The Delacroix exhibition at the National Gallery in London that I mentioned in my last post was also on view here in the U.S., at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, under the title Delacroix’s Influence: The Rise of Modern Art from Cézanne to van Gogh.  Yesterday, I learned from Patrick Noon, who curated the show there, that the MIA, too, had a video–but it’s just not easy to find on the MIA website.
Noon said:
I and two videographers on staff spent four days in Paris shooting the murals in the National Assembly, to which no one ever has access, Saint-Sulpice, and the Louvre. We also visited the Musee Delacroix and gardens and the Dalou memorial in the Luxembourg Gardens. Close to 30 hours of video then reduced to 14 minutes with narration. I felt strongly that such representation was essential for an American audience to fully appreciate the artist’s entire attainment even if the visitors were not experiencing the actual works in situ.
Here is the link; you’ll find the video halfway down the page.
Noon told me that the video in Minneapolis was “intended to be part of the installation, so not a web video per se.” It was online during the show, too, but it’s not easy to find on the website. Even with these directions, I didn’t get it right away:
Half way down on the page
The exhibition ended in Minneapolis on January 10, and Noon said that “Of the 1000 people surveyed as they left the exhibition nearly 90% claimed it was invaluable in understanding the thesis of the exhibition.” That’s a really great result.
On that same web page, at the bottom, I found another interesting didactic.
For someone like me, who will not be able to see this exhibition, these efforts are very cool! At top I have posted Fantin Latour’s Homage to Delacroix.