Object Lesson: Photography in private homes
None of the following photographs were taken by photographers in their own homes. Rather, to make each of the images discussed here, a photographer had to gain permission to cross… Read More
2020
Object Lesson: Self-Care and American Studio Pottery
Pottery has a long history as a tool for self-expression and a method of self-care. Whether your relationship to ceramics is placing your muddy hands around a spinning mound of clay, or your clean hands around a mug of tea, you’ve experienced the therapeutic qualities of pottery. Read More
Object Lesson: Guardian Angels by Dorothea Tanning
Dorothea Tanning painted Guardian Angels the same year she left Manhattan to live in solitude with her partner Max Ernst in a small desert town in the American Southwest. Fleeing… Read More
Object Lesson: Reflective works in the Besthoff Sculpture Garden
Since its opening in 2003, the Besthoff Sculpture Garden has been a place of reflection for visitors—and in the case of works with mirrored surfaces by Lin Emery, Anish Kapoor, and Jeppe Hein that quality is quite literal. Read More
Object Lesson: Breath by Lee Krasner
“I never violate my inner rhythm. I loathe to force anything… I listen to it and I stay with it. I have always been this way. I have regards for… Read More
Object Lesson: On Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana by Guy Mendes
Many of us can name a work of art, music, or literature that provokes an emotional or even a physical reaction. This photograph by Guy Mendes has that quality, and… Read More
Object Lesson: French Porcelain Soup Tureen
Porcelain imported from China was one of the most prized commodities in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe. Europeans had not yet figured out the secret formula to produce a pure white… Read More
Object Lesson: Platinum-print photography
All photographs depend on different combinations of chemicals and minerals to turn light into pictures. This week, as NOMA focuses on the materials and processes that artists use to create,… Read More
Object Lesson: Newcomb College Pottery “Loquat Fruit” Table Lamp
From 1895 to 1940 Newcomb College Pottery gave young New Orleans women the skills they needed to reputably support themselves as artists. Mostly remembered today for coveted ceramic vases and… Read More
Object Lesson: What is a Photograph?
As NOMA explores the theme of process and materials, this essay looks back at an exhibition from 2011, What is a Photograph?, and some of the treasures that it included… Read More
Object Lesson: Wing by Lynda Benglis
Lynda Benglis’s art is simultaneously subtle and imposing, subdued and sensual, earthy and surreal. In the 1960s, the Louisiana native shocked the New York art world with her electric-hued sculptures… Read More
Object Lesson: Cereus Giganteus, Arizona by Timothy H. O’Sullivan
During the Civil War, Timothy O’Sullivan made a name for himself photographing army camp life and Eastern landscapes destroyed by cataclysmic battles. In 1871 O’Sullivan enlisted in the U.S. Corps… Read More
Object Lesson: A Cave Seen in Sunlight and A Cave Seen in Shade by John Ruskin
Sometime in the 1830s, a young John Ruskin walked into a cave with a box of paper, pencils and paint. Ruskin stationed himself near the mouth of the cave… Read More
Object Lesson: Carlotta Corpron and Edward Weston
During a week when NOMA’s team looks toward our permanent collection for examples of plant life and floral beauty, it may seem strange to focus on the humble cabbage. Carlotta… Read More
Object Lesson: Cypress Trees by Richard Misrach
In the late 1970s, Richard Misrach produced a group of photographs in Louisiana that made dramatic use of long exposures and stroboscopic lighting. Here, the intermittent blasts of light on… Read More
Object Lesson: Dogwood Display II by Alma W. Thomas
“I say everyone on earth should take note of the spring, coming back every year, blooming and gorgeous.” —Alma W. Thomas In Alma Thomas’s painting Dogwood Display II, a rainbow… Read More
Object Lesson: Rubber Plant by Imogen Cunningham
Although Imogen Cunningham’s earliest photographs were soft-focused, often ethereal studies of friends presented as allegories, she would become best known for images such as this one, which presented forms in… Read More
Object Lesson: Rosa Alpina Vulgaris by Pierre-Joseph Redouté
Pierre-Joseph Redouté has been called the greatest botanical artist of all time. Although he received little formal education in his youth, through a series of apprenticeships, mostly in Paris where… Read More