The New Orleans Museum of Art presents Leah Chase. Paintings by Gustave Blache III, an exhibition in honor of Leah Chase’s upcoming 90th birthday, on view from April 24rd until September 9th. An opening party will inaugurate the Leah Chase Art Purchase Fund on April 23rd.

Leah Chase, Cutting Squash Gustave Blache III

An intimate, candid painting of chef Leah Chase absorbed in slicing yellow squash in the kitchen as she prepares for the lunch rush at Dooky Chase restaurant has been added to the collection of iconic American images in the National Portrait Gallery, part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The tiny painting, smaller than a leaf of notebook paper, is the work of artist Gustave Blache III, 34, who grew up in Gentilly and eastern New Orleans and now lives in Brooklyn.

Blache’s portrait of Chase began in the restaurant kitchen and now will be displayed in the nation’s premier museum complex, under the same roof as universally known presidential portraits ranging from George Washington by Gilbert Stuart to Barack Obama’s street-art-style portrait by Shepard Fairey. In the museum, the New Orleans chef will stand shoulder to shoulder with the great explorers, inventors, and industrialists who shaped the country.

For more information, call (504) 658‐4100 or visit www.noma.org

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3. New Orleans Museum of Art Celebrates a Century of Art