“Contemporary Masters,” a traveling exhibition currently on display at the LSU Museum of Art, exemplifies the valuable contributions of Americans of diverse heritage and offers insight into the value of graphic arts and drawings as preparation for execution of works in other media.
The exhibition features works on paper from the Art Museum of Southern Texas, including artists such as Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol and Milton Avery.
“Contemporary Masters” gives an overview of post-war art featuring pieces exemplary of abstract expressionist, minimalist, conceptual, pop and the pop art movement.
Museum curator Courtney Taylor said the exhibit creates an environment to inspire discussion about what art is and can be, whether in the eyes of an everyday visitor or an art student comparing and contrasting styles and characteristics.
The exhibit boasts a sizable volume of work by a lengthy list of notable artists, enough to sway anyone considering a visit.
“Everyone will find something they like in this exhibition or something worthy of study, whether it’s a representational work with sculptural, shaded figures evocative of Southern culture by John Biggers or a study on the interaction of color by Josef Albers,” Taylor said.
Taylor also said the exhibition is accessible to younger students. The museum’s regular elementary, middle and high school visitors are learning to distinguish between art movements using the museum’s teaching guides. Guides such as interactive kiosks teach formal art elements such as color and shape and the differences between abstraction and representational art.
Many pieces of the diverse collection are graphics used by artists in preparation to create works in other media such as sculpture, giving students particular insight into these artists’ processes.
Taylor said the exhibition “speaks to the valuable contributions of [diverse Americans], which we might need reminding of currently.”
This diversity largely consists of American and international Latino artists, as well as artists born and raised in the southern United States. One of Taylor’s favorite pieces, Lilian Garcia-Roig’s “La Infanta Teotihuacana,” a take on Velasquez’s “Las Meninas,” appropriates and transforms the image of a Spanish princess, endowing her with indigenous features, thus elevating Native Americans to royalty while commenting on the colonial period.
Whether museum visitors engage in these deeper reflections on the featured artists or take a more studious look at the exhibition, Taylor said she hopes visitors leave with a meaningful experience.

Gallery • 4 Photos

Jordan Marcell

A wide variety of artwork is displayed during the Contemporary Masters exhibition on Tuesday, April 18, 2017 at the LSU Museum of Art in downtown Baton Rouge.