Perspectives: Poem for the Urban Landscape: Funeral for Louis

Sponsored by Tangipahoa Parish

Throughout 2017, we’re exploring some of the different ways Louisiana artists go about expressing place. These images capture aspects of Louisiana landscape from unexpected perspectives. They, and the artists who create them, see elements of the world around us that most of us miss—or miss seeing fully. In sharing these artists’ perspectives, we hope to open a window to fuller appreciation of this many-faceted place we call home. 

Poem for the Urban Landscape: Funeral for Louis. 2003. Acrylic on paper, by John T. Scott, 1940—2007

During forty-plus years as an active, prolific artist and teacher, John Scott left an indelible mark on the artistic landscape of his native New Orleans. His extraordinary legacy of paintings, woodblock prints, and static and kinetic sculpture established a whole new language by which to express the amalgam of visual and auditory imagery that is the city’s streetscapes, capturing not just how they look and sound but also the way they feel. In a catalog for his 2005 retrospective exhibit Circle Dance, at the New Orleans Museum of Art, Scott described his uncanny ability to visually render sound as being the result of ‘jazz thinking.’ “[I]f you listen to a really good jazz group, three things are always evident … Jazz musicians are always in the ‘now’ while you’re hearing it, but these guys are incredibly aware of where they have been and have an unbelievable anticipation of where they are going. To me that’s jazz thinking. It’s improvisational thinking in the sense that I don’t have to contrive some system of connecting two things that don’t seem related because I understand the relationship.”

Born on a farm in Gentilly, Scott studied art at Xavier University of New Orleans, where he later taught for more than forty years. In 1992, he was awarded a “Genius Grant” from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Scott died in 2007; his work continues to be represented by Arthur Roger Gallery. See more at leh.org/art-of-john-scott or arthurrogergallery.com.  

This month the art of John Scott will profiled on LPB’s Art Rocks, the weekly showcase of Louisiana’s visual and performing arts hosted by Country Roads publisher James Fox-Smith. Tune in on Friday, January 6 at 8:30 pm, repeating on Saturday, January 7 at 5:30 pm, Louisiana Public Broadcasting. lpb.org/artrocks.