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
On view at NOMA through July 14, “Wangechi Mutu: Intertwined” brings together nearly 100 sculpture, paintings, collages, drawings, and films to present the breadth of the Kenyan-American artist’s multidisciplinary practice from the mid-1990s to today.
The exhibition traces connections between recent developments in Mutu’s sculptures and her decades-long exploration of the legacies of colonialism, globalization, and African and diasporic cultural traditions.
🔗 Click the link our bio to learn more about the exhibition.
The presentation in New Orleans is sponsored by the @fordfoundation. Additional support is provided by @notcfund @delta, @gladstone.gallery, Walda Besthoff, @victoriamirogallery, @thewindsorcourt, The Azby Fund, Keith Fox and Tom Keyes, Aimée Farnet Siegel and Mike Siegel, Robin Rankin, Elizabeth Boh, Pat Mitchell and Scott Seydel, Harvey and Marie Orth, and Jeff Childers and Onay Gutierrez.
A reminder from Elenore Falshaw, NOMA’s Chief Advancement Officer, that today, Tuesday, May 7, is GiveNOLA Day! ⚜️
Thank you for considering a donation of just $10 or more to the New Orleans Museum of Art to support our world-class exhibitions, innovative programs, and dynamic educational offerings that foster lifelong learning through the arts.
🔗 Click the link in our bio to make your gift at givenola.org/noma.
“What you see is what you see.” —Frank Stella, 1936–2024
Frank Stella was one of the most important figures of modern painting and sculpture in the United States, ushering in a generation of American art marked by formalism.
Produced across decades, Stella’s work shows an endless exploration of color, shape, and geometry—from his earliest paintings to later large-scale public sculptures. The famed quote above sums up Stella’s desire to create art beyond the limits of representation—where color and form do not necessarily signify a person, place, object, or meaning.
We share our condolences with Stella’s family and loved ones following the artist’s passing last week.
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🎨: Frank Stella, "Scramble: Ascending Yellow Values, Descending Spectrum," 1978. Acrylic on canvas. Gift of Donna Perret Rosen and Benjamin M. Rosen, in honor of Susan M. Taylor, 2023.53.
📸: Frank Stella and Sydney Besthoff in front of the artist’s "Alu Truss Star," 2016, in NOMA’s Besthoff Sculpture Garden, 2019.
📸: Frank Stella in conversation with director Susan M. Taylor at the New Orleans Museum of Art, 2013.
📸: Installation view of Frank Stella’s "Alu Truss Star," 2016, in NOMA’s Besthoff Sculpture Garden. Photo by Richard Sexton.
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___
