Wedell-Williams exhibit celebrates glory days of La. aviation

Inspired by the glory days of aviation in Louisiana in the early 1930s, “Wing Walkers Celebrating the Restoration of the Wetlands” is a unique celebration of Louisiana’s endangered wetlands.
This yearlong exhibit of paintings by Robert Warrens opens Thursday at the Wedell-Williams Aviation and Cypress Sawmill Museum, 118 Cotten Road, in Patterson, with a free public reception from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
“In his characteristic bold style and with his insightful visual wit, Robert Warrens pays homage to the aviators of Louisiana’s past while focusing on major environmental issues facing Louisiana today,” Lt. Governor Jay Dardenne said. “The Wedell-Williams Aviation and Cypress Sawmill Museum is the ideal setting for this important artistic commentary on the challenges facing our wetlands.”
With 16 paintings ranging in size from 30 inches by 24 inches to 93 inches by 72 inches, Warrens highlights the accomplishments of Louisiana aviators in the 1930s, and in a flight of fancy, he imagines the restoration of Louisiana’s wetlands. The paintings feature wing walkers and dogs on top of biplanes celebrating the restoration, majestic birds sweeping across the canvases, and racing pilots and aircraft designers such as James “Jimmie” Wedell. Although the paintings have a whimsical element, they represent a serious attempt to bring attention to the need for wetlands restoration.
While the possibility of achieving wetlands restoration remains debatable, the success of early aviators in Louisiana is grounded in fact. Jimmie Wedell and Harry Williams formed an air service in Patterson in 1928 and received national acclaim for their achievements. Warrens conflates the blossoming of aviation in the 1930s with the coastal land-loss problems of the 21st century to create a show of great imagination and artistic accomplishment. View image highlights here.
Warrens taught at LSU from 1967 to 1998 and serves as professor emeritus. During his 60-year career as a professional artist, he has received numerous awards and grants from institutions and organizations such as the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, the Joan Mitchell Foundation, the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, and the The Delgado Society of the New Orleans Museum of Art. He is also the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from St. Tammany Parish.
The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art awarded Warrens its R.J.R. Southern Artist Fellowship, and the National Endowment for the Arts honored him with two visual artist fellowships.
His painting commissions include large-scale murals at the Robert E. Smith Branch of the New Orleans Public Library, the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas, the Baton Rouge Community College, the Pan-American Life Center, K & B Plaza and the Baton Rouge River Center. His sculptures are on display at Harrah’s Casino in New Orleans and on the Southeastern Louisiana University campus in Hammond. A commission for a mosaic fountain is in a private residence in Metairie.
In 1990, he was awarded a major retrospective at the New Orleans Museum of Art, which included 100 paintings and sculptures.
Since 2007, he has had solo museum shows at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, the Alexandria Museum of Art, the Masur Museum of Art, the Louisiana Arts and Science Museum and the LSU Museum of Art. In 2016, he will have a solo exhibition at the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art in Biloxi, Mississippi.