High Water Marks: Art & Renewal After Katrina
May 1, 2010 - September 19, 2010

 

The Visitor by Donald Boudreaux
Click the image to view artwork
from the exhibition.

From New Orleans' earliest days, the work of Black artisans made the city a colonial prize and distinguished it from other ports. It fascinated Benjamin Henry Latrobe, the architect of the U.S. Capitol, who kept a sketchbook and diary of his time in early 1800s New Orleans. He describes a Sunday morning walk through the market and the vibrant presence of Black women vendors shouting the praises of their food. Latrobe was one of many visitors who recognized the importance of New Orleans' Black artisans, and one of the few to document it. During slavery, Black artists and the arts played an essential role in the life of the city. Since then, the city's jazz legacy, culinary achievements, architecture, fine art, and distinct Creole culture, have made New Orleans a continually fascinating destination for visitors and a city that continues to insist upon the relevance of arts and culture.

Five years after the hurricane struck the Crescent City, the arts remain an essential aspect of New Orleans and central to its post-Katrina renewal effort. From May-September 2010 the exhibition, High Water Marks: Art & Renewal After Katrina, will present the achievements of a range of artists who have documented the city's devastation and are committed to the city's recovery. The exhibition presents a brief history of New Orleans focused on the importance of arts and culture with a foundation of Amistad Center collection material, especially trade cards and photographs. The introduction establishes the importance of Black artisans in colonial New Orleans and references the emergence of iconic cultural forms including jazz, vernacular architecture, politically significant moments in New Orleans history (Plessy v. Ferguson), and food. On view will be an excerpt from Benjamin Henry Latrobe's Impressions Respecting New Orleans, 1820, published 1951. Collection objects to be include the postcards Praline Seller, New Orleans, 1915; New Orleans Sugar Cane Scene, 1920; Aunt Shug who makes Pralines, 1900; and a Luzianne Coffee box from 1902. Lithographer Jules Lion's portraits of New Orleans' society figures affirm the presence of 18th and 19th-century black artisans.

Contemporary art created in response to Katrina's impact will be featured including post-Katrina images by photographers Deborah Willis and Lewis Watts; Charly Palmer's Yellow Ochre, 2007, mixed media and Donald Boudreaux's 2006 mixed media piece The Visitor; Brad McCallum & Jacqueline Tarry's 2008 installation The Evidence of Things Not Seen; John Scott's 2003 woodcut Dangerous; and Willie Birch's 2005 drawing House and Owner on Touro Street.

The arts continue to be an agent in renewing and rebuilding New Orleans after Katrina by generating media coverage, creating income, attracting tourists, comforting through beauty, and witnessing with outrage.

This exhibition is generously supported by the J. Walton Bissell Foundation, the Greater Hartford Arts Council and the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism.

Click here for the exhibition gallery guide.

 

The Bassist by David Driskell

Evolution: Five Decades of Printmaking by David C. Driskell
Part I: October 30, 2010 - March 6, 2011
Part II: March 19, 2011 - August 7, 2011

 

Few men have captured the richness, beauty, and spirituality of African American community and culture like Dr. David C. Driskell. His portraits which celebrate the beauty within the ordinary, speak to his genius as a master portraitist and printmaker. Evolution, presents an in-depth picture of Driskell's five decades of print making.

 

Born in Georgia in 1931, Driskell spent most of his childhood attending public schools in North Carolina. He received an MFA from Catholic University of America, a BFA from Howard University, and has been awarded ten Honorary Doctoral Degrees in art.

 

Often labeled as the founder of African American art history, Driskell's extensive 44-year teaching career includes five books on African American art, co-authorship of four others, and numerous articles, essays, and catalogs. His scholarship has been shared with the Art institute of Chicago, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Harvard

 

University, Spelman College, and many other top-rated institutions.

In 2000, Driskell received the National Humanities Medal from President Clinton. Credited with “opening our eyes to the beauty, poignancy, and power of African-American art.” He has spotlighted the significance of Black artists and has aroused interest worldwide among art enthusiasts, critics, and historians. Driskell also has been awarded prestigious fellowships from Rockefeller, Danforth, and Harmon foundations and membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

 

Currently, Driskell is renowned for his exemplary career at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he holds the title of Distinguished University Professor of Art, Emeritus. Upon his retirement from teaching in 1998, The David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the African Diaspora was founded to promote his scholarship and service to the University. In June of 2006, he joined the University's Board of Trustees and is presently an Honorary Trustee of The Amistad Center for Art & Culture. Driskell is well-know as the curator of the Cosby collection and holds an extraordinary collection personally.

 

Driskell's works are often experiments in collage and mixed media. His prints often conjure themes of beauty, sexuality, and eroticism, as well as the structure of African masks, nature, history and memory. Driskell works solo and collaboratively having worked at the Brandywine Workshop in Philadelphia, and the Brodsky Center at Rutgers, and

 

Lafayette College's Experimental Institute in Easton, Pennsylvania.

Driskell's work has been exhibited internationally in England, Holland, South African, Poland, Brazil, Japan, and Chili, and his paintings and prints have been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions in galleries and museums including The Baltimore Museum of Art, The Oakland Museum, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

 

This exhibition is generally sponsored by Travelers.