Louvre's Rare `Oui' to 3-year Exhibit a Coup for Atlanta

Chicago Tribune

(MCT)

ATLANTA - The giant billboards towering over the highways leading to this Southern city seem to say it all. "Bonjour, Y'all" reads the caption with the portrait of the princess in the famous painting "The Infanta Margarita" by Spanish artist Diego Velazquez.

Atlanta's High Museum of Art scored a major coup late last year when the Louvre Museum in Paris agreed to something it never had done before - lend some of its most prestigious works for as long as three years. It was a bold experiment for Atlanta, one that attempts to blend cultures and tests Southerners' tolerance for all things French.

So far, it has paid off. The exhibit of more than 150 paintings, sculptures, drawings and artifacts, some of them straight off the floor of the Louvre, has attracted an average of 2,000 people a day since it opened in October. Membership in the museum also rose 17 percent, to almost 50,000 families.

The partnership between the Louvre and the High Museum has brought national recognition to this region that has fought hard to lose its Old South image. And, according to some, it is long overdue.

"The South is maturing and the museum is trying to provide a regular, rich diet of great works of art to the people of this region," said David Brenneman, chief curator of the High Museum. "This region has been long underserved by the art world, and a lot of that has to do with the history of the South."

Although the High Museum is basking in its accomplishments, a three-year commitment is challenging in the world of art, where most exhibitions are much shorter.

"The Louvre didn't want to do anything short-term, and that is a bit of a risk for us," said Brenneman. "Audiences are trained to have a three-month exhibit. So when we put out a notice saying there are two weeks left, they rush in. The challenge will be sustaining the momentum for three years."

While several museums, including the Art Institute of Chicago, have had smaller exhibitions from the Louvre, the Paris museum has never allowed so much of its collection to be lent out for such a long period.

Discussions are taking place to build a small version of the Louvre in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. And the French, it appears, don't care for the idea. Opponents contend that French museums, such as the Louvre, are "selling their souls" by lending out rare works. Art lovers founded a Web site recently that has collected 1,400 signatures opposing the projects.

Some of the Louvre's most popular pieces, such as the "Mona Lisa" and "Venus de Milo," were never on the bargaining table, according to Brenneman. But the High Museum did manage to get the famed "Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione," Raphael's 1514-15 painting known as "the male Mona Lisa." The painting, however, was only on display for four months and will be returned Sunday. It will be replaced by another Louvre treasure, Nicolas Poussin's "Et in Arcadio Ego."

The goal of the exhibition, according to Brenneman, is to trace the history and developments of the Louvre, a former palace that was turned into a museum in 1793, from the 17th Century to the present. The Louvre's grand gallery is more than a quarter-mile long and more than 35,000 artworks are on display.

The High Museum's "Kings as Collectors" exhibition features 32 paintings and sculptures collected by French kings in the 17th and 18th Centuries. "The King's Drawings" exhibit features about 60 masterworks, some of which have never been on public display, simply because the Louvre has so many. They also will be returned Sunday.

The second phase of the exhibition, "Decorative Arts of the Kings," which begins in March, will showcase luxury items, including tapestries, ceramics and silver, made for royal families and their court. None of the pieces has ever traveled to the U.S.

"We wanted pieces that were very rich and that helped us tell the story of what the Louvre is all about," Brenneman said. "People in New York and the Midwest have always been able to see great works of art. So this is very important for the Southeast."

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(c) 2007, Chicago Tribune. Distributed by Mclatchy-Tribune News Service.