Georgia Magazine - November 2011 - (Page 28)

Community hub for art BY JACKIE KENNEDY JACKIE KENNEDY LaGrange Art Museum attracts international works ★ LaGrange • • I n recent months, the LaGrange Art Museum has exhibited works by Andy Warhol, Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso and hosted Francoise Gilot, an intimate of Picasso’s, speaking on her relationship with the famous artist and exhibiting her own works. That’s heady stuff for a town of 28,000, but it’s just another day at the ofﬁce for this museum at the heart of LaGrange’s burgeoning arts community. “People in our town love the visual arts, they love the performing arts, I would say they simply love the arts,” says Ethyl Ault, interim director of the museum and president of its board of governors. “We’re enjoying this army of people who believe the arts are important to the development of the person.” While she describes LaGrange Art Museum as a “community mu- LAGRANGE ART MUSEUM Above: The LaGrange Art Museum is housed in a Victorian building constructed in 1892 as the Troup County Jail. Left: This Noel Rockmore piece, titled “Jim Robinson,” is reﬂective of his New Orleans jazz portrait series. The work is part of Wesley and Missy Cochran’s personal collection on loan for the current Rockmore exhibit at the LaGrange Art Museum. Board President Ethyl Ault, left, and Assistant Curator Maribeth Crocker show off works by Salvador Dali, left, and Andy Warhol at LaGrange Art Museum’s recent Cult of Personality exhibit. 28 seum,” Ault notes that the number of out-of-town visitors is on the rise as word gets out about the provocative programs and exhibits there. In 2009, the museum hosted LaGrange Collects Warhol, an immensely popular exhibit featuring 60 pieces from the collections of 13 LaGrange residents. At a September reception at the museum, Gilot, 89, spoke on her life and work, which was represented by Francoise Gilot: A Retrospective of Original Prints, an exhibit featuring 40 of her works, the most ever assembled for a show. Gilot was 21 in 1944 when she met Picasso, who was 61, and ultimately became his artistic muse and the mother of his two children, Claude Picasso and Paloma Picasso. “Gilot is one of the most enduring artists of the post World War II School of Paris,” says Ault. “The works in our show reﬂected the evolution of modern art in the 20th century.” In October, Creative Obscurity: More online at www.georgiamagazine.org The Genius Noel Rockmore opened at LaGrange Art Museum with the largest collection of Rockmore’s pieces (200) ever in one show. Running through January 2012, the show pays homage to this New Orleans painter and sculptor whose work is included in major collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Institution. Rockmore, who claimed to have produced more than 15,000 pieces, died in 1995, a master whose fans say he never achieved the recognition he deserved. “Rockmore was an artistic genius and an unrecognized American master of the 20th century,” says Rich Marvin, of the Noel Rockmore Project, which aims to create awareness and recognition of the artist. The Rockmore exhibit opened with a masquerade party and jazz band to highlight the artist’s New Orleans inﬂuence. The hometown museum landed these big-name exhibits thanks to local friends of the arts with unique connections, according to Ault. Wesley and Missy Cochran, of LaGrange, are longtime collectors of Warhol and Rockmore. Ralph and GEORGIA MAGAZINE JACKIE KENNEDY http://www.georgiamagazine.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Georgia Magazine - November 2011

Georgia Magazine - November 2011
Contents
Viewpoint
Mailbox
Picture This?
Georgia News
Calendar of Events
Special Energy Report
Currents
Generations of Growing
A Productive State
Around Georgia
My Georgia
Georgia Cooks
Snapshot
Bonus Snapshot Submissions
Gardens Plant of the Month: Liberty Notes
Energy-Efficiency Tips
Second Helping: More Great Recipes

Georgia Magazine - November 2011