High Museum of Art shows love for Louvre

The Louvre, in Paris, France, is the largest and arguably the most famous museum in the world. The former royal palace has recently forged an unprecedented partnership with Atlanta's own High Museum of Art.

This three year partnership, dubbed Louvre Atlanta, will open its doors to the public in Oct. 2006. Hundreds of works of art from the Parisian museum will be on display in Atlanta for long-term, thematic exhibitions.

The foremost exhibition in the first year, Kings as Collectors, will feature roughly 30 works collected during the reigns of Kings Louis XIV and Louis XVI.

This collection will include premier pieces of artwork from the Louvre: Raphael's Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione and Nicholas Poussin's Et in Arcadia Ego.

You can - and should - see these amazing works of art from Oct. 14, 2006 to Sept. 7, 2007.

Within the scope of Kings as Collectors there will be two smaller and shorter exhibitions: The King's Drawings and Decorative Arts of the Kings.

These smaller exhibits will feature pieces by artists including Le Brun, Boel, Mignard, Coypel, Grünwald, Dürer, Rembrandt, Rubens and Watteau.

The featured art will comprise an unparalleled exhibit of art unexperienced by most Americans considering that more than two-thirds of the pieces have never been displayed in the U.S., while the other third has never been viewed in the Southeast before.

Year two of the Louvre Atlanta will present works that identify with the artistic development and progress during the Napoleonic era and the Enlightenment - when popular interest focused on ancient art and archeology.

The focal point of this particular exhibit will be the foundations of culture in the Western world. On display will be the Louvre's precious Egyptian, Near Eastern and Greco-Roman antiquities.

The third and final year of Louvre Atlanta will display art of the Louvre - today and tomorrow.

These exhibitions will communicate the impact that the Louvre and all of its pieces have left on the art community and on society as a whole.

Imagine being on vacation in France, waiting in a mile-long line outside of the Louvre with thousands of other tourists, most-likely Americans. Now you won't need to because it will be in Atlanta.

The entirety of this spectacular project will be held in one of the new additions to the High - the Anne Cox Chambers Wing. The 10 thousand square feet of gallery space was chosen for the location of Louvre Atlanta largely due to Cox's generous donations to the High Museum.

She is the lead patron for this $13 million extravaganza, partnered alongside corporate giants including UPS, Turner Broadcasting Corporation, the Coca-Cola Company and Delta Airlines.

Although this momentous occasion will most likely attract crowds of mass proportion, there is an alternative to standing in long lines to see these masterpieces from overseas: get a membership to the High Museum.

Student membership is $35 for one year and includes all the bells and whistles that the regularly-priced memberships do, particularly a members-only sneak preview of Louvre Atlanta.

Not only will Atlanta temporarily hold exquisite pieces of art, but core elements in this project will serve educational, cultural and strategic exchanges. Included in this collaboration will be the joint development of educational programs (for instance, foreign exchange and bilingualism), publications, symposia and films that relate to the exhibitions.

It is an amazing accomplishment for such a world-renowned museum to bring priceless paintings, drawings and sculptures to the great city of Atlanta. Do not miss out on this very exciting, unique opportunity that will be located only a few blocks away from campus this fall.

More detailed information about this upcoming exhibit can be found at www.high.org/louvre.