Nicholas and I recently visited the New Orleans Museum of Art to take a gander at the American impressionist, William Woodward, who lived and worked in New Orleans and environs. NOMA is an attractive building - it looks deco-y to me, but I'm too ignorant of architectural styles to venture a real guess - and it is located in a gorgeous spot, the edge of City Park, near water, swans, and glorious live oaks. Additionally, and this is no small thing to those pinching their pennies as are we, all but the feature exhibits are free to Louisiana residents (and students, I believe). It is always a pleasure to visit.
This visit held a particularly delightful surprise for us. As we made our way to the second floor and began searching for the Woodward exhibit, we happened upon a Käthe Kollwitz exhibit (at right, "The Downtrodden"). I knew it was in NOMA's line up, but I had no idea it was already there, so we took that in first. The etchings, lithographs and sketches in the exhibit all came from a collector in Shreveport, bless her. In addition to Kollwitz's work, it contained prints from a publication known as the Hunger portfolio, which included works by Otto Dix, Paul Völker, Otto Nagel and other German expressionists, in addition to Kollwitz. I believe the portfolio was originally published to raise funds for the needy.
On of my very favorite pieces on display was "Death and the Woman" (left). Altogether, the exhibit was astounding. Kollwitz's empathy for her subjects, usually working class people, the poor, war-torn or ill, emanates from her images. We were especially intrigued by the printmaking processes evidenced in this collection - her lines ranged from seeming almost careless, as in her crayon lithographs, to showing meticulously fine detail, as in her line etchings.
From there we moved on to Woodward.
Nick is a great fan of impressionism, a New Orleans history buff and a lover of architecture, so century-old impressionist paintings of New Orleans architecture seem like a tasty and decadent dessert to him and NOMA's collection did not disappoint. It did, however, surprise.
Many of the images we had seen reproduced in publicity pictures for this exhibit turned out to be oil crayon on cardboard and not oil painting at all. (at right, "House for Napoleon, St. Louis & Chartres). We agreed that, while amazing to see skillfully rendered so many French Quarter buildings and spaces (many that no longer exist), the oil crayon medium does not delight us aesthetically as much as oil painting. Most of the of the paintings in the exhibit appeared to be landscapes in and around Biloxi. I liked these especially well. Nick's favorites were a handful of black and white etchings of the French Quarter and some other locations.
All in all this would have been a tremendously enjoyable visit to our local museum...if it had not been for the loud talkers. Okay, we obviously came on an event day, for caterers were loudly setting up tables and things and all of their commotion echoed rather horribly throughout the museum. But as much as this didn't please me, it didn't annoy me the way the loud talking of my fellow museum visitors did. I am not particularly well-traveled, but I have been to a handful of pretty reputable museums from L. A. Country Museum of Art to the Viennese Kunsthistorisches and Belvedere Museums and the only thing keeping NOMA from providing as enjoyable an experience as do these museums is their complete lack of docents or other personnel to periodically tell the ruder visitors to shut the f*&# up.
Museums ought to be like libraries or churches. They are places where one comes to contemplate something grander than oneself, perhaps where one connects, (dare I suggest it?) through concentration, to an interior place. People ought not have to be told to use their inside voices in such places and to turn of their cell phones for crying out loud. But this is an imperfect world so I will not expect visitors to naturally behave with consideration for their fellow visitors. Is it, however, really too much to ask for NOMA to provide the staff to gently remind visitors that good manners are appreciated? Apparently. I have had this experience multiple times at this otherwise solid museum.
And so I had to launch a minor rant. Still, they can't take Käthe Kollwitz away from me.
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