, and romantic as the places that she calls home. Born in Laredo, Texas, in 1944, she was educated at Bard College in New York. Prior to coming to New Orleans, Sacabo lived and worked extensively in France and England. Her earlier work was in the photo-journalistic tradition and influenced by Robert Frank, Josef Koudelka, and Henri Cartier-Bresson. She now works in a very subjective, introspective style, using poetry as the genesis for her work. Her many portfolios are visual manifestations of the written word, and she lists poets as her most important influences, including Rilke, Baudelaire, Pedro Salinas, Vincente Huiobro, and Juan Rulfo, Mallarmé, and Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz. Her images transfer the viewer into a world of constructed beauty.
About NOMA and the Besthoff Sculpture Garden
The New Orleans Museum of Art, founded in 1910 by Isaac Delgado, houses nearly 40,000 works of art spanning 4,000 years. Works from the permanent collection, along with continuously changing special exhibitions, are on view in the museum’s 46 galleries Fridays from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The adjacent Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden features work by over 60 artists, including several of the 20th century’s master sculptors. The Sculpture Garden is open seven days a week: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The New Orleans Museum of Art and the Besthoff Sculpture Garden are fully accessible to handicapped visitors and wheelchairs are available from the front desk. For more information about NOMA, call (504) 658-4100 or visit www.noma.org.
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