Fine Art From New Orleans Comes to New York

A new exhibition of artworks from the New Orleans Museum of Art — opening to the public at Wildenstein & Co. today — recreates the Crescent City’s storied museum within a new venue on the Upper East Side. The two-floor show, “The Odyssey Continues,” consists of 100 major pieces of art, some dating from the 1300s, alongside 20th-century works by masters including Picasso, Magritte, and Miro.Although some of the paintings, drawings, and sculpture were borrowed from private New Orleans collections, the majority came from the American and European collections of the 95-year-old art museum, affectionately known as NOMA.“This is an opportunity for New Yorkers to visit New Orleans,” the Wildenstein’s registrar, Joseph Tursellino, who helped put together the exhibit, said.Even the arrangement of the pieces on the Wildenstein’s walls mirrors their original configuration at NOMA, Mr. Tursellino said. “Except,” he added with a laugh, “it looks better here.”The New York gallery has less-spacious chambers than the New Orleans museum, but the feeling is more intimate. Visitors may be surprised by the caliber of the exhibit, the director of NOMA, E. John Bullard said, if only because New Orleans is farther away from the well-known American art centers in the Midwest and Northeast. “I think people will say, ‘Hey, I didn’t realize you had such a fine collection.'”It is a collection full of stories, where every piece has a tale to tell. Wildenstein’s senior vice president, Joseph Baillio, is a native Louisianian who knows the story behind them all. First, there is the harrowing account of how Vigee LeBrun’s state portrait of Marie Antoinette was sold from monarch to monarch before ending up in America centuries later. There is the tale of how a black girl from New Orleans, depicted in Henry Caselli’s watercolor study “Bird’s Nest” became the artist’s obsession — and then she disappeared. And then — one of Mr. Baillio’s favorites — the story of Edgar Degas’s melancholy painting of his blind sister-in-law (and first cousin), Estelle, arranging a bouquet of colorful flowers. Degas painted the picture during a short trip to New Orleans, his mother’s hometown. “That’s the only time any French Impressionist ever came to America,” Mr. Baillio said.And, of course, there is the story of NOMA itself and how it survived the worst natural disaster in American history. Although the museum’s position at the top of a high ridge protected it from the devastating floodwaters that inundated much of the surrounding area after Hurricane Katrina hit, the building and its adjacent sculpture garden sustained more than $6 million in structural damage — an amount equivalent to NOMA’s entire pre-storm annual budget. “They need help,” Mr. Baillio said. “They have no funding at all.”It is only a minor exaggeration. NOMA’s once-9,000-strong list of paying members has dwindled to 7,000, its former donors scattered across the country, many with no intention of returning. Half of the $250,000 from the municipal government that NOMA depends on every year has also gone, now that post-storm reconstruction efforts are dipping into money once earmarked for the museum. And, of course, due to the drop in tourism, attendance is a mere 15% to 25% of pre-storm levels.Under these circumstances, the museum initially had to shut its doors for half a year and lay off all but 15 of its 95 employees. Since January, the number of employees has crept back up to only 40, as NOMA finds itself in the same position as most other stormworn establishments — waiting on a federal relief check to start life anew.“During the six months we closed, we lost about $1.5 million in earned income,” Mr. Bullard said. “We’re still working with FEMA to get a final settlement on what funds will be available for structural repairs to the museum and our sculpture garden.”An executive assistant at the museum, Emma Haas, said that despite the damage it had sustained there are “a lot of people coming to the sculpture garden.”And for good reason. “It’s a refuge,” she said. “Sometimes, you just want to see something pretty. Something that’s not destroyed.”Until February 9 (19 E. 64th St., between Fifth and Madison avenues, 212-879-0500).

Fine Art From New Orleans Comes to New York

Fine Art From New Orleans Comes to New York

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