CAN WE APPRECIATE ARTISTIC EXCELLENCE
G. Ravishanakr
With the advanced technology attaining at jet speed, giving preference to
Arts is a matter of pride for America. How French
museum could
exhibit excellent arts?
The venerable French museum will mount an exhibit of New World painters, will
feature author Toni Morrison and will lend hundreds of treasures to Atlanta's High Museum of
ART in an ambitious three-year partnership.
Louvre Director Henri Loyrette feels it's the least he can do: One out of every seven Louvre visitors is American, making up the largest percentage among foreign visitors.
Beyond that, "the United States art world has astonishing vitality, and in that way I think there are a lot of lessons we can learn from it," Loyrette said Tuesday as the museum presented a series of American-themed projects.
Starting in June, the Louvre--it has only three American paintings in its permanent collection--will host an exhibit called "American Artists at the Louvre."
Jointly organized with the Chicago-based Terra Foundation for American Art, the show will feature about 30 major works by American artists, including Benjamin West, Edward Hopper, Thomas Eakins, Mary Cassatt and Thomas Hart Benton, the Terra said.
Beginning in October, the High Museum will feature works from the Paris museum. Vast Louvre collections--they include Greco-Roman antiquities once owned by Napoleon's wife, Josephine, and France's royal stash of drawings--will be on view in eight exhibits in the High's new Renzo Piano-designed expansion.
Raphael's "Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione," one of the top treasures from the Louvre's permanent collection, will be on view at the High, according to the museum's Web site. The portrait has not left Paris since it was acquired in the 17th Century, according to the Louvre's records. Another Louvre treasure, Nicolas Poussin's "Et in Arcadia Ego," also will travel to Atlanta.
Nobel laureate Morrison will visit Paris in November to give conferences and meet poetry slam participants from the troubled French neighborhoods hit by rioting and arson attacks last fall.
This speaks volumes about the need for giving importance arts.
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