Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Spring 2009 - (Page 32) Expanding the Ogden’s Collection Recent acquisitions enhance the permanent collection Finding an artistic treasure is one part research, another being at the right place at the right time, while another is sheer determination. The other? Generosity of artists and/or donors. This past year, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art saw the convergence all of those elements with the addition of a number of important pieces to its collection. A selection of these pieces, as well as those from the museum’s permanent collection, are on view until April 15, 2009 in the exhibition Ogden Past, Present and Future: Selections from the Permanent Collection and New Acquisitions. A most significant acquisition was that of two major works by the famed Louisiana painter Clementine Hunter (1886–1988): Flowing River, one of the largest known works by the artist, standing eightfeet high, and Cotton to Gin and Baptism, a rare piece that is painted front to back. Of note, on the work’s reverse side, Baptism features a seldom seen palette of pinks, vivid yellows, red and white. Local collectors Dr. Jerry and Carolyn Fortino donated the paintings to the museum. “The other Clementine Hunter works at this scale and significance are installed at African House at Melrose Plantation in Natchitoches, Louisiana,” says Ogden Director J. Richard Gruber. “This donation by Dr. Jerry and Carolyn Fortino makes these important works accessible to a larger public for the first time.” These former privately-held works are an important addition to the museum’s holdings of Hunter’s work, which also includes Panorama of a Baptism on Cane River from the Roger Houston Ogden Collection, and reflect the importance of the museum’s Clementine Hunter Education Wing, currently under construction. Dr. Fortino vividly remembers acquiring Flowing River at an auction 39 years ago. “We bought it in 1970,” recalls Fortino. “We drove to Natchitoches and bought an olive jar, a quilt and a giant 8foot-tall Clementine Hunter. During the auction I raised my hand up and didn’t put it down.” Hunter was born at Hidden Hill plantation, near Cloutierville, Louisiana. She lived and worked in Northwest Louisiana at Melrose Plantation, which had become an artist colony coordinated by Francois Mignon. Using paints left behind by visiting artists, Hunter Baptism by Clementine Hunter 32 LOUISIANA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES\Spring 2009 http://www.ogdenmuseum.org/
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