New Orleans just gained a monumental new treasure: the New Orleans Museum of Art has announced a major gift of Isamu Noguchi’s celebrated Mississippi Fountain, donated by the Besthoff family in honor of Sydney Besthoff III.
The sculpture — Noguchi’s poetic distillation of the river as a symbol of the American landscape, of earth, water, movement, and culture — will be installed in front of the museum this fall, where visitors will find new meaning as it transforms NOMA’s neoclassical facade. The work previously stood at K&B Plaza, where it was designed in conversation with the modernist architecture of Gordon Bunshaft.
Sydney Besthoff III, together with his wife Walda, spearheaded the development of the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden at NOMA, and this gift ensures that Noguchi’s masterpiece remains in New Orleans and publicly accessible for generations to come.
Art lovers visiting New Orleans this fall should also stop by the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden, where monumental outdoor works surround NOMA — the perfect complement to this newest addition to the museum’s front door.
Photo: Infrogmation of New Orleans / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
