A Unique Slant of Light: The Bicentennial History of Art in Louisiana - (Page 120)

and artists working for the Works Progress Administration. The founding of the Isaac Delgado Museum of Art in 1910, based upon a bequest of $150,000 from Isaac Delgado, was a milestone that reflected the long history and evolution of the arts in New Orleans. It also marked the beginning of a new era in Louisiana’s art world, one where professional standards would be advanced in a permanent museum environment showcasing exhibitions, collections and educational programs. With the official opening of the Delgado Museum in 1911, New Orleans also became one of the few cities, and Louisiana one of the few states, with a public art museum in the South prior to World War I, following the Gibbes Memorial Art Gallery (founded 1858) in Charleston, the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences (founded in 1875) in Savannah, and five years before the Brooks Memorial Art Gallery opened in Memphis (1916). During the 1840s plans for a national art museum in New Orleans had ANGELA GREGORY (b. 1903, New Orleans, Louisiana – d. 1990, New Orleans, Louisiana) State capitol seal, 1931 Brass Louisiana State Capitol Building been explored by James Robb, a major art collector, but changing fortunes ended that dream and Robb had to sell many of his paintings (yet his Garden District mansion, the Robb-Burnside House, served as the second home for Newcomb College). Samuel Marx was selected to be the architect of the Delgado by a committee composed of Ellsworth Woodward and Benjamin Harrod.21 Marx’s designs for the Delgado reflected the BeauxArts architectural traditions that were associated with many of the American art museums that had opened in the years after 1880. This museum, located in City Park, was important in the literal sense as a new art museum, and in a metaphorical sense as a sign, a symbol of the maturing of the art world in Louisiana, 120 LOUISIANA: THE NEW CENTURY marking the importance of art, of art history, and of collecting art in the state’s evolution. It was also an institution where Ellsworth and William Woodward, along with their ally, Ethel Hutson, would play crucial roles in the museum’s formative first decades, establishing a strong foundation for regional art and artists well before the American Scene and Regionalism became influences in the national art scene. New Orleans would become a city of museums in the twentieth century, and Louisiana a state of museums. That same year, in 1911, another museum opened in New Orleans when the Cabildo became the home of the Louisiana State Museum, marking the beginning of another museum legacy in the state. If these museums were symbols of the growing stature and professionalism of the arts in Louisiana, a related symbol was the proliferation of art schools, clubs, leagues and associations in the state during the twentieth century. The Southern Art Union (1880-1884) was founded in New Orleans in 1880, and was followed by the Southern Artist’s Association (1885). The Arts and Exhibition Club was founded in New Orleans in 1901, and functioned until it merged with the Southern Artist’s Association, in 1904, to form the Art Association of New Orleans.22 The Art Association supported numerous annual exhibitions, and exhibited local and national artists at the Delgado Museum in its first decades, joined in this by the Southern States Arts League. A regional organization, the Southern States Arts League moved to New Orleans in 1921, where it organized programs and regional traveling exhibitions, adding to the stature of New Orleans as the South’s leading art city. Ellsworth Woodward was the founding president of the Southern States Arts League, and Ethel Hutson served as its secretary. During their tenure it became the leading organization to promote art and artists in the South during the 1920s and 1930s. Ellsworth Woodward also became acting director of the Delgado Museum in 1925, a position he held for fourteen years, and he served as president of the museum’s board for six years. Ethel Hutson became the museum’s secretarytreasurer.23 Later, in the 1930s, Ellsworth Woodward was also appointed director of the Gulf Coast WPA art programs, solidifying his influence on the art of the Gulf Coast South. During the first two decades of the twentieth century, the American art world supported the continuation of earlier traditions as well as the developing interest in urban realism associated with the painters known as The Eight (or the Ash LEE LAWRIE State Capitol Entrance, 1931 Stone Louisiana State Capitol Building http://www.knowla.org/entry.php?rec=1266 http://www.knowla.org/entry.php?rec=1266

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A Unique Slant of Light: The Bicentennial History of Art in Louisiana

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