Prospect.4: at the New Orleans Museum of Art

At the New Orleans Museum of Art, Prospect.4 starts in The Great Hall with eleven paintings from Barkley L._Hendricks. The special exhibition spreads to the second floor in two different locations: photographs on the left side, paintings, collages and videos on the right. Raised in different cultures and countries, the seven artists featured in the show share common themes through their art.

Hendricks's portraits inspired by European Masters like Velasquez, are in tune with a modern world and the museum's neo-classical white columns provide the perfect frame for the compositions. His subjects contrast with or melt in monochrome backgrounds and project an aura of sophistication through their pose, expression and/or attributes. Hendrick's portraits are the story. On the second floor, Dawit Petros's portraits contribute to the narrative as part of the landscape. At times, a mere observer, the photographer does not get involved in the drama captured through the lens, like the beaching of a boat. Other times, he stages uncanny scenes involving strangers surrounded by their natural pristine environment, partly hidden behind framed images preserving their anonymity and disrupting the quiet landscape. By whatever means of expression, including the construction of abstract compositions with fragments of photographs, the artist brings the viewer along his journeys, from Sicily, Mauritania, Morocco, ..., sharing his travels through places and time. The ten works on display in the adjoining gallery are the result of the collaboration between a photographer Gauri Gill and a Warli painter Rajesh Vangad. The photographs, mainly landscapes, depict the present and through the addition of aboriginal drawings connect to the past and gain a spiritual dimension.

In the contemporary art gallery, Alexis Esquivel's four "narrative paintings" deal with nationalism, colonialism, racism, through allegories. La Muerte de Gulliver, 2015, illustrates the artist's "civic" engagement. Gulliver (Spain) is depicted as a dead toreador, chest pierced by banderillas representing the Basque National Flag and the flag flown by supporters of Catalan Independence among others. Cuba and Puerto Rico's flags are also featured, reflecting the shared yearning for nationalism on both sides of the Atlantic. The painting could not be more prescient as the fight for Catalonia's independence goes on. The site specific piece from Xaviera Simmons is a great introduction to her work. A mural made of a succession of words taken from political speeches and texts, written in white on a black background lines up an entire wall. Like a graffiti, it is an expression of protest. Political art defines Simmons's practice. Two videos and a series of photographs in which she performs confirm this. Her message is focusing on "the vast financial, social and hierarchical disparities between people from the African and European Diasporas" and is aimed to the United States and New Orleans in particular. Njideka Akunyili Crosby, a 2017 MacArthur Fellow, is represented by four of her paintings-photographs-collages. Starting with images found on the internet and photographs from her family, she rebuilds a composite world born from her roots and manages to harmonize three different cultures: rural and urban Nigeria where she is born, and New York City. The life size of her figurative collages engages the viewer who becomes part of the scenes.
Of the seven artists, five were born in the seventies and deliver a message through their practice, call it "civic" engagement for Esquivel or political for  Simmons. Not only do they favor figurative, from Crosby, the youngest (born in 1983) to Hendricks, the oldest (born in 1945), they also keep being inspired by European Masters. Hendricks who revived the tradition of portraiture is now followed by younger artists like Kehinde Wiley. It is not a surprise to find Barkley Hendricks displayed prominently at the NOMA. Trevor Schoonmaker, Artistic Director and Curator of this year's Triennial, organized the first retrospective of his work Birth of the Cool at the Nasher Museum of Art in 2008 and was in the process of selecting the portraits to be displayed at NOMA when the artist passed away last April.
The list of selected artists includes a culturally varied group. Their common theme can be resumed in three words found on one of the exhibition's wall text: "identity, displacement and cultural hybridity".

photographs by the author:

Barkley L. Hendricks "The Way You Look Tonight/ Diagonal Graciousness (Self-Portrait)", 1981

Alexis Esquivel "La Muerte de Gulliver", 2015

Prospect.4: at the Jazz Museum

Prospect.4, the New Orleans art triennial, includes almost twenty venues spread throughout the city, intermingling with its sites, museums and traditions for the next few months. The Jazz Museum located in the Old U.S. Mint building on Esplanade Avenue appears to be a good choice to start the visit. The works, some created for the occasion, others dug from archives, are displayed on the second floor. Assembling a medley of international and local artists, the exhibition includes paintings, collages, installations, videos and sculptures.

