NEW ORLEANS, LA.- From May 16 to October 11, the New Orleans Museum of Art presents a new exhibition of abstract prints and drawings, The Mind’s Eye: Without Subject Matter, What Does the Artist See?

Organized by Curator of Prints and Drawings George Roland, the exhibition is comprised of more than 100 works by artists including Josef Albers, Alexander Calder, Max Ernst, Stanley Hayter, Howard Hodgkin, Fernand Leger, Joan Miró, Robert Motherwell, Bridget Riley and Andy Warhol. The pieces have been selected from the Museum’s holdings of more than 7,000 works on paper.

“Many members of the public even today are finding abstract art to be mysterious and not easy to understand or appreciate,” said Roland. “This exhibition explores the ways artists respond to the challenge of making abstract art. In printmaking, for example, it is impossible to prepare a matrix without a vision of what the resulting image will look like. What does the artist see before producing an abstract work on paper?”

Groups of pictures in the exhibition illustrate specific elements of the language of abstraction: stripes, spots, geometry, letterforms, patternmaking, biology, collage, gesture and space. The exhibition will be accompanied by corresponding quotes from the artists, as well as their critics and commentators.