NOLA Art

With Laynes’s declared remission from arthritis, and the subsequent long path to vaccination stability we can at last date to behave as though Covid may not kill her. The New Orleans Museum of Art seemed a good place for a first cultural outing. 

Charles Giroux, a Louisiana road scene from 1875. 

There is a remarkable amount of art packed into the heart of City Park in NOLA (New Orleans, Louisiana) and we took two weekdays to Cody the sculpture garden one day and two more hours the corridors of the museum itself. Photographing art is a skill I don’t possess and therefore neither the tools so in reproducing the pictures I offer only a faint outline of the richness within. 

My favorite room and the one I returned to contained the snapshots of Louisiana captured in the last decades of the 19th century. The paintings offer a glimpse into life of the era but don’t hint at the controversies and social miseries of the time. They are street views in the style of the time not exposes or social commentary. 

South Shore Lake Pontchartrain 1880 by Marshall Smith. 

The boats, the human and animal figures set in the darkened landscape  set me to wondering who lived there and how they coped. I can’t imagine the agony of life before DEET in these boggy places or the awkwardness of unremitting poverty to the passerby. And yet as I stood there I saw the reality depicted reflected in my own recent travels in Mexico land of stark social contrasts. I stood in this room a long time. 

And then the full on Frenchness of France dominated the room next door. A female portrait painter…revolutionary…

And then suddenly the exhibit of instant photos of artists in the city by a photographer well known in the city but unknown outside. 

The simple equipment: 

The man himself not portrayed in the exhibit but whose portrait I found online. The article at Go Nola is well worth a read: 

https://gonola.com/things-to-do-in-new-orleans/polo-silk-the-picture-man

There was so much more in the building, furniture jewelry and all the objects that create beauty in the home.  It was overwhelming for a one day visit. 

Oh and let’s not forget the dog stealing lunch at the French Market. 

Outside the Besthoff sculpture garden glowed in evening sunlight. I hope the pictures give an idea of the pleasure of the walk. Admission here incidentally is free. I’d spend a piece of every day passing trough if I lived here. We walked only half of the entire outdoor art museum here. 

The Vieux Carré

The threat of rain and high winds in the forecast pushed us to go downtown and take a French Quarter walk while the skies were merely gray and not yet dripping. Consequently parking was easy to find even at ten in the morning and no restaurants or coffee shops were open for trade as there were few tourists and apparently no locals in the streets. 

I find myself torn between my desire for order and cleanliness butting up against the picturesque. In a similar discussion about Key West a friend pointed out that the slightly down-at-heel nature of the town was west gave it it’s charm. 

The Old Square was designed around 1718 by Jean Baptiste de Bienville and the term, “Vieux Carré” in French (old square) has become in modern English “The French Quarter.” But like so much in New Orleans the French influence  is not really what you think it is. 

New Orleans was founded in 1718 by Jean Baptiste de Bienville after Louisiana, named for the French King Louis, was declared French territory by Robert de La Salle in 1682. They gained population when the British expelled French speakers from Acadia in 1755. These Acadians settled in Louisiana creating the term Cajun which we use to this day. The French and the Acadians were then occupied by Spain in 1769 when they invaded from their territory in the flowery region called La Florida in Spanish. 

New Orleans is really a Spanish city which was traded back to Napoleon just in time for him to sell it to the Americans who were looking to expand west. Napoleons rationale was that the Americans were going to occupy it anyway and by selling the Louisiana Purchase he made money to renew his European wars and also he put a block on ghe British from moving  south. 

In the middle of that middle of politicking New Orleans residents barely knew what was going on.  Immunizations were dreadful and treaties signed in Europe were notified to the population months later. This it was that in 1801 New Orleans started as Spanish after thirty years occupation, became French again and a month later learned it had been traded to the Americans. Little wonder median strips in New Orleans are called neutral ground to separate cultures and histories and languages. 

The conceit today is that Louisiana is an outpost of French-ness.  You decide. We saw a couple of French RVs in town and I wanted to ask them what they thought of this notion but they did not seem open to contact with strangers. I doubt they found any locals with a lick of French, more’s the pity. 

I walk the French Quarter and look for life but I found very little.  The odds were against me, it being after Thanksgiving, cold and rainy, mid week and mid morning. Stores were closed and sidewalks empty. 

I dare say on a bright sunny day with a fresh breeze the streets might look more cheerful but New Orleans is a city for sake if you are looking for a getaway condo  or a rental investment.  I checked Zillow and apartments up to a thousand square feet with one or two bedrooms ranged between $200,000 and $350,000 and there were quite a few for sale. Check for yourself, it only takes a couple of minutes if you care to. 

From a Key West perspective that seems reasonable though of course the devil is frequently in the details. On the other hand those prices may also reflect the relative wealth of the two cities.  I was quite surprised to see dwellings half the cost of potentially similar units in the Southernmost City. 

A city filled with gorgeous buildings  smeared with graffiti also speaks to the frustration of a place that attracts the hopeless. As an outsider I’m not sure if New Orleans is vibrant or gritty or both or neither. However for me the tourist, it’s just too gritty. 

I cannot imagine riding a bicycle here with potholes deep enough to swallow a wheel.  I completely lack the street smarts to survive in a city filled with serious crime.  

I wandered alone with Rusty and enjoyed the architecture. Layne drifted through the dust catcher stores paralleling each other in a town filled with no people.  

A monument to what? Georgian architecture below and covered with graffiti to the eternal shame of the perpetrators.  You can’t have nice things here at least in public. 

On the other hand keeping your head in air can be bad for your health too. The sidewalks are as bad as the streets, all pitfalls. 

By the time the predicted storm reached New Orleans we were on I-10 driving east.  The rain came down in buckets and when we parked for the night in a rest area just inside Florida the wind was rocking our home on its wheels. It as a good time to be stopped. 

I wonder how New Orleans will weather the next few years. I look forward to seeing what changes tone will bring.