Exhibition Overview
For its latest iteration of Brooks Outside, the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art is participating in Outings Project, a movement launched by artist and filmmaker Julien de Casabianca (French, b. 1970). Dubbed the “Robin Hood of Street Art,” the artist has installed his paper murals in more than 50 cities around the world – from Hanoi to Moscow, and Mumbai to Los Angeles.
Brooks Outside, an innovative curatorial program that launched in conjunction with the museum’s centennial in 2016, consists of an ongoing series of outdoor installations that, depending on each project’s scope, will enliven and invigorate Brooks Museum grounds, Overton Park, or our community at large. These temporary installations are selected to resonate long after their removal, to enhance community outreach, and to facilitate discussions about the Brooks’ mission and permanent collection and the art-making process in general. Past Brooks Outside exhibitions include a performance of Kurt Perschke’s RedBall Project, which traversed Memphis from late April to early May 2016, an installation of Amanda Parer’s Intrude on the museum plaza in January 2017, and Michael Townsend’s Tape Art, which transformed the museum’s façade in May 2017.
With Outings Project, de Casabianca takes images of “characters” from pieces in a museum’s collection, reprints them, and places them on city streets, giving communities new opportunities to discover, actively watch, and participate in the process. De Casabianca is working in Memphis through the end of this week. On Friday, September 28, he will place a work on the Brooks’ exterior during a Community Day celebration from 5 to 7 p.m. The free event includes food trucks, art-making for all ages, DJ Siphne Aaye, and an artist demonstration by Toonky Berry. At 7 p.m., de Casabianca will give a free Artist Talk in the Brooks’ Dorothy K. Hohenberg Auditorium.
Brooks Outside: Outings Project is truly a community art project. The artist first traveled to Memphis in May 2018, where he met with fifteen representatives of the city from all walks of life. Together, they selected 20 “characters” from the Brooks’ permanent collection—including paintings made in Renaissance Italy and works by beloved Memphis artist Carroll Cloar—that are now being placed as life-sized works around the city, in sites in neighborhoods such as the Broad Avenue Arts District, Cooper-Young, Crosstown, Downtown, East Memphis, Frayser, the Medical District, Midtown, Orange Mound, Soulsville, and the University of Memphis.
By September 29, de Casabianca will complete three “monumental” works: a six-story selection from William-Adolphe Bouguereau’s 1886 painting A pied de la falaise (At the Foot of the Cliff) at 62 E.H. Crump Blvd., a two-story installation from Cloar’s Wedding Party at 154 G.E. Patterson, and a 20-foot high selection from Luca Giordano’s The Slaying of the Medusa at 3177 Summer Ave. Beginning October 1, the museum will hold an Instagram photography contest, asking participants to use the hashtags #brooksmuseum and #outingproject. While weather and location dictate how long the work will remain on view, most of the installations should last through November.
Outings Project Sites:
Circuit Playhouse, 66 Cooper St.
Carl Gutherz, Picnic on the Seine, 1885, Oil on canvas, 21 5/8 x 28 7/8 in. (54.9 x 73.3 cm), Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Marshall F. Goodheart 87.10
Not currently on view
Café Ole, 959 S. Cooper St.
Winslow Homer, Reading by the Brook, 1879, Oil on canvas , 15 7/8 x 22 3/4 in. (40.3 x 57.8 cm), Memphis Park Commission purchase 43.22
Currently on view in the Davis Gallery
Gloco Iron, 1709 Lamar Ave.
Carroll Cloar, Historic Encounter Between E. H. Crump and W. C. Handy on Beale Street, 1964 Casein tempera on Masonite, 28 × 44 in. (71.1 × 111.8 cm), First Tennessee Bank National Association LI.2017.3
Currently on view in the Cloar Gallery
Whitten Bros. Hardware, 2909 Park Ave.
Wilford Conrow, Maser-El-Din Hoja, 1916, Oil on canvas, 25 1/2 x 20 1/8 in. (64.8 x 51.1 cm)
Gift of the Artist 34.5 © Estate of the artist
Not currently on view.
2734 Park Ave.
Carroll Cloar, Where the Southern Cross the Yellow Dog, 1965, Casein tempera on Masonite, 23 x 33 3/4 in. (58.4 x 85.7 cm) Frame: 28 3/4 x 39 5/8 in. (73 x 100.6 cm), Brooks Fine Arts Foundation purchase 65.17
Currently on view in the Cloar Gallery
Newby’s, 539 S. Highland St.
Henri Harpignies, River Scene, 1897, Oil on canvas, 26 1/4 x 32 1/4 in. (66.7 x 81.9 cm), Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Morrie A. Moss, 59.30
Currently on view in the Brooks League Gallery
University of Memphis Art Building, 3715 Central Ave.
Arthur Bowen Davies, Autumn Bower, 1907, Oil on canvas, Anonymous loan, LI2012.196
Currently on view in the Davis Gallery.
600 S. Perkins St.
Abbott H. Thayer, Gladys, ca. 1915, Oil on canvas, 30 x 25 in. (76.2 x 63.5 cm), Gift of Mr. Francis M. Weld 44.1
Currently on view in the Davis Gallery
2571 Broad Ave.
Carroll Cloar, Windy Corner in Vera Cruz, 1951, Casein tempera on Masonite.18 x 24 in. (45.7 x 61 cm), Gift of Mr. Charles Ray Griffin 66.11
Currently on view in the Cloar Gallery
2574 Frayser Blvd.
Pellegrino di Mariano Rossini, Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist and Saint Benardino of Siena, ca. 1450, Tempura on wood panel, 23 x 16 ½ in. (58.4 x 85.7 cm), Gift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, 61.198
Currently on view in the Moss Gallery
472 N Watkins St.
George Luks, The Fortune Teller, ca. 1920, Oil on canvas, 43 5/8 x 38 7/8 in. (110.8 x 98.7 cm), Memphis Park Commission purchase 54.2
Currently on view in the Davis Gallery
381 N. Main St.
Richard Wilson, Tivoli: Temple of the Sibyl and the Campagna, ca. 1763-1767, Oil on canvas, 37 x 49 1/2 in. (94 x 125.7 cm), Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Morrie A. Moss 59.26
Currently on view in the Schering-Plough Gallery
52 S. Front St.
Jack Grue, Old Man River, ca. 1940, Tempera on masonite board, 36 3/4 x 26 7/8 in. (93.3 x 68.3 cm), Purchased through funds donated by friends of Jack Grue, 56.275 © Estate of the artist
Not currently on view
Kudzu’s, 603 Monroe Ave.
Leon Bonhomme, La Femme en vert (The Woman in Green), 1909, Oil on paper board, 30 3/4 x 23 7/8 in. (78.1 x 60.6 cm), Memphis Brooks Museum of Art purchase; funds provided by Mr. and Mrs. Larry Duggins, 2007.26
Currently on view in the Brooks League Gallery
Memphis Plating Works, 682 Madison Ave.
Robert Henri, Cori with Cat, 1907, Oil on canvas, 24 x 20 in. (61 x 50.8 cm)
Memphis Park Commission purchase 54.1
Currently on view in the Davis Gallery
1600 S. Lauderdale St.
Carroll Cloar, Historic Encounter Between E. H. Crump and W. C. Handy on Beale Street, 1964 Casein tempera on Masonite, 28 × 44 in. (71.1 × 111.8 cm), First Tennessee Bank National Association LI.2017.3
Currently on view in the Cloar Gallery
945 E. McLemore Ave.
Carroll Cloar, Wedding Party, 1971 Acrylic on Masonite, 28 x 40 in. (71.1 x 101.6 cm), Eugenia Buxton Whitnel Funds 73.24
Currently on view in the Cloar Gallery
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, 1934 Poplar Ave.
Katherine Augusta Carl, Portrait of Bessie Vance, ca. 1890, Oil on canvas, 48 1/8 x 34 in. (122.2 x 86.4 cm), Gift of Mrs. Samuel Hamilton Brooks, 16.4
Not currently on view
MONUMENTALS:
62 E.H. Crump Blvd.
William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Au pied de la falaise (At the Foot of the Cliff), 1886, Oil on canvas, 43 1/4 x 26 1/4 in. (109.9 x 66.7 cm), Bequest of Morrie A. Moss 93.4
Currently on view in the Brooks League Gallery
154 G.E. Patterson Ave.
Carroll Cloar, Wedding Party, 1971 Acrylic on Masonite, 28 x 40 in. (71.1 x 101.6 cm), Eugenia Buxton Whitnel Funds 73.24
Currently on view in the Cloar Gallery
3177 Summer Ave.
Luca Giordano, The Slaying of the Medusa, ca. 1680, Oil on canvas, 40 x 135 in. (101.6 x 342.9 cm), Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Hugo N. Dixon 57.111
Currently on view in the Schilling Gallery