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 ceramic that was stretched so thin it became translucent to light. The earthenware and stoneware clays used in Europe could not compete with Chinese porcelain’s… Read More
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, we’d like to give some special attention to a unique and beautiful variety of photograph: the platinum print. It may come as no surprise that… Read More
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 bowls inspired by Louisiana’s natural scenery, Newcomb’s student curriculum also included bookbinding, textiles, metal, and only rarely work in glass, like the shade of this… Read More
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 from the museum’s collection. What is a photograph? How do we define its history? Over the past 190 years, photography has infiltrated almost every aspect… Read More
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 and provocative video and performance work, whose vibrant colors and free-form compositions ran counter to the more austere aesthetic of much art of the time…. Read More
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 of Engineers for a series of expeditions to map the lands west of the 100th meridian, commonly referred to as the Wheeler Survey (after leader… Read More
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 but at an oblique angle so that he could observe the shifting effects of light as it entered the cave. Working quickly, Ruskin sketched out… Read More
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 Corpron’s Nature Dancer, however, elevates leaves of Chinese cabbage out of the kitchen and into our imaginations. The sense of motion is incredible, and at… Read More
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 the row of cypress trees obliterate the detail of the trunks and transform a set of rough, textured surfaces into a group of smooth vertical… Read More
“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 of color ripples beneath streaks of white paint, recalling the bursting blossoms of a dogwood tree, or white clouds shimmering in the sky on a… Read More
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 nature or the human body as richly descriptive statements of fact. Trained as a chemist at the University of Washington, Cunningham also went on to… Read More
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 he moved at the age of 23, he acquired skills as both a painter and a botanist. He arrived in Paris in 1782, an auspicious… Read More
In 1930, Ilse Bing moved to Paris, where she was influential in fields as diverse as photojournalism, fashion photography, and advertisements. She also tinkered with avant-garde darkroom practices, inventing her own version of the solarization technique, a process that partially reversed the tones in a positive print so that certain parts appear as a negative…. Read More
“I am my own person, a land that I now wish to take back. Here, I will show you. Do not omit me or render me invisible…I am here, I will not be erased or smudged out. I am as vast and wondrous as the night sky.” –Toyin Ojih Odutola Toyin Ojih Odultola created The… Read More
The rose trémière, or hollyhock, is a classic summer bloom with flowers arranged vertically on long stems. Eugéne Atget came across this hollyhock in a Paris, where he roamed the streets with his view camera every morning. Beginning about 1890, Atget made “documents pour artistes”: straightforward photographs of buildings, parks, flowers, and sculptures that he… Read More
Bamboo is considered by many New Orleans area gardeners to be an invasive pest. In Japan and in other parts of East Asia, however, bamboo has much more positive associations, and is one of the most commonly encountered subjects in the arts. Symbolizing spring, regeneration, and long life, this persistent perennial also serves as a… Read More
This unique photograph, made without using a camera, has a wonderful story behind its creation, much of which is written directly on the surface of the photograph. The word “photograph” encompasses a wide variety of processes, practices, materials, and objects. Today, it is used to describe images on paper, glass, or metal, as well as… Read More
The story behind the making of this photograph is a lesson in how photographers craft stories into pictures. Lewis Hine, who was well known for this ability once said, “If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn’t need to lug around a camera.” Some great photographs are the product of circumstance: the right… Read More