Robert Tannen at Ogden Museum of Southen Art

THE OGDEN MUSEUM OF SOUTHERN ART

university of new orleans

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Sue Strachan

July 29, 2008 504.539.9613

Robert Tannen “Stardust: Objects, Ideas and Proposals”

Retrospective of this influential and world-renowned “citizen artist”

Artist, urban planner, engineer and social activist—all describe Robert Tannen, whose retrospective, “Stardust: Objects, Ideas and Proposals,” opens at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans on Sat. Aug. 2. The exhibition is part of the museum’s ongoing Southern Masters Series, which showcases the works of artists that have made longstanding contributions to the region.

The show’s title of “Stardust,” a reference to the recent discovery that the solar system was formed from the particles and debris thrown off dying stars, reflects Tannen’s interest in the planets’ transforming ecosystems and our changing ideas about human life. Paintings, drawings, sculptures, proposals and conceptual works will trace Tannen’s evolution as an artist and an urban planner from the 1950s to the present. A new sculpture—also part of the “Stardust” series—includes boulders that have been installed around Lee Circle in New Orleans, just around the corner from the Ogden Museum. Each is embedded with one of the letters N, E, W, and S—or “N.E.W.S”—and have a two-pronged meaning: to help provide a compass for New Orleanians and visitors as to orient them to the city’s geography shaped by the curve of the Mississippi River and to the city’s diverse economic, political, social and moral viewpoints.

The exhibition also features collaborations between Tannen and noted artists and architects such as Frank Gehry, Maya Lin and Mark Di Suvero. The exhibition will include a film, “St. Joe,” by Luisa Dantas and Michael Boedingheimer about the destruction of New Orleans public housing.

Tannen has created a new line of jewelry with designer Mignon Faget, which will be for sale at the museum’s Center for Southern Craft and Design. Necklaces include shotgun houses made of silver, wood, and semiprecious stones; concrete elements; and silver castings of an actual fragment of a meteorite. Ceramic shotguns—a collaboration with ceramicist John Oles—are also part of this new collection. These items will also be available at Mignon Faget stores.

The Life of Tannen

Robert Cary Tannen was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. in 1937. He grew up in New York, and graduated in 1961 with a BID (bachelor of industrial design) in environmental design from the Pratt Institute, where he also received an MFA in 1963. That same year he studied philosophy at Columbia University and psychology at New York University. Soon, Tannen became part of the art world and the dynamic Tenth Street Scene that flourished during the 1950s and 1960s and included Franz Kline, Milton Resnick and William de Kooning, who often mentored younger artists such as Tannen and his friend, sculptor Mark Di Suvero—both of whom were part of the March Gallery.

It took Hurricane Camille to bring Tannen down to New Orleans. After a consulting assignment in Mississippi, Tannen stayed, and the region became his muse for his multifaceted creations and career. His art was joined by major environmental, transportation and redevelopment projects. Tannen, with his wife Jeanne Nathan, took part in the founding of the Contemporary Arts Center in 1976, and it was a former CAC executive director, Adolpho Nodal, who first called Tannen “citizen artist” due to the egalitarian nature of his work. Tannen, who created the prototype “ModGun” (modular shotgun) house that was located on the Ogden Museum plaza in late 2006, was involved with planning teams on the United New Orleans Plan (developed in response to Hurricane Katrina).

Tannen’s work spans more than five decades of the evolution of American art. His concerns with formal inventions, textural play and democratic community activism places him firmly in the tradition of American free-spirited individualism and civic responsibility.

Tannen will be at the Ogden Museum for the opening of his exhibition on Aug. 2—White Linen Night.

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Summer Specials in honor of the Ogden’s 5th Anniversary!: $5 general admission (until Sept. 7, 2008); museum store discounts, and much more! Be sure to check the Ogden Web site: www.ogdenmuseum.org.

Museum hours are 11am-4pm Wednesday through Sunday and 6-8pm Thursday evenings for Ogden After Hours. Free to members, $5 general admission (June 14 to Sept. 7, 2008).