The New Orleans Museum of Art is a proud partner of the Google Cultural Institute, a website offering high-resolution images of works in the museum’s permanent collection for viewing audiences around the world. Read More
Between World Wars I and II, James Van Der Zee was one of the most popular photographers in Harlem, New York. Known primarily for his portraits, Van Der Zee also worked for a wide range of clients outside of his studio, including a variety of Harlem’s diverse faith communities. Read More
In this community-oriented activity, create your own sun inspired by artist Ugo Rondinone’s The Sun, a sculpture in the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden. Read More
NOMA’s staff offer suggestions on books for all ages related to themes of art, the natural world, and environmental issues. Read More
Around the world and throughout history artists have engaged with diverse beliefs in their artistic endeavors. Here is an opportunity for you to participate in an exchange of beliefs within the NOMA community. Read More
Congratulations to Carol Lee Fritz for being named NOMA`s volunteer of the year! 🏆
Fritz joined NOMA`s volunteer program in 2015 and quickly became a very active and important part of our volunteer team. In 2023 alone, she dedicated 490 hours in the museum and the Besthoff Sculpture Garden!
Last week, we celebrated the entire superstar team of museum volunteers at an annual appreciation luncheon.
Thank you to all the volunteers and docents who have led tours, welcomed school visits, and inspired lifelong learning in all of our visitors young and old.
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📸: @leecfritz
When was the last time you visited the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden? 🌿🎨✨ Your gift on GiveNOLA Day this Tuesday, May 7, helps support this one-of-a-kind place of respite, discovery, and wonder that is free and open to the public seven days a week.
👉 Schedule your gift today at givenola.org/noma.
As part of "Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined," a selection of works are on view from NOMA’s historic African art collection that deepen understanding, speak to lived experiences in the wake of colonial impact, or share spiritual or human interconnections with Mutu`s practice.
One of the works is a large divination bowl by the Yorùbá master carver commonly known as Àrẹògún. Ògún is the Yorùbá deity of iron, and thus the patron òrìṣà of all professions that employ the use of metal tools, including blacksmiths, warriors, hunters, and carvers. So renowned is this artist that a praise poem, or oríkì, celebrates his fame, noting that he “carved for kings” and his “mother lived to see his greatness.”
On its top register, this phenomenal bowl features detailed scenes of earthly life supported by a base of carved òrìṣà devotees grasping their various artifacts of worship. The bowl would likely have held implements of the owner’s divination practice—a divination tray and chains, beads, cowrie shells, kola or palm nuts, and a tapper used to garner attention from spiritual guides.
🔗 Click the link in our bio to learn more about this work and its relationship to Mutu`s contemporary practice.
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🎨: Dada Àrẹògún of Osi-Ilorin (Yorùbá, c. 1880-1954), Ekiti State, Nigeria, "Divination Bowl (opon igede Ifá)," early 20th century. Wood. Museum purchase with funds in honor of E. John Bullard’s 25th anniversary as Director of NOMA, 98.52.
📍: First floor, Ella West Freeman Galleries
📷: @ky.laaa___
This 1950s caviar dish by Lalique contrasts transparent and satin-sheet finish glass to emphasize the opulence of its contents. ➡️🔗 Swipe to learn more and then click the link in our bio to keep reading an article by @decorativeartstrust Curatorial Fellow Laura Ochoa Rincon.
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🎨: Marc Lalique, Lalique (Paris, France, founded 1888), “Dolphin” Caviar Bowl, c. 1955–60. Lead glass. New Orleans Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John A. Lynott, 2010.28.
For your #TBR 📚 “Picasso’s War: How Modern Art Came to America” by Hugh Eakin
Each month, the museum’s book club meets to discuss fiction and non-fiction books related to art in NOMA’s collection and exhibitions. On Thursday, May 16, the group will look at a book that tells the story of how a single exhibition, a decade in the making, irrevocably changed American taste.
Pick up a copy in the @nomamuseumshop and visit noma.org/read to register for the upcoming program.
Final Week ⏰ The last day to catch "Debbie Fleming Caffery: In Light of Everything," on view in the Great Hall and the museum`s second-floor Zita & Luther Templemann Galleries is this Sunday, May 5.
Including nearly 100 dramatic black-and-white photographs, "In Light of Everything" is the first career retrospective for the important Louisiana-born photographer. The exhibition presents examples from @debbieflemingcaffery`s most important series made in the American South, Mexico, and France, from the 1970s to the present.
👉 Click the link in our bio to learn more.
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📸: Installation views of "Debbie Fleming Caffery: In Light of Everything."