Hank Willis Thomas is one of the fourteen artists featured in the show. His bronze sculpture History of Conquest is located on a grassy area in front of the museum. Inspired by a delicate bibelot from Jeremias Ritter, a seventeenth century German artist, it weighs one ton and consists of a giant snail mounted by a small figure described in the original piece as a Nubian or a Moore, carrying bow and arrows. Appropriation and re-conceptualization rejuvenate the symbolic meaning of the work. Fiend, 2017, a massive piece from Rashid Johnson fills the hall of the second floor. The simple cube, topped with lush tropical greenery, is a multi-directional microphone waiting to be activated by the visitor. In addition, the installation involves a display of culturally significant objects (books, vinyl, Shea butter, ...) lined up on shelves, transforming the work into a repository. Guided by Pete Fountain's music, the visitor walks through two rooms filled with mementos and historical instruments like Fat Domino's or Dr. John's pianos followed by twenty-eight empty boxes of reel-to-reel tape recordings decorated by Louis Armstrong. The collages made with newspaper clippings, photographs of musicians or movie stars, reflect Armstrong's humor, joviality and his disposition as a visual artist. On a different subject, the four paintings from Michael Armitage represent exotic scenes à la Gauguin, telling stories about exclusion, violence and death. The most graphic piece Necklacing, 2016, represents a man burned alive, defying death with a sardonic smile. The rugged texture of the canvas made of  lubugo bark cloth allows the painter's brush to meander around random holes in the fabric, enlivening the landscapes. The artist confided in an interview that he was "most interested in stories that have an ambiguous moral position." Between dream and reality, his paintings reflect this. Dario Robleto brings us back to the realm of music with his installations.  American Seabed, straight out of a taxidermy collection, includes butterflies pinned on fossilized inner ear bones from whales. The insects' antennas are made of stretched audio tape of Bob Dylan's "Desolation Row". The collaboration between Robleto and Lance Ledbetter of Dust-to-Digital, results in a "multimedia installation of visual representation of the history of recorded sound".  Vinyl displayed behind glass with printed texts of songs and visual material are paired with headphones diffusing Washington Phillips's music, gospels from 1902 to 1960 with Goodbye, Babylon (Remix), 2015, sermons and lost blues. Last, also featuring religious songs, Sunday's Best, 2016, a 16 min video from Larry Achiampong illustrates the impact of the worshiping practices of the Roman Catholic Church on the artist's Ashanti community. The video was shot in London where Achiampong lives and works.

Across the hall, photographs and other items from the Jazz Museum's permanent collection make an odd introduction to Peter Williams's paintings. His cartoonish gaudy compositions push the boundaries of good taste to the limit and his caustic humor about race generates feelings of awkwardness. Maybe this is the idea. In the adjoining room, two sculptures from Satch Hoyt's fail to energize the space allocated to the artist. Both made with tambourines, Redemption represents a cross on the wall while Ascension (The Chain), 2017, is suspended from the ceiling. The video from  Brazilian artist Rivane Neuenschwander, Quarta-feira de cinzas/Epilogue, 2006, fits the theme of Prospect.4: The Lotus in Spite of the Swamp. The post-carnival activities of a colony of ants hauling discarded confetti like treasures could have taken place in New Orleans on Ash Wednesday. Maider López Under the walls, 2017, is a work in progress and involves the artist's intervention to cover corporate advertisements on construction sites with walls of primary colors.
A large space is dedicated to New Orleans artists closely associated with the city's traditions, starring Big Chief Darryl Montana with six of his sculptural costumes and a collection of artifacts surrounded by photographs from Keith Calhoun and Chandra McCormick catching live scenes of Mardi Gras Indians celebrations. Two huge panels represent Ron Bechet who states: "the rich visual traditions, icons and symbols of New Orleans are the basis of my work". The display includes colorful sculptures from John T. Scott.

The scope of the exhibition makes it attractive to New Orleans residents as well as visitors from out of town. With music and visual art in mind, it also introduces international artists like Achiampong whose work is included in the Venice Biennale this year or Michael Armitage who just had a major exhibition at Turner Contemporary. One can regret a few technical blunders like the noisy air conditioning covering the sound of Achiampong's video or the missing piece from Satch Hoyt  Splash, Ride, Crash described on the wall text. And if the Mardi Gras Indian costumes are stunning, they need to be worn. Absent are the bands, the music which propels them through the streets in New Orleans.

Prospect.4 in sync with the city.

photographs by the author:

Hank Willis Thomas "History of Conquest"
collage from Louis Armstrong
Michael Armitage "Baikoko at the mouth of the Mwachema River", 2016