The streets of Memphis may feel a bit more like an art gallery these days, as larger-than-life murals have brought classic works of art to the streets.
Artist and filmmaker Julien de Casabianca has brought his Outings Project to the Tennessee city. Through the project, de Casabianca creates paper murals on city walls around the world. This latest series was created alongside the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art as part of its project, Brooks Outside, which brings outdoor installations to the museum grounds and the larger community.
A girl from selection from William-Adolphe Bouguereau’s 1886 painting A pied de la falaise (At the Foot of the Cliff) . Image by Kathy Dumlao
With his work, de Casabianca selected images of people from the artworks within the museum’s collection. He then reprinted them and plastered them along city streets in an effort to expose more people to the works within the museum.
The project has been underway since May, when de Casabianca first travelled to Memphis to work with 15 representatives from around the city to select “characters” from the collection of artworks. Those selected include people depicted in pieces from Renaissance Italy and by the Memphis artist Carroll Cloar. The massive murals can now be found around the city, in neighborhoods such as the Broad Avenue Arts District, Cooper-Young, Crosstown, Downtown, East Memphis, Frayser, the Medical District, Midtown, Orange Mound, Soulsville, and the University of Memphis.
Carroll Cloar artwork. Image by Kathy Dumlao
Among the murals is a six-story image from William-Adolphe Bouguereau’s 1886 painting A pied de la falaise (At the Foot of the Cliff) at 62 E.H. Crump Blvd., depicting a young girl. There is also an installation from Cloar’s Wedding Party at 154 G.E. Patterson, and a 20-foot-high selection from Luca Giordano’s The Slaying of the Medusa at 3177 Summer Ave.
As the installations are made of paper, the weather and location will dictate how long they will still be on view, though most are expected to last through November.
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