When I exited my building yesterday to head towards Canal Street I was faced with hoards of people walking towards me. It felt somewhat surreal, as if the Universe was moving in one direction and I was going the other way. For a few seconds, and as I walked down Carondelet Street, I couldn’t see the why of it. And then it hit me: the Saints were playing at home in the Superdome. Then the colour schemes being sported by the crowds made sense – the bright blues, whites, greys and golds – as they form part of the Saints’ uniforms. I had thought of going to this when I first arrived and looked up the “What’s On” guide but somehow the idea of going to an American football game alone didn’t appeal. I may have to change my mind on that one after viewing the happy crowds heading that way. They play again, I think, just before I leave so I will have the chance.
So, where was I heading while the whole of New Orleans went the opposite way, I hear you ask? Well, towards the Museum of Art of New Orleans which is found a little way out from the tourist centre of the city. In fact, looking at a map and attempting to find a quick way to get there using trams or buses proved a little confusing so I just gave in and made my way there by taxi. There are times when convenience trumps all else! Ten dollars later I was deposited at the columned entrance of the museum which is surrounded by City Park, a lovely area with lakes and lawn and quite a few ducks.
The museum is not vast but carries within it a selection of paintings from different periods such as the Renaissance, French and Dutch Masters as well as abstract pieces by renowned names. I enjoyed the Monet and Degas offerings and particularly liked the abstract gallery with works by Miro, Braque and Picasso. But there’s always one piece that grabs you when you’re wandering around. One work that you remember amid the broken fragments of all the other pieces you’ve viewed. For me, yesterday, it was a piece by an Italian painter I was not familiar with, Luca Cambiasi. It’s titled “The Vanity of Earthly Love” and, compared to many other paintings it’s not the loveliest, the darkest, the most interesting subject matter etc. But, it did stay with me. If you’ve studied any English literature you learn to look for symbolism and imagery in anything you look at or read. This painting is full of meaning. It shows a naked woman holding a skull, contemplating it, while an old man holds Cupid (in the form of a cherub like child) with one arm and an hourglass in the other. It is an allegorical piece, where the old man is Time and he is taking love away while she is left contemplating old age and Death. A tad depressing, I’ll grant you that, but it was powerful and it made me think about growing older and starting relationships again and so forth. I have a friend for whom the whole thought of growing older causes her to hyperventilate but I’ve never been one to panic too much at the concept. I’m more thrown by the idea of starting again in the emotional minefield that is new relationships etc. I can’t say I had a “David” moment but the brain did go into overdrive whilst looking at this painting and for a while after. Obviously, the artist hit the mark!
There was another exhibition which also caught my attention, a photographic one, based around a photographer, called Gordon Parks, who produced a photographic essay for Life magazine in the late 1940s. He recorded life in Harlem, in particular he followed a man called Leonard “Red” Jackson, the leader of a gang, around for a period of time. His piece was the first by a black man for the magazine and the exhibition carries a vast number of the photographs he took during his time with Jackson as well as the magazine itself displaying the finished article. The photographs are both harsh and poignant and provide an incredible record of daily life at that point in US history. Not a light and frothy exhibit but one which makes you think about that point in time.
One of the main reasons for heading out to the museum is that it also has a sculpture garden next door to it so I moved towards it once I’d finished viewing the galleries in the museum. This garden holds $25 million dollars worth of art in it, so hardly your everyday, let’s let the children loose, kind of bit of lawn. I truly enjoyed wandering through it, photographing the pieces on display and marvelling at some of them. Not all were going to be my cup of tea but they all stand out for one reason or another. There’s a piece titled “Monkeys” which shows monkeys in a silver like metal grouped together on the floor where, their arms from the elbows down to their hands are humanlike. It was disturbing and I can’t quite explain why. Another example showed an amazing figure of a person, sitting with knees bent and arms around knees but the “person” is almost an outline made up of silvery letters which are linked together so, of course, you can see through them. I really liked that one.
Two other pieces really stayed with me: one was a towering piece sitting in the middle of the lake in the garden which, when you peered closely you saw it was made entirely of violins and another, again in a silver finish, which creates an optical illusion and which has a full sized man standing and then on his shoulders has a man crouching followed by a slightly smaller man crouching on his shoulders and so on. As you glance at it from the front the whole image recedes upwards and from the side it all looks like a slimming, curved needle. I spent ages just staring at it from every angle.
I spent the better part of the day in this area of New Orleans. The garden was my particular favourite although I really would not like to be here once the sun goes down. The whole space must be a little on the spooky side once the shadows kick in, or at least my imagination, even in full blown sunshine, was already conjuring up ideas which made me shudder inwards. The only one negative, and I can understand why this is this way, is that you’re not allowed to picnic in any way in the sculpture garden and I would have loved to have just bought a sandwich and a drink and lounged on the lawn surrounded by these amazing works of art. Then again, at the price tag some of these pieces command, crumbs and straws might not be thought to add to the value or to their aesthetic appeal 😉
E x
Losing Sight of the Margin 