On Display: a Twenty-First Century Salon des Refusés: School of Liberal Arts at Tulane University

Coordinated by:
Claudia González-Díaz

Co-curated by:

Camila Aguayo
Hailee Corbin
Aine Powers
Maryluna Santos Giraldo

The jury for the 1863 Paris Salon rejected two-thirds of works submitted, deciding that many were too avant-garde for French academic standards. Facing rejection, artists joined forces to protest. Their demands would be answered by Emperor Napoleon III, who granted them an alternative space to display their works; the Salon des Refusés. This began a tradition to showcase artworks excluded from the canon. Today, On Display revisits the concept of rejection, exploring broader boundaries that challenge what art “deserves” to be exhibited.

As viewership continually expands and artists break away from conventions, how do we define what is acceptable and what is not? On Display seeks to give voice to artworks that one might not expect to encounter in an exhibition space. The show’s curators called for art that was not only rejected from previous exhibitions, but also works that the artists themselves rejected, either because the materials did not conform to their vision or due to their own dissatisfaction with the outcome. On Display plays with the boundaries between traditional genres of art, once so valued by the Parisian Salons, to craft a space that fruitfully reflects the ever-expanding limits of contemporary craft.

Special thanks to the Dorothy Beckemeyer Skau Fund with the Newcomb Institute for funding this exhibition and related programming.

Newcomb Institute at Tulane University