NOMA | New Orleans Museum of Art

NEW AND NOTABLE

Tooth for an Eye: A Chorography of Violence in Orleans Parish by Deborah Luster. Twin Palms Publisher, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2011. ISBN 9781931885966

Follow this link to hear Luster discuss her work, and the images that appear in this book.

First of all, what does Chorography mean? Merriam-Webster tells us that it is “the art of describing or mapping a region or district (OR): a description or map of a region; also: the physical conformation and features of such a region” and Wikipedia notes that it “a specialization within geography, comprising the description through field observation of the particular traits of a given area.”

This book is a “field study.” Filled with images taken at the locations of murders it is “… a photographic archive documenting contemporary and historical homicide sites in the city of New Orleans and is, as well, an exploration of the empty, dizzying space at the core of violence.”

The book does not contain images of corpses. The photographs have been taken after the fact and show the locations of the violence, sometimes many years after the event. On the page opposite the photograph the name or names of the victims, and the street at which the homicide occurred are briefly documented.

To say that the work is poignant is to understate, or to be too glib in our reaction. We are given a glimpse into a world that was shattered by violence; we can imagine the horror and grief of the families that the violence impacted. We are also able to wonder about the impact of the location as the catalyst for the murder; what was it about those places that drew the protagonists and victims together? The format of the book (large round images against a stark white background) allows us a voyeuristic glimpse, as if through a porthole, into the heart of the tragedy.

The images that are at the heart of the book have been the subject of exhibitions, including one at the Jack Shainman Gallery, NYC, 2011. Follow this link to see the photographs as they appear when hung on walls rather than confined between the covers of a book.

Richard Diebenkorn: The Ocean Park Series curated by Sarah C. Bancroft. Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA and Prestel Publishing, New York. [2011].

This is a catalog of an exhibition at the Modern Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, The Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, California, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC. The book is filled with color images of Diebenkorn’s work for this series, and essays about the artist.

Follow this link to an NPR discussion of the exhibition and Diebenkorn’s work:

Be sure to come to NOMA to see Diebenkorn’s 1958 painting Woman on Porch, on view in the contemporary galleries.