New Orleans Free People of Color & Their Legacy

On Saturday, October 3, 2009, Jose Torres-Tama and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, University of New Orleans released New Orleans Free People of Color & Their Legacy: The Artwork of Jose Torres-Tama. This catalogue documents the exhibition of the same name shown at The Ogden Museum and Dillard University's Fine Art Gallery in 2008. Including an introduction by the Ogden's chief curator, David Houston, essays by Torres-Tama and creole historian, Keith Weldon Medley, the catalogue focuses on eighteen pastel drawings of fifteen historical figures belonging to the New Orleans community known as the gens de coleur libres.


Photo by Cheryl Gerber

During the Art for Art's Sake events on Saturday, Torres-Tama and Medley signed copies of the catalogue in a gallery filled with Torres-Tama's pastel portraits of these influential and relevant historical figures, including Marie Laveau, Basile Barres, Edmond Dede, Rose Nicaud and others.

Photo by Cheryl Gerber

Bradley Sumrall, J. Richard Gruber, Jose Torres-Tama and Keith Weldon Medley

Photo by Cheryl Gerber

Jose with wife, Dr. Claudia Copeland, and two sons, Darius and Diego

Photo by Cheryl Gerber.

New Orleans Free People of Color & Their Legacy is available at the Ogden's Museum Shop.

Storming the Ramparts: Objects of Evidence

Gilbert Gaul's Storming the Ramparts, circa 1893, oil on canvas

Collection of William Dunlap

William Dunlap's artist installation, Storming the Ramparts: Objects of Evidence, is an exhibition unique in the Ogden's history. The historical content and Victorian influenced style is a break from our decidedly contemporary approach to exhibitions. Most importantly, though, it represents a truly collaborative effort with our closest neighbor, Confederate Memorial Hall.

Gilbert Gaul's Taking the Ramparts, vintage photogravure

Collection of William Dunlap

The exhibition is built around the Gilbert Gaul Painting, Storming the Ramparts, probably painted in the early part of the last decade of the 19th century. On either side of this singular epic battle scene are examples of photogravures, Taking the Ramparts, that first appeared on the market shortly after the painting was finished. The gallery is then completed with objects from the permanent collection of Confederate Memorial Hall, including weapons, photographs, clothing, medical kits and other detritus of war from that defining moment in American history.

Photo by David Houston

Photo by David Houston

Gilbert Gaul (1855-1919) is best known for his realistic, if not romantic, depictions of Military life, particularly scenes from the Civil War, but also extending from the European conquest of the American West through World War I. Born in New Jersey, Gaul entered the National Academy of Design in New York City at seventeen, and went on to become one of the nation's leading illustrators, publishing regularly in Harper's Weekly and Century Magazine. He received awards from the American Art Association, the 1889 Paris Exhibition and the 1893 World's Exposition in Chicago. At the turn of the century, Gaul settled in Tennessee. He opened a studio in Nashville, and began the series, With Confederate Colors, in 1907.

Gilbert Gaul in his studio.

Storming the Ramparts: Objects of Evidence opened on White Linen Night, accompanied by essays from Winston Groom and Dunlap, and a ceremonial burying of the proverbial hatchet on the grounds of Confederate Memorial Hall.


Winston Groom and William Dunlap bury the hatchet.

Photo by Cheryl Gerber.

Read Doug MacCash's review here: Times Picayune.

Ponderosa Stomp Presents Bobby Rush

Photo by Cheryl Gerber

The legendary Soul Blues singer, Bobby Rush, played Ogden After Hours on Thursday, April 23. Born the son of a preacher man in Homer, Louisiana,1940, Bobby Rush moved to Chicago at an early age. In the 50s, he played in Chicago bands with Freddie King, Earl Hooker, and Luther Allison. Trips to visit family in Arkansas found him on stage with the great Elemore James.






In 1971, Rush had a hit with the Galaxy single "Chicken Heads," and he spent the next decade travelling the "chitlin' circuit" from west Texas to Florida to Chicago, and back. In the 80s, he settled down in Jackson, Mississippi, signed to a number of labels, settling into Malaco Records.




Photo by Cheryl Gerber

In 2003, Bobby Rush fulfilled his dream of owning his own label, Deep Rush. After more than fifty years on the stage, he shows no signs of slowing down. He has found new enthusiastic audiences in New York, Europe and Asia, and still plays to working class audiences in packed juke joints on the chitlin' circuit. Thanks to the Ponderosa Stomp Foundation for bringing Bobby Rush to the Ogden Museum.

Artist and Sense of Place: Natalie Keller Barnes

Now in its eighth year, the Ogden's educational program, Artists and Sense of Place, brings together children from New Orleans area schools with local artists. Eudora Welty is often credited for first turning the phrase "sense of place," and it is in that rich Southern context in mind that the program was titled. Under the direction of our Education Coordinator, Kate Barron, and with the help of docent Ellen Barkin, the students are paired with artists to explore, through art, the influence of situation and geography on their lives. The second artist-in-residence of the 2008 - 2009 cycle was local artist, Natalie Keller Barnes. To read more about Barnes' project with the kids from Maggiore Elementary in Kenner, please visit the February issue of New Orleans Magazine at http://www.myneworleans.com/New-Orleans-Magazine/February-2009/Learning-Art-at-the-Ogden/. Photo by Cheryl Gerber.